D5/RBI A Guide For Implementing Daily 5 And RIT Band Instruction Table of Contents (or Your Personal Checklist) Control/Click the purple box to go directly to the page Do you have the right mindset? Pg4 Do you have your students organized into RIT Bands? Pg5 Are your groups organized? Pg6 Want some help planning your schedule? Pg7 Here’s how you can plan your small group time. Pg8 Here’s how you can manage your teacher station. Pg11 jstahl Need more resources? Pg11 Are your students trained? Pg13 Have more questions? Pg14 2 How to Incorporate RIT Band Instruction into Daily 5 First of all, it is important to realize that it CAN BE DONE. Really! But why should we teach small groups? In small groups you can keep all students engaged on their personal “next step” learning level. In small groups you can precisely target the skills and instruction needed for each student. In small groups you can closely monitor student performance. Small group work provides more opportunities for immediate feedback. It provides the teacher more time to meet the needs of the most challenging students who may require greater teacher guidance. It provides high achievers time to work independently at a pace that promotes active learning. Teachers have more time to teach & students have more time to learn (hard to believe that's possible, but it's true!) Then why should we use RIT Bands? Using MAP RIT scores help us prepare for flexible small groups. By grouping students with similar RIT bands, a teacher can better meet the instructional needs of each student starting where they are in their learning. Our goal is to create maximum growth for all students…lowest and highest. RIT grouping makes this task easier. RIT instruction is a major step in closing the gaps with missing concepts and skills. You can differentiate with laser accuracy – no more guess work! So how do we get it rolling? Let’s think about it in steps: Step One: Work on your Mindset Step Two: Group your Students Step Three: Organize Your Groups Step Four: Create Your Schedule Step Five: Plan Your Rotations Step Six: Plan Your Small Group Instruction Step Seven: Train your students Are you ready? Let’s do it! jstahl 3 STEP ONE: Work on your Mindset First of all, let’s check our mindset…..do I really “get it?” What is Daily 5? Another reading program to do on top of my Unit plan? NO!! Daily 5 and your curriculum or unit plan live harmoniously together in your classroom. Daily 5 is a management system or framework – it is a structure that helps students develop the daily habits of reading, writing and working with peers that will lead to a lifetime of independent literacy. Daily 5 is a series of literacy tasks - Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Writing, Words – which students complete daily while the teacher meets with small groups or individuals. I don’t do my Unit AND Daily 5….I do my Unit THROUGH Daily 5. And, doing RIT Band instruction and Daily 5 together doesn’t take away from your ELA instruction…it ENHANCES it! See? Happy together….. Secondly, we need to check our mindsets regarding students. To pull off effective RIT Band small group instruction, you need to be OK with doing different things for different kids based on their needs. Try to adopt the following mentality for your students, and teach them to do the same: FAIR VS. EQUAL Equal means the same. I will not be treating students exactly the same way. Being fair means that I will do my best to give each student what he or she needs to be successful. What you need and what someone else needs may be very different. I will always try to be FAIR, but this means things won’t always feel EQUAL. (Link with a pretty poster of this quote: http://www.msfultz.com/fultzfairequal.pdf) Lastly, you need to keep in mind the goals of our school and our state. All students need to grow in their learning. Gaps need to close. All students need to make gains. How do we do this? Take them from where they are and move forward. But they are all in different places, you say? That’s why we need small group instruction! jstahl 4 STEP TWO: Group your Students Easy! Use your MAP Data. Need a refresher about MAP and RIT? Never fear! You are in the right place! From their website: “NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests measure a student's instructional achievement level, not a student's mastery level. Achievement on the MAP tests shows evidence of what a student has learned and can do with approximately 50 percent accuracy within a subject and goal area. NWEA calls this the student's instructional level. Another way of understanding instructional level is parallel to a student's zone of proximal development (Vygotsky) which states that a student has acquired a body of knowledge that prepares him or her for the next concept that will be introduced. This becomes a road map toward achieving mastery. It