is a creative teacher with lots of great ideas and is one of the sweetest bloggers you will meet! If you aren’t following her already, please make sure to stop by her blog after reading all of her great ideas here for Daily 5!
Here is the wonderful post from Julie!!
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My name is Julie Marciniak and I will be your guest host for this month’s Daily 5 celebration! I was beyond thrilled when Becca asked me to be her guest author for this post. I have been stalking “following” Becca’s Daily 5 tell-all’s every month because I absolutely love any opportunity to get inside another teacher’s classroom to see how the Daily 5 is working for students and the teachers.
The Daily 5 and CAFE frameworks have been unfolding in my first grade classroom for the past four years. Each year, I grow stronger, more confident as a teacher, to let my students take on more independent, self-led learning tasks, all thanks to the structure and molding of Daily 5. I can honestly say that without Daily 5, I probably would still be stuck in that rut of traditional-style teaching methodologies rooted deep in teacher-led learning.
Finding Daily 5 and anchoring the CAFE framework into my classroom was challenging for me at first because it was hard to let go of that leadership role. How could my students possibly learn anything if I wasn’t talking and “teaching them?”
Boy was I wrong about that!
The moment I let go, and started sharing that leadership with the students in my classroom,
my entire teaching world changed- and all for the better!
I took on more of a coaching role, and it felt good. Really good!
Non-performing students were now making an effort to try, for the first time, to do something on their own.
I saw 24 different learning styles coming together, working on teams or independently, on learning tasks that were engaging and dare I say, fun? My “teaching lessons” were shorter, and Daily 5 rounds became longer. It was all starting to make sense now… I finally had the “Ah-Ha” moment as a teacher.
My favorite part of Daily 5 is the partnerships and coaching that happen during our Read to Someone rounds.
Students coaching students is truly an amazing sight to see!
I now use these partnership rounds throughout the entire day to practice any new learning we have- it may just be for a few minutes but it has made a tremendous difference in stretching new learning to a whole new playing field.
Something special about Room 102 is that we have a ton of little Critters who love to help motivate us to read!
As some of you may already know,
I created my Critter Cafe unit to help my firsties make stronger, faster connections with all those extensive reading strategies.
We also have our Critter Chest!
click here to grab it!
I want to thank my very sweet and talented firstie friend Becca Foxwell for sharing her blog post with me today. It has been an honor and a privilege to be your guest host for a linky I truly adore!
I hope you link up with Becca and share your Daily 5 hits (or misses) with us so we can grow and learn from each another.
I would be honored to have you stop by my blog and visit more with me!
Have a wonderful week!
TheElementary MathManiac says
You can't underestimate the importance of kids working independently! Such an important skill to develop.
Tara
The Math Maniac
Oh my word, that expectations review snowball game is PERFECT! We haven't had a ton of snow days here in Nebraska, but I think we're getting a little TOO comfortable in our routine, KWIM? I'm printing this now and we are so doing this before we start our Daily 5 block TODAY!! Thank you so much!