Using The Daily 5 (les 5 au quotidien) for Literacy

Retrieved from: http://mrsshannonsclass.weebly.com/daily-5.html

Recently, a co-worker of mine started using The Daily 5 (Boushey & Moser, 2014) with their students. Before knowing exactly what the program consisted of, I knew that literacy was a key component. This summer I decided to buy the book to find out more about this interesting approach to literacy and how it can be used to improve student literacy skills.

What is the Daily 5 (les 5 au quotidien)?

Image from Amazon.ca

The Daily 5, is a round of literacy activities students participate in during their literacy or Language Arts block. At the beginning of each Daily 5, the teacher conducts a Focus lesson and then students can select from one of the daily 5s to work on during each round (Boushey & Moser, 2014). These include:

• Reading to Self (Lecture à soi)
• Work on Writing (Travaux d’écriture)
• Read to Someone (Lecture à un autre)
• Listen to reading (Écouter la lecture)
• Word Work (Étude de mots)

While students are busy working with one of the Daily 5 activities, the teacher has the opportunity to conduct individual conferencing, guided group reading/writing, as well as assessments (Boushey & Moser, p. 19). Length of Daily 5 blocks and the amount of Daily 5 blocks will vary depending on time assigned to literacy, experience of students and time during the school year.

A side note about the French translation:

This program was originally created in English and the French translations for this program vary. I have selected the French translation from Littér@tout.

How does this approach differ from my current teaching?

The Daily 5 is a very similar approach to literacy instruction I use within my classroom. During our literacy block, students conduct silent reading, listen to reading, reading to a friend, guided reading and word work, which are almost all of the elements of the Daily 5. How it differs is that this approach adds writing as an option during the literacy block, whereas my approach focuses on writing during writing instruction. This approach also uses shorter rounds of literacy allowing students to participate in more than one or two literacy activities (based on their own choice), instead of using only one block to conduct reading or one block for writing. These shorter periods helps with sustaining stamina and maintaining interest. I value the fact that students have choice in their learning.

Why I have decided to implement the Daily 5 for literacy?

I believe the Daily 5 is a balanced approach to literacy as writing, word work and reading are grouped together as activities performed by students. These activities are not too lengthy as each round of Daily 5 ranges between 30-40 minutes (Boushey & Mosher, 2014) so students can be more successful at maintaining stamina while exhibiting desirable working behaviours. I appreciate that this approach frees teachers from managing behaviours to working with a few different groups of students or individuals to meet their learning needs. Overall, this is an approach I would like to implement into my classroom this upcoming school year. It will be interesting to see if students are more motivated to read and write through this approach, especially in French.

Daily 5 resources

Student Weekly Check-in

A Daily 5 weekly check-in can be used to help younger students self-monitor what activities they have completed during the week. Here is an example of one I made where students colour the Daily 5 activity once completed and add their own words to the “other” section if they read with me or were completing an audio task.

Daily 5 weekly check-in

Daily 5 check-in (Click on the link to get your own copy, you can also add a column on top of the categories and add the picture of each of the Daily 5 activities).

Teacher Check-in Sheet

Some teachers prefer to monitor the student activities themselves or have them check-in prior to starting a round of Daily 5, here is an example of a French check-in sheet I created to record student’s activities. The first sheet has room for 10 students, the second sheet has room for 15 students. For Student and Teacher check-in’s in English, refer to the Online resources section.

