Easy Credit

Last week we completed Session 3 of Reading Essentials Class.   Each session lasts six weeks and this was our last day.  Several of the 8th graders asked if they could be part of the next session.  I was curious as to why they wanted to extend their stay with me.

One student replied, It's an easy credit."  Immediately I began thinking that maybe I should make the course more academically rigorous.  Although the purpose of the course is to help students reach a point with their reading ability where they can be successful in academically rigorous classes.  I had carefully structured the class to be a place where reading was nurtured and encouraged.  I also wanted to make success within reach of everyone so their lessons were set-up so they could be successful with effort on their part.

Another student piped in and my fears were put to rest.   K added,

"Easy credit.  All we have to do is read and talk about what we are reading and do her lessons."

So the class boils down to reading, discussing your reading and having mini-lessons on appropriate reading skills and strategies.  Yes, sir.  That was music to my ears.

I want my students to be reading, enjoying it, discussing it with others and learn strategies and skills that will make them better readers.  That's a big order for 40 minutes a day.

But if they are doing this and it seems easy to them-so much better.  Each one of them has grown significantly in their reading ability during this session.  So I'm feeling successful and they're feeling successful.

I guess you'd call this an easy credit.

Want to hear some of my ideas.  Contact me with your email address.

Returning from Spring Break

Michigan in March

Spring Break in Michigan in the schools often occurs when there is no sign of spring in our weather.  As a results, many families leave the state for warmer and sunnier climates.  Florida and Gulf Shores Alabama are favorites.  If you are in Gulf Shores during the first week of April you will see almost more Michigan license plates than those from Alabama.

This means that the students returning from Spring Break today have thoughts and memories of fun days in their minds.  But that is not what they see as they arrive at school.  This morning started rainy and very windy with snow in our forecast for this afternoon and evening.

My task today will be to help the students refocus and continue reading.  But wait, that's my task every day.

I work with the most struggling and reluctant readers in our middle school.

I have the data of their reading levels both for fluency and comprehension.  I know their MEAP scores (our Michigan assessment), and I know their classroom grades.

Reading strategies-I have been thoroughly trained and have implemented several of these-visual imagery, self-questioning, inference, word identification which I share with them over the course of the class.

But none of the above items are the most important thing I have to impart to my students.

The most important take-away I want my students to have from Reading Essentials class is a love of reading and the desire to pick up a book-not as a last resort for something to do but rather as an enjoyable activity for which you never have enough time.

So today, I will be using The One and Only Ivan to accomplish that goal.  We are on our last week with this book.  This story lends itself perfectly to teaching inference and self-questioning.  I was most impressed, however, when my student reacted enthusiastically to my introduction of the One and Only Ivan.  J is one of the lowest readers in our 8th grade.  But after I introduced Ivan, J went immediately to the school media center to get his own copy of the story.

He quickly began reading it outside of class.  One day he stopped me in the hall. " Mrs. B, Stella died today," he said sadly.

A reluctant reader who had never read a complete book before is becoming emotionally involved with a story.  Success!!

That is the heart of my class-encouraging students to read as an enjoyable activity. No homework, no worksheets, no projects.  Just read a book and talk to me about it.

It's what adults like to do with their reading.  It also works for middle school students.

Over the next few days, I'll share some of the activities I used with the One and Only Ivan.  Feel free to use them and send me your own ideas.

Welcome Back

As the sun sets on another summer, teachers are working hard to be ready for their students.

Welcome back to a new school year.  Here in Michigan, public schools cannot begin their year until after Labor Day.  But many of you in other states or in Michigan private schools have been in session for a week or more.

I have heard from many teachers over the summer and there has been lots of interest in Daily 5 for use in middle school. School might not be in session but teachers are working.

I am working on the best way to communicate with all those who have shown interest in Daily 5 for middle school.  I should have something to send you very soon.

If you have ideas about the best way to design and send out a newsletter, please share it with me.  I would appreciate any suggestions about technology, platforms and especially on the use of Google+.

The picture above is taken on Birch Point near Brimley in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  I spend most of my summer in the UP.  I'll be moving back down state now to begin my school year.

