WOW!!!

I am enlightened, inspired, and EXCITED!  The Daily 5/CAFE workshop was absolutely amazing.   I had read both books prior to attending.  The Daily 5, I read about 3 years ago and then again, for the 2nd time, last summer.  CAFE I finished reading for the 2nd time about 4 weeks ago.  After attending the workshop I felt like- wow! I had all the pieces to the puzzle, I just didn't know how they fit together.  All the research that the two sisters use to support their work was absolutely on target with everything I never knew that I always knew!

How many times have you been teaching a lesson and you're kids slowly fall apart, one by one they all lose focus and you end up getting no where with the lesson.  According to the brain research shared by the sisters, children can only maintain upper level cortex thinking for about the same number of minutes as they are age in years.  So then I have to ask myself, why on earth have I been trying to hold my students' attention for 20-30 minutes "mini" lessons?  They weren't so "mini" were they!?  Just because I am "required" to use a scripted, boxed curriculum, does not mean I am required to use it like "they" say I should.  I can use this program, with all it's content, and do what is best for my students at the same time.  I can break it up into pieces and not only make my life easier but help my students to enjoy learning and get much more out of each lesson. 

"Guided Reading"- what does it mean anyway? Guiding children to become better readers. Why then, does it have to be done by level? It doesn't!  I always thought that was the only way, but it's amazing how 6 kids who read the same "level" of book need 6 very different things to guide them.  The workshop helped me to see the importance of strategy groups and one-on-one conferencing with my students.  I never thought that I could reach my students the way that I can now.  Just in the first week of trying this "new" way of teaching reading, I not only was able to meet with every one of my 21 students 3 times within one week, but I was also able to meet with my struggling readers every single day.  Just by working my students into strategy groups, cutting the time in half, and meeting with students one-on-one, more than half of my class is now able to articulate their personal reading goal and they are actually trying to practice that goal independently. 

I feel like I am in 7th heaven with all of this.  I am more excited than ever to teach reading.  Teaching reading has been my main interest for a few years now and I feel like now it is truly what I am passionate about.  I am excited to continue trying these new ideas in my classroom and I cannot wait until next school year when I can start from the beginning of the year.  I will be interested to see what a difference it makes in reading progress and behavior in my classroom. 

I absolutely recommend this experience to anyone who can take advantage of it.  The two sisters really know what they are talking about and if this is not developmentally appropriate then I don't know what it!