Daily 5 Teacher check-in

Teacher Daily 5 Check-in Sheet (Click on the link to get your own copy)

Online Resources

The Daily 5 and Math Daily 3 Resources from Gail Boushey & Joan Moser: www.thedailycafe.com

MNWElementary – Daily 5 Wiki Site: http://mnwelementary-daily5andcafe.wikispaces.com/Daily+5+Resources

Mrs. Shannon’s Math Class Website: http://mrsshannonsclass.weebly.com/daily-5.html

English Daily 5 posters courtesy of The Teacher Wife: http://www.theteacherwife.com/2012/06/daily-5-chapter-1.html

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References:

Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2014). The daily 5: Second edition. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Technology Tools for French Language Learners

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend a French Immersion conference, focusing on French instruction. Some of the ideas presented at the conference, are ideas I already integrated into my French Immersion classroom, but the why and the how are worth mentioning to my greater PLN. These ideas are not new and may be familiar, but it’s worth taking another glance at a few tools that can be utilized when instruction students in a second language. Three different tools will be highlighted:

Read & Write through Google Chrome Extension or CD Software

Read & Write Gold allows students to highlight text in a Google doc or on the Internet and the program will read the text for them. This is helpful when trying to read more complex text such as autobiographies from Wikipedia or researching scientific terms. It can also be helpful for students who have not yet developed reading strategies or vocabulary in French.

Below is a link to their website if your school does not already own this tool:

http://www.texthelp.com/North-America/Our-products/Readwrite

iTranslate app

Writing or speaking in a second language can be difficult if you do not have the vocabulary needed for the topic being discussed. The iTranslate app or an online French-English dictionary can be a very useful tool when used correctly. This tool should be used to translate one word at a time and not whole sentences. When translating a whole sentence from English into French, the meaning of the text can change or become a little confusing. To understand the full effect of a Google translate gap, check out the video Fresh Prince: Google Translated (Collectivecadenza, 2013).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMkJuDVJdTw

An advantage to using an online dictionary is that you can also look for the French dictionary afterwards and find out the type of noun the word is, assisting with adding the proper “articles.” I will often use this tool to verify the correct article use in my written French. My favourite online dictionary is: http://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/  An alternative online dictionary is: http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french

When composing written or oral French, it is important to have the students think in French when trying to compose their thoughts, instead of having them translate in their minds. Translating materials is very difficult, even for very skilled writers. This is why authors hire translators to convert their books into another language and why the House of Commons hire translators to translate Member’s of Parliament’s speeches while they are delivering their speech.

iOS and Android apps

There are several great apps on the market for both Apple software and Android software than can be applied to French instruction. When choosing an app, it’s important to plan how the app will be used to enhance and improve learning. My recommended app page for elementary students provides a list of productivity and creation apps.  Meaning that students can demonstrate learning and understanding through the use of these apps, verses practicing or reviewing facts. Students have more options on how to represent their learning, as not all students prefer to demonstrate understanding through written text. These apps can also be used at the secondary level in either French or English instruction. If any of these apps are new to you, I recommend trying them out to see how they can be utilized in your classroom.

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References:

Collectivecadenza. (2013, January 15). Fresh prince: Google translated [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMkJuDVJdTw.

Why I Blog With my Elementary Students

Every student has a passion in one of the core subject areas taught in school. For me, my passion was always math and social studies. For others, it is language arts,such as reading and writing. Not all students will like writing at first or feel confident with writing. However, in writing, every student has the opportunity to be successful given they are presented with a topic or genre that interests them. A digital medium to communicate ideas through writing is blogging, also known as edublogging (educational blogging). Blogging is currently being used with secondary and higher education students. Research has proven that students have much to gain from blogging for educational purposes. Key benefits of blogging include collaborative learning, increased engagement, feedback from a global audience, reflective thinking, improved writing, and development of technology skills.

More specifically:

• Students benefit from working with their peers through sharing and discussing knowledge rather than working in isolation, which can be the case with paper journaling (Angelaina & Jimouianis, 2012; Chen, Liu, Shih, Wu, & Yuan, 2011; Halic, Lee, Paulus, & Spence, 2010; MacBride & Luehmann, 2008; Wang & Hsua, 2008; Zawilinski, 2009).
• Blogging tools such as the commenting feature provide additional opportunities for student and teacher feedback (Deng & Yuen, 2009; Fessakis, Tatsis, & Dimitracopoulou, 2008; Manfra & Lee, 2012).
• Working with an authentic audience motivates students to improve their writing, as students want their work to be understood and read (Fessakis et al., 2008; Howard, 2011; MacBride & Luehmann, 2008; McGrail & Davis, 2011).
• Students have opportunities for questioning texts and thinking critically about subject matter when blogging activities are designed to respond in this manner (Arena, 2008; Zawilinski, 2009).
• Students are more engaged with blogging than with writing traditional papers (Armstrong & Retterer, 2008; Ellison & Wu, 2008; Frye, Trathen & Koppenhaver, 2010).
• The incorporation of visual literacy is often introduced when blogging (Arena, 2008; Drexler, Dawson, & Ferdig, 2007; Richardson, 2010). Students learn how to select media, which is appropriate for their content such as images, videos and sounds.