A Look at My Classroom

Now that school is out for the summer, I have some think to think back over the past year and evaluate my program.  I have begun to make plans for next fall.  So I thought I would give you a look at my students and tell you about what I did this year.

Reading Essentials Class is a reading intervention in our middle schools, grades 6-8.  The three classes each meet daily for 40 minutes.  Each session lasts for six weeks.  Because I am a part-time employee, we offer three sessions each school year.  The class has been set up this way because of funding.  There are enough students in our school of 350 students who would benefit from reading interventions to offer more sessions, but the school has not allocated money for that many days of staffing.

Each student usually attends one of the three sessions, although occasionally a student may repeat for a second time.  I had one student this year who attended all three sessions.  He has a several reading disability and his parents requested that he be included in each session.

Our classroom is less than ideal.  I have to use the computer lab because it is the only classroom available during my class time.  So my vision of a room with reading spots that allow students to get comfortable with pillows, lamps and overstuffed chairs had to be replaced with reality.

But my students are allowed to find a spot that is comfortable for them.  Here are some pictures of a typical class day.

Sue, shown below, has taken Reading Essentials as a 7th grader and again as an 8th grader.  When she began, she did not enjoy reading but has developed into quite a reader.  Her choice of Charlotte's Web seemed too easy for her.  However, she really enjoyed it and seemed happy every day to get in her spot.  

Sue is an 8th grader

 Each student meets for a conference 1 -2 times a week.  Here Jay meets with Chris who is my helper.  Actually she is very organized and I depend on her so much.  We don't use the computers in our conferences but simply push them back to give us desk space.  We use the CAFE menu to pick strategies to work on with the students.

Ann had some difficulties in school and liked to be out of sight when she was reading.  Actually she is sitting very close to Chris but the open door seems to give her a feeling of isolation.

Some students like to sit in the chairs.  You can see Lee's tub sitting on the table.  I follow many of the organize methods from the Daily Five book.

This student doesn't look comfortable to me but it is her choice.

Students are allowed to choose their own reading material.  I have a small classroom library.  They also use our school library.  Each Language Arts teachers has many books for the students too.  I have read The Book Whisper by Donalyn Miller and I've used this philosophy in my class too.  If you look closely, you can see this student is reading about basketball which was his passion.

Find a spot and get reading quickly is our classroom rule.  I use an I-Chart as detailed in Daily Five.

One of the most coveted spot is shown here below the teacher table.  We require the students to spread out throughout the room to minimize distractions.

(The names I used are not actual student names.)

I've heard from many of you this year.  I had mentioned publishing a newsletter for the use of Daily Five and CAFE Menu with middle school students.  However, I am beginning to think that a blog is a much better way to communicate with teachers.  It will allow interaction between us through comments.  I would love to hear about your experience with Daily Five.  I will share what I hear in furture posts.

Year-End Review

Here are some of my favorite photos from Reading Essentials Class 2013.  This is a reading intervention for middle school students.  These students are reading or conferencing about their reading.

The students are allowed to pick a spot for reading. The guidelines are to find a comfy spot where they are not distracted by computers or other students.  My classroom is less than ideal.  It is the computer lab so comfy spots are hard to come by.  My students do not use the computers-strictly reading during Read to Self or conferencing with an adult.

 The students have favorite  spots.  A couple of them always pick the area under the computer teacher table.

The above photo shows a student conferencing.  The key to Reading Essentials Class is found in these pictures.  Read, read, read, and then talk about what you are reading with an adult.  The students read out loud for the adult.  Then together they pick a goal off the CAFE menu to work on until they conference again.  Each conference always begins with assessing how much progress they have made to their goal.

I am currently reviewing the data from the students served this year.  This week of May is when all students are given a test of fluency and comprehension.  This is our universal screener.  I also use it to  identify students in need of interventions and then to  track their progress.  I'll post next week on this year's results.

I use the data to identify students , and I also use teacher recommendations and parent requests.  No data seems perfect for identifying reading difficulties.  It always has to be used with person-to-person observations.  Classroom teachers are so important to my program because they almost always have such a good idea as to why a student is struggling.