is not mastery level.” The purpose of MAP assessments is to provide the most accurate information for every child, regardless of where they are in the curriculum. Instructional level helps in identification of student needs. The RIT score reflects a student's readiness level and lets the teacher know where to begin instruction. Characteristics of the RIT Scale include: It is an achievement scale. It is an accurate scale. It is an equal interval scale. It helps to measure growth over time. It has the same meaning regardless of grade or age of the student So, our students have tested and the reports are located here. http://www.nwea.org/ Go ahead, print them out. You can do it now – you know you want to. I’ll wait……. Back so soon? Great! Now, look at the RIT bands in your class. You may have 5-6 different RIT Bands, but you can do groups however you want. Need simple to start? Do 3 groups – low, middle and high. Like even numbers? Then do 4 groups – low, low average, average, high. Have 30 kids in your class? Do 6 groups: Novice, Apprentice, Proficient Low, Proficient High, and Distinguished. You get the idea. Need more MAP resources: Here you go! http://www.nwea.org/support/article/532 http://www.nwea.org/support/article/1140/rit-charts-map http://www.nwea.org/support/article/1120/teacher-report-rit-ranges-annotated http://www.nwea.org/support/article/552/state-requirements-and-nweas-descartes-continuumlearning%C2%AE jstahl 5 STEP THREE: Organize Your Groups This is the step that makes us think, “Heck with small group! Who needs it?” Its management, and scheduling and math and all kinds of thinking...yuck! But we can do it! Let’s start with the basics. We’ll pretend that I am going to have 4 RIT groups for ELA. This is how I’d start: Since we are talking combining RBI with D5 (code for RIT Band Instruction and Daily 5), let’s start with that. I’m going to make a rotation schedule for my students. And, because I love color –coding, that’s what we’ll do: Low Group – Blue, Low Average Group, Green, Average Group – Yellow, High Group – Red Now, remembering that “Fair is Not Equal,” I’m going to think about what each of these groups need. Green and Blue need the teacher – that’s you – the most. They are behind in their skills and reading ability and rely on direct explicit instruction in order to grow them from their point of learning and to catch them up to where they need to be. Yellow kids are right on grade level. They are progressing in their learning and need to keep doing so. They likely don’t “need” you as much and are more capable of some independent work. Red kids need to practice independence and grow in their thinking. They need to be encouraged to extend their above-grade level learning and work on things that are challenging. They deserve to learn something that they didn’t already know, not repeat tasks that they’ve fully understood for years already. So I create the following chart for “me” time. This is how small groups will meet with me daily for explicit instruction on their level (RIT Band). Even though I have 4 groups, I’m going to have only 3 “me” sessions in my daily schedule. Rotation 1 Rotation 2 Rotation 3 MONDAY Blue Green Yellow TUESDAY Blue Green Red WEDNESDAY Blue Green Yellow THURSDAY Blue Green Red FRIDAY Blue Green Yellow See? Fair isn’t equal. In this plan, the kids who need YOU most get you most. The students who need you least….and let’s face it, they really don’t need you as much….get you less. But you are still meeting their learning needs, so don’t panic! OK, got my kids grouped, have a plan for when I’m seeing them, and now I’m looking at the big picture of my ELA day. Let’s look at what I need to do: Daily 5, ELA Unit, Phonics Dance, and RIT Instruction. What’s next?? jstahl 6 STEP FOUR: Create Your Schedule Let’s make a timed framework for my instruction. First I look at my total block of ELA time. I teach ELA from 8:10 – 11:30, which is 200 minutes. How do I start to structure that? Here’s a sample plan: What Phonics Dance Morning Message Reading Mini Lesson – CAFÉ strategy When 8:10-8:20 – 10 minutes 8:20-8:30 - 10 minutes 8:30-8:40 – 10 minutes How Whole Group Whole Group Whole Group Small Group Rotation 1 Reading Mini lesson comprehension skill Whole Group Guided Reading Small Group Time 2 Teacher Read Aloud Words/Language Arts Mini Lesson Small Group Time 3 Writing Mini Lesson Shared Writing Experience Writer’s Workshop (work on CR, OD, writing pieces) Review lessons and targets, Formative Assessment, Closure Total Time: 8:40-9:00 – 20 minutes 9:00-9:10 – 10 minutes Small Group Whole Group 9:10-9:30 – 20 minutes 9:30-9:50 – 20 minutes 9:50-10:00 – 10 minutes 10:00-10:15 – 15 minutes Whole Group Small Group Whole Group Whole Group 10:15-10:35 – 20 minutes 10:35-10:45 – 10 minutes 10:45-10:55 – 10 minutes 10:55-11:15 – 20 minutes Small Group Whole Group Whole Group