With the proper instructional design, teachers can incorporate blogging into their classroom, even with elementary students. These four key elements should be considered when designing instruction:

Even though elementary students may require some support with technical skills, they may also benefit and enjoy student blogging. These are some recommendations on how to blog with younger students:

• Select a blogging platform, which provides secure access to the site and a limited number of tools.
• Discuss digital citizenship and blogging expectations to ensure a positive blogging experience for students.
• Model literacy activities through the use of sample blog posts and provide a rubric to outline blogging requirements.
• Select activities that meet curriculum outcomes and are relevant to student skills and interests.
• Allow students to communicate ideas through written or audio blog posts with or without supporting media (photos, animation, videos, hyperlinks) in order to personalize learning.
• Provide weekly in-class time for blogging activities, such as during computer sessions, centers or during literacy activities. Offer opportunities to blog at home for those students who wish to blog about topics of their choice.
• Provide ongoing instructional support, guidance and feedback to ensure students are able to achieve bloggging outcomes.
• Take advantage of the commenting feature as a way to praise and motivate students to continue discussing blog topics.
• Involve students throughout the blogging process to ensure they are engaged during blogging activities and address any technical or scholarly issues.
• Encourage students to peer mentor each other to enable mastery and confidence of skills

As an elementary educator, consider blogging activities the next time you need to instruct writing to your students. Your students may becoming even more engaged and interested in the topics you are learning and some will even want to write on the blog during their free time.

Click on this attached Blog Handout for details from this blog

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References:

Angelaina, S., & Jimoyiannis, A. (2012). Analysing students’ engagement and learning presence in an educational blog community. Educational Media International, 49(3), 183-200. doi: 10.1080/09523987.2012.738012

Arena, C. (2008). Blogging in the language classroom: It doesn’t “simply happen.” TESL-EJ, 11(4), 1-6. Retrieved from http://tesl-ej.org/ej44/a3.html

Armstrong, K., & Retterer, O. (2008). Blogging as L2 writing: A case study. AACE Journal, 16(3), 233-251.

Chen, Y. L., Liu, E. Z., Shih, R. C., Wu, C. T., & Yuan, S. M. (2011). Use of peer feedback to enhance elementary students’ writing through blogging. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(1), E1-E4. doi:10.1111/j.14678535.2010.01139.x

Deng, L. & Yuen, A. H. K. (2009). Blogs in higher education: Implementation and issues. TechTrends: Linking Research And Practice To Improve Learning, 53(3), 95-98.

Drexler, W., Dawson, K., & Ferdig, R. E. (2007). Collaborative blogging as a means to develop elementary expository writing skills. Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education, 6, 140-160.

Ellison, N., & Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension. Journal of Educational multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122.

Fessakis, G., Tatsis, K., & Dimitracopoulou, A. (2008). Supporting “learning by design” activities using group blogs. Educational Technology & Society, 11(4), 199-212.

Frye, E. M., Trathen, W., & Koppenhaver, D. A. (2010). Internet workshop and blog publishing: Meeting student (and teacher) learning needs to achieve best practice in the twenty-first-century social studies classroom. Social Studies, 101(2), 46-53. doi:10.1080/00377990903284070

Halic, O., Lee, D., Paulus, T., & Spence, M. (2010). To blog or not to blog: Student perceptions of blog effectiveness for learning in a college-level course. Internet And Higher Education, 13(4), 206-213. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.04.001

Howard, M. (2011). Not an unfeasible “extra”. Science And Children, 49(4), 32-35.