Conferencing with Middle School Students

Conferencing with middle school students

One-on-one conferences are one of the pillars of Reading Essentials Class.  Reading Essentials is a reading intervention class at our middle school.  Each day the other teacher and I sit and conference with students.  The focus of the conference is identifying areas of strengths and weakness in the student’s oral reading as well as assessing their comprehension.  Together with the student, we set goals for the student’s read to self time for the upcoming week.

 Because there are two teachers and student numbers around 10 per class, we are able to conference about one time a week for each student.  Each conference lasts between 10 – 15 minutes.

Oral Reading Assessment   We monitor the students’ fluency, decoding, and expression by hearing them read.  The students use the book they are currently reading during read to self time.  We then discuss our observations with the students.  This reminds them the important aspects of oral reading and they can try to implement suggestions during the following week.  Each conference begins with looking at the goal from the previous conference and discussing the progress being made toward the goal.

We use the CAFÉ Menu ® to align the goals with their students’ areas of difficulty.   The areas are comprehension, fluency, accuracy (decoding) and expand vocabulary.  I use expand vocabulary when the student is doing well with all other areas.  Reading Essentials is a reading intervention and most of the students struggle in comprehension, fluency or accuracy.

Student Accountability   The student conference always puts accountability into Read to Self because we monitor the books and pages read by the students.  We record the page number(s) that we heard the student read.  Sometimes their goal for the week is a set number of pages to be read daily.  For some of these students, daily consistent reading is new to them.  Even sticking with one book can be difficult for some.  We discourage jumping from one book to another although if a student really doesn’t like a book, we allow them to make another choice. 

Comprehension   After listening to a student read, we then assess their comprehension.  We may ask them to retell the passage in their own words or ask them questions based on the reading.  If we determine that they are struggling with comprehension, we take out our CAFÉ Menu ® sheet, and look at the comprehension strategies.  We always begin with Check for Understanding.  I set the frequently of the checking for understanding on how much difficulty the student is having.  I may have them stop and check for understanding every page or every paragraph if needed.

Many students complain about conferencing and state that they do so much better reading silently.  I encourage them by saying that most people read better silently but that it is important for me to hear them read so we can accurately set goals and help them improve.

I have found no better way for me to help students with reading difficulties.  Our conferences make it very clear where their difficulties are and the one-on-one attention is a real personalization of education.  

Daily 5 ® for Middle School Newsletter?

The school year is well underway and our Reading Essentials Class is going well.  I'm in my second 6-week session now.  I am learning so much as we are in our third year of using the Daily 5 ® format for middle school.

I have heard from many teachers across the United States who are attempting to use Daily 5 ® at the middle school level as well.  I believe we can be a resource for each other.

I have quite a list of teachers who have emailed me with questions.  As I try to think of the best way to answer the questions, I think we can be a support system for each other.

I am going to start producing a newsletter addressing the specific issues we face as middle school teachers.  Are you interested in getting on my newsletter list?  If so, please let me know and I'll add you to the list.

The first edition will come out right after Christmas.  Things are just too crazy between now and then to even thinking of adding anything else to my plate.  Do you feel the same way?

Taylor Swift Webcast

Scholastic, Inc. produced a webcast this week that features Taylor Swift.  She is talking about reading and the influence reading has had on her life and songwriting.

The program uses the format of a talk show with Trey Morgan, national radio personality,  as the moderator.

The program was 'hip' and geared for middle school students.  Swift had some great advice for surviving middle school.

I loved their motto-RED which is the name of Taylor Swift's new CD.

In this program they say that RED stands for Read Every Day!

I think this correlates well to Read to Self.  We may rename our Read to Self to Read Every Day.

The 37 minute presentation is available for no cost at http://taylorswiftwebcast.scholastic.com/.

Daily 5 as a Reading Intervention

I received an interesting email from a teacher who is facing a new challenge.   The note said,

I have just accepted a position as a teacher for middle school reading intervention.  This is new to the school so I will be building the program from scratch.  As of right now they will not provide me with a specific intervention program to follow, but want me to incorporate curriculum from other classes while teaching specific reading methods.  I am at a bit of a loss as to where to start.


I have been in that same situation.  Three  years ago I was working as a literacy coach in a middle school.  The school was in the beginning stages of an RTI program.  AIMSWEB was used as a universal screener.  We knew how all the students were reading and which ones were above our benchmark.  But there was no intervention to help the struggling readers.

