Since we returned from our glorious winter break on January 9th, I have been reviewing our I-charts with my students, having them model how it should look, and building their stamina! We are having a tough time getting our stamina past seven minutes.
My students are itching to get all the choices back (Word Work, Listen to Reading, and Computers) and I am itching to get conferencing going. Each time I go back to rebuild expectations and stamina with my students, I am so frustrated that they can't build their stamina back as quickly as I want them to!
The biggest realization I've had from my moments watching my students and the timer is how important it is to rebuild their stamina when returning from breaks. If I don't take the time to truly rebuild their stamina, but rather "enforce" them to the stamina I want then my students are not truly independent. My desire to rush through the stamina building process makes me think, "whose stamina are we building here?" Is it really my students who need to build their stamina, or is it me?
Starting tomorrow I am going to work to try and get a couple of conferences in as my students are working. We'll see how it goes!
Yes! I have to fight the urge to make them do the right thing instead of leading them to feel the rightness. I hope you get them back on track quickly!
ReplyDeleteFirst in Maine
I had to spend 3 days to build stamina back up to 20 minutes after the break, too. We just had a snow day on Friday... a long weekend... I hope the kids will do fine tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteThis is my school's second full year doing Daily 5. (Some of us hopped on a year before that) Anyway, I originally thought it was lame-o how much TIME you spend developing procedures and the dreaded stamina. Let me tell you that it is SO worth it. My second graders can read for over an hour straight after doing the Daily 5 for two years. I am confident that they will have the stamina they need to go through standardized testing next year. And good luck with the conferencing! It is something that I still struggle with because we have no TIME! :)
ReplyDeleteSo glad I found your Daily 5 blog! I have been using the Daily 5 this year and my kids love it! On the days when we have a lot to cover/other school things we have to go to, they always if we will have time for our Daily 5 and if we can do it in the afternoon since we missed it in the morning! I have never had my kids love to read as much as they do this year, thanks to the Daily 5!
ReplyDeleteMolly
Lessons with Laughter
I am so glad that I found your website! I love the Daily 5 and CAFE. I am new to the blogging world, but have recently been bloggin about the Daily 5 and CAFE. If you get a moment, please check out my blog. www.spoutinabout2nd.blogspot.com
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