MacBride, R., & Luehmann, A. (2008). Capitalizing on emerging technologies: A case study of classroom blogging. School Science And Mathematics, 108(5), 173-18.

Manfra, M., & Lee, J. K. (2012). “You have to know the past to (blog) the present”: Using an educational blog to engage students in U.S. history. Computers In The Schools, 29(1-2), 118-134. doi: 10.1080/07380569.2012.656543

McGrail, E., & Davis, A. (2011). The influence of classroom blogging on elementary student writing. Journal Of Research In Childhood Education, 25(4), 415-437. doi:10.1080/02568543.2011.605205

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Wang, S., & Hsua, H. (2008). Reflections on using blogs to expand in-class discussion. Techtrends: Linking Research And Practice To Improve Learning, 52(3), 81-85.

Zawilinski, L. (2009). HOT blogging: A framework for blogging to promote higher order thinking. Reading Teacher, 62(8), 650-661. doi:10.1598/RT.62.8.3

Digital Citizenship Norms to Consider When Selecting Apps for the Classroom

The Internet can be overwhelming with the amount of apps and tools available to students.  As educators or parents it can be difficult to keep up with the trending technology or even attempt to become an expert in each tool. Even tools we are already familiar with are continually evolving. Although it can be challenging to learn all tools, it is important that we understand its characteristics and how the tool allows students to be good digital citizens. Ribble, Bailey, & Ross (2004) provide 9 norms to digital citizenship (see Digital Citizenship Norms (EDER679.10)) that should be reviewed when considering app use.

http://enoughisenoughau.blogspot.ca/2011/08/online-safety.html

The most important norm to review first would be security (Ribble et al., 2004). Make sure to understand how the tool is being accessed whether it is public, password protected or private. Students should be aware of who has access to their information and content and why it is important to keep certain information private. Take Facebook for example, Facebook has many different privacy settings such as who can access your Facebook page, who can email you, who can view your pictures, who can see where you are living, your birthday, etc. Students should understand why they should limit who has access to their information and what they should share online. Some businesses today are looking at sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to learn more about potential employees. If a student has a bad digital footprint, they are less likely to get the job they want.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Internet_g170-Communication_Technology_p141085.html

Next, I would consider communication (Ribble et al., 2004). Do students have opportunities to communicate with others through the online tool? If so, can they do it in a safe manner? Are their conversations public or private? Take Twitter for example; every post communicated through Twitter is public to the entire world unless the message is sent through a direct message. This can be a huge security issue for younger students, as they may not understand that what goes out there, stays out there. I am aware that younger students cannot own their own Twitter account as they are too young, but if educators decide to go ahead with a class Twitter account, they will need to have a plan in place to educate (education norm) their students on proper netiquette (etiquette norm) and responsibility.

With every good app, the last step would be to have a plan to educate students on proper technology use of the identified tool (education norm – Ribble et al., 2004). Students need to be aware of the positive and negative impact they could have when using the tool. This is where the other norms come into play with being a responsible user (responsibility norm), understanding intellectual property rights (rights norm), avoiding online purchases (commerce norm) and understanding the security and communication norms discussed above.

Once you are happy with the education plan you have set for your students, you are ready to use the apps of your choice. I must mention that norms do not need to be applied in the same way or with the same focus as each learner and each classroom is different. Perhaps you are teaching students who already have a good foundation in digital citizenship and may be able to use apps that are more public and in a wider social network. As long as the norms have been taken into account and you can ensure student online security, then you are well on your way!

My next project is to create an app checklist incorporating some of these digital citizenship norms. If you have created an app checklist, I’d love to see it.

Ribble, M., Bailey, G., & Ross, T. (2004). Digital citizenship: Addressing appropriate technology behavior. Learning & Leading with Technology, 32(1), 6-12. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ695788.pdf