Kelly asked  

I was wondering if your use of Daily 5 and Cafe could be incorporated into a "homemade" intervention program.  I will be working specifically with at risk readers with specific difficulties in fluency, comprehension, etc.

My answer is yes, yes yes!

My story continues-I couldn't help myself-I said I wanted to design an intervention.  I did just that.  Our elementary schools were in the process of beginning a Daily 5 program.  Plus I had just read the The Book Whisperer.  It was a perfect storm and a longer story than I want to post right now.

 If you have specific questions about using Daily 5 for a reading intervention, I would be glad to answer them.  I've developed many materials that I use in class.  I'll share them too.

Ten Hours of Reading

Can you read for ten hours?

  I asked my students that question today.  They overwhelming felt that they could never read for ten hours.

So I challenged them.  My Reading Essentials Class has 20 minutes of Read to Self every day.  Twenty minutes of silent reading every day.  Five days a week for the six weeks of this middle school exploratory class.

That equals 100 minutes per week.

Read 20 minutes a day times the six weeks of the class= 600 minutes of reading.

600 minutes is 10 hours.

Would you be better at playing sports if you practiced for 10 extra hours?
Would you be better at your musical instrument if you practiced for 10 extra hours?
Everyone knew that 10 extra hours of practice would make you better at sports or music.

You will be better at reading if you practice for 10 extra hours.

I explained that Reading Essentials is a class with laser-focus on reading.  We use every minute to help improve our reading.

I even guarantee results.  I've never had a student who took advantage of the time we give them to practice and takes to heart our goal setting in conferences that didn't improve their reading skills.  I've had students who didn't improve but they also used Read to Self for goofing around or day dreaming. 

How many classes give you a guarantee?  I'm confident of this because I have seen it work.  Over and over students improve with laser focus on improvement.

What fun it is to see this growth in my students.

3 Ways to Read a Book

One of the first lessons I will be teaching my students this fall is 3 Ways to Read a Book.

I use the Daily 5 format for a middle school exploratory that I call Reading Essentials. Reading Essentials is a reading intervention for our struggling readers in a Michigan middle school for grades 6 - 8.

The students are supplied with books and magazines in their interest areas when we begin. I've found that many of them gravitate toward the magazines. But as I observed them reading, many students were just flipping through the pages and glancing at the pictures.

I developed a lesson called 3 Ways to Read a Book. I use the lesson to emphasize how making meaning from the text is very important whether you are looking at pictures or reading words.

I offered the PowerPoint to my readers earlier but I have now revised and expanded it. I believe it is much improved.

If you are would like to use the PowerPoint, just send me an email. In return for the PowerPoint, I ask two things.

1. Share with me if you have been able to use Daily 5 or the Cafe Menu with middle school students. We can all learn from each other.

2. Give me suggestions how to improve the PowerPoint and how your students reacted to it.

We're all working together and I'd love to create a network of middle school teachers who are using the Daily 5 for this age group.

Brenda Benedict

mydaily5journey@gmail.com

The Importance of Teachers in the Lives of Their Students

In addition to my duties at Hopkins Middle School, I also am adjunct faculty at a local university. This year I needed to spice up my lessons on recognizing child abuse in our students. As you know, teachers are mandated reporters of suspected child abuse. We are required by law to notify Child Protective Services the moment we think a student may be experiencing abuse or neglect.

I wanted to bring an actual protective services worker into class. So I interviewed my niece and videoed it for presentation later. She has been in the field for several years and has a real heart for kids.

I learned so much from talking with her. But one statement really stuck with me. She said,

"Teachers are our best ways to help protect kids. Their students spend more time with them during the school year than some do with their parents. Our referral numbers are way down in the summer."

She went on to explain that child abuse doesn't slow down in the summer but the teachers who interact with their students daily are no longer making calls about suspected abuse or neglect.

Teachers-you may be the lifeline for one of your students this year. You may be the only adult who is recognizing the signs of abuse.

If you have any questions, this handout, Mandated Reporters Resource Guide will answer the questions of what to look in children who may be abused.

3 Ways to Read a Book for Middle School

Three Ways to Read a Book was first posted on this blog in February 2011. I've had many requests for the Powerpoint that went along with the lesson. I am happy to share it with anyone who would like to see it.

