Satisfied Customers

I have been compiling the data from our second session of Reading Essentials Class which was held from Nov. 30, 2011 to January 29, 2012. The results were very encouraging.

Our students made great gains in both comprehension and fluency.

The average gains for comprehension and fluency were nearly three times the expected growth/benchmark score for all three grades-6th thru 8th grade.

The students did the work. I provided an opportunity for them to read and gave them reading material that they were interested in-all of this was done in a non-threatening environment where reading is valued.

They believed me when I told them that if they read more, they would become better readers. I believed it, and in turn, they believed it and then saw that it worked.

We've had 4 students ask to be part of Session 3 because they saw that Reading Essentials Class helped them become better readers.

There is no better gauge of success then satisfied customers. I couldn't ask for more.

EASYCBM.com

I have discovered a resource that is going to be very helpful for my work in my Daily 5 classroom. EASYCBM.com offers assessment for reading fluency, comprehension and math. The website is supported through a federal grant. You can read an explanation of easycbm.com at easycbm.com-online progress monitoring system.

I am using easycbm.com with all my classes today as 'field testing' it for several days. My field test including paying my grandchildren $1 for each test they took for me. I wanted to see how close the tests were to their actual grade level. I also wanted to know what kinds of data I could get for them. I am very impressed so far.

Have any of you tried easycbm.com? I'd love to hear from you.

Daily Five ™

I am new to the world of Daily Five but I can see how hard the Daily Five company works. They have a very effective distribution system to help teachers across the world access and use their material. I appreciation their great entrepreneurial spirit. That is why I contacted DailyCafe.com about using Daily Five in the title of my blog.

I received a warm response from them and learned that I must include a trademark symbol whenever I"m using the term Daily Five. So my blog title has now changed to include the trademark TM. However this blogging platform will not allow me to place the TM in the body of this blog.

The Two Sisters stated they would like to see my blog. It would be great to share my work with the greater Daily 5 world. But more importantly, I would like to hear from others using the Daily 5/Cafe Menu at the middle school level. Are you out there?

The Daily Five at Middle School

An unique opportunity came to me this fall. As a literacy coach, I typically work with teachers to increase their students' achievement. This work can take several forms such as consulting, researching or modeling lessons to their classes. But through a series of steps at one of my schools, I was given the opportunity to teach an intervention class-actually three intervention classes for a trimester in our middle school.

The teacher who had started working with our lowest readers was no longer able to continue her work here. So I spend time with her, observing how she designed an delivered reading interventions to these students.

She was using a hybrid form of The Cafe Menu which had been used at the elementary school where she spent most of her day.

The students were responding well to her work and I decided that I would build on her work.

But where to start? I started where most of us start now. I googled 'Daily Five in middle school". I followed up on every lead from Google and that is what I am going to share with you.

I also found that there were not many resources for middle-school specific information. That is why I am beginning this blog. I want to share my experiences with you. I also want to develop a network of educators who are using The Daily Five and the Cafe Menu at the secondary level.

Join me on my journey!

What is The Daily Five?

As a middle school teacher and literacy coach, I thought all the talk I have been hearing about the Daily 5 and the Cafe menu didn't apply to me. But when I was asked for advice from my principal as how to best meet the needs of our struggling readers, I came face to face with the Daily 5.

This has been a journey for me and continues to be a journey. This will be the record of that journey.

Please contact me with stories of your experiences with the Daily 5 especially at the middle school level. I want this blog to be a clearinghouse for information to help all of us.

Sincerely,
Brenda Benedict