So last year I decided to give it a go and began, the quite long journey, to train the children how to become independent learners. I followed "the Daily Five" book quite closely, using the language of reading that 'the sisters' incorporate. WOW! I was a little skeptical, but the change in my students attitude to reading was great. That was enough for me to decide that I wanted to continue a similar program this year.
Our school goal this year is to increase reading mileage, and what better way than to read. I have adjusted down to just a daily 2 so far - read to self and read to someone. It took a long time to establish the routines in term one, we had camp, my weekly release, Easter and then I was off school for two weeks with my son. So it has been a long journey.
But finally, this week, despite cross country practises interrupting us, we got in a few good sessions of my newly named Reading Rocks daily 2. As I looked up from the group I was working with I could see the kind of reading classroom I wanted. 6 children were bent over the yellow table with our student teacher deep in conversation about a book, 2 children were tucked in a corner reading on the iPads, 4 children were working on our 'River of words' using the words they are learning through Tune into interesting words and creating a display for everyone to add too, 4 children were quietly reading to someone and the rest had found a spot and were (on the most part) drowning out everything reading a book.
Now we haven't got this perfected by any accounts yet, as we are just developing how we should be working towards our next steps, but I had my first glimpse how daily 5 could work, and work wellwith children leading their own learning. My only worry now is, thinking about having to restart this journey with new class the next year...
Hopefully the fact that my colleagues are beginning to become interested too, is a good sign.
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