I'm not sure how to post it as link, so just email me and I'll send it right along.

I would love to hear about your experience with Daily Five & CAFE Menu in the middle school age group. So in return for my Powerpoint, briefly tell me how you are using Daily Five-if you are.

Thanks. Let's work together to help our students grow in skill and their love of reading.

The Countdown Begins

Finding books in a student's interest area is important to the success of my reading program

Good afternoon to all,

If you are like me, the days from the middle of August until Labor Day are always filled with apprehension. Here in Michigan, we cannot start school until after Labor Day. This is to help our tourism industry but assuring that families are still available for travel through the end of August.

But teachers start their work long before Labor Day. Most school districts have teachers report the last week of August. Many districts conduct their professional development days during this time. In fact, I'll be presenting to Wayland Middle School, Wayland, Michigan on the use of the Concept Mastery Routine which is part of the Strategic Instruction Model from the University of Kansas.

I've received several emails this summer from middle school teachers who are implementing Daily 5 this year. Every one has questions about how to do this.

I will share what I have done in 2 years of use of Daily 5 in grades 6 - 8. But I'd love to hear from you-questions you have about Daily 5 in middle school and stories of success and challenges you have faced as you seek to implement Daily 5 & CAFE menu in these crucial middle grades.

Looking forward to hearing from many of you.

AIMSWEB Testing

Reading more brings stronger readers. I want to shout it from the rooftop.

This past week we completed our universal screening instrument for all our middle school students. It takes considerable time and dedication of personnel. But the results allow us a snapshot of how our students are progressing. It also helps us be proactive with students and make certain they are offered an intervention when their progress is not what we would like it to be.

The results have been very encouraging for our Reading Essentials Class students. The average gain for the Reading Essentials students was 2 - 3 times the average gain for each class.

I am so happy for our students. I had assured them that if they followed my suggestions, their reading levels would improve. And it did!!

Reading more brings stronger readers. I want to shout it from the rooftop and now I have the data from our school to prove it.

Goodreads.com Book Review

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't read a more powerful book for a long time. The story is skillfully woven by Sal, a thirteen-year old girl who is facing some of life's most difficult situations.

The surprise ending combined with the understanding and acceptance the characters had for each make this a must-read for all middle school students.

I would especially recommend this for children dealing with loss and grief because of the honest way in which each character reacted to life's hard moments.

View all my reviews

DISSECTing a Word

This week we have been studying the Word Identification Strategy and applying it to words we find in our daily reading. The Word Identification Strategy is designed to help adolescents read the multi-syllable words that are found in Social Studies, Science and Math classes. We are learning to take the words apart or DISSECT them. We found many words in Hunger Games, which is a popular choice of many of the students. These words include:
pained
valor
synonymous
retrieved

We then moved on to look at Social Studies words including conservation, conversion, accurate, accumulate. I'm asking the students to located words in their own reading for us to practice reading. I"ll let you know what they come up with this week.

DISSECTing a Word

Today all three classes worked on putting the DISSECT strategy to work on some words that they didn't know. We took our words from The Hunger Games-page 22 & 23. That story is full of hard words and several students weren't understanding them as they read.

Here are the words missed by a student as she read orally to me from Hunger Games-Page 22 & 23:
tribute synonymous
corpse pained
recognition occasion
huddled presented
valor

We looked for prefixes and suffixes to dissect off and then examined the stem (root word that is left).

The students did a good job breaking the words down to be able to pronounce them. But they need more practice using skills to determine the meaning of words. Here are two words that they learned the meanings for today: redolence & kin.

Vocabulary is going to be our focus this week especially using the context to help look at word meanings.

Look for words that are difficult as you read. They add so much to your reading.

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.

Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm has caught the imagination of the 6th graders in my class for reluctant readers.


I suggested Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf to a 6th grade boy last week. He said, "No thanks" at first look. "It looks like a girl's book." But when I opened the book and started talking about it, his curiosity got the best of him.


He finished the book today and had high praise for it. "It wasn't a girl's book", he commented to me and cheerfully told me the story of Ginny and her trials in middle school.




I don't think there is higher praise for a book than that.