Whole Group 11:15-11:30 - 15 minutes Whole Group 200 minutes Ta-Da! OK, schedule is done! Looks pretty on paper, huh? But what is actually going on during those small group rotation times? Next step! jstahl 7 STEP FIVE: Plan Your Rotations So we’ve already determined that the color coded groups will take turns working with you during this time. And we’ll talk more about what to do with them in the next step. But what about all of the other students? What are they doing during this time? Call it Centers, call it Workstations, call it TARGET…..they are doing small group or independent work on what THEY NEED. Some may be able to operate under true DAILY 5 style and have freedom of choice for Reading to Self, Reading to Someone, Word Work, Writing, and Listen to Reading. So students may have book boxes with Good Fit books they are reading from, some may be buddy reading, some may be at a writing station or working in a writing journal, some may be doing a making words activity or some type of phonics/words/vocabulary activity. But remember, we are two-for-one-ing with this time, so we want to make sure that students get their RIT Band Instruction as well. So maybe some, if not all, of the activities need to be teacher dictated versus student choice. Maybe we need to think about each group and what they need, or don’t need. Do those top readers truly need that working with words activity, or do they need more independent read-to-self time on their reading level? Does that lower student need to spend a lot of time in Read-to-Self when they really aren’t yet independent enough to read anything much, or do they need to be working with words? See what I mean? Remember, Fair isn’t Equal. Sometimes, because we are nice, mostly BLUE people and we think FAIR is nice and blue, we design centers and everyone gets everything, whether they need it or not. It’s like a school cafeteria approach to reading. Everyone gets a scoop of everything, and we all must take our fruit and vegetable. The true Daily 5 way, in contrast, is more like a buffet – everyone takes whatever they want. But if we are being EQUAL in giving students what they need, and we are keeping in mind our goal of accomplishing RBI during our Daily 5 time, maybe we need to be more like a family at a restaurant. We look at the menu, but the kids are too little to have total freedom to place their own orders, and we, as the parents, know both what they like and what is good for them. So with those things in mind, we order for them. In reading words, the “parents with a menu” approach would look like this: you, as the teacher, pick who goes to what station and what they do. (Sorry, Sisters… I hope this isn’t Daily 5 blasphemy). There could be some structured choice involved, but I think if we make a purposeful plan, we can get more bang for our buck. And, yes, I’m a control freak. So, I’m going to think about what each group, and each student needs, and I’m going to set up a schedule accordingly. Oh, and since this Rotation time is doing double duty as RBI time, I’m going to include Compass as one of my stations. After all, that’s the easiest way by far to accomplish RIT Band instruction, as the program has already created a learning path based on the students RIT Band. Cool! jstahl 8 So, what might it look like? Remember our color coding from Step 3? How about this? Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Rotation 1 Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Rotation 2 Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Rotation 3 Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Teacher Word Work Compass Read to Self Listen to Reading Writing Read to Someone Writing Read to Someone Writing Read to Someone Writing Read to Someone Writing Read to Someone What’s that you say? Not a fan of breaking up the small group rotation? Want to do those together? And what about Compass? Are you finding that your students aren’t finishing their activities and you want a longer time period? And maybe you have collaborative teacher with you during your D5-RBI Time. Or you teach older students and you want more sessions and less rotations. Guess what? There are no wrong answers with your schedule. Make it fit the needs of your students. Play around with it until you find what works best for you. Check out this sample: jstahl 9 Purple Monday A Collab Teacher Monday B Read. Comp Tuesday A Collab Teacher Tuesday B Words Wednesday Collab Teacher A Wednesday Writing B Thursday A Collab Teacher Thursday B Readto-Self Friday A Friday B COMPASS Blue Green Yellow Orange Red TeacherRead-toRead. Words 1 Self Comp. COMPASS Read-toTeacher- ReadWriting Self 2 to-Self TeacherRead-toWords Writing 2 Self COMPASS Read. TeacherReadChallenge Comp. 1 to-Self ReadTeacher- Read-totoWriting Words Self 3 Self COMPASS TeacherRead. Read-toWords 2 Comp. Self TeacherRead-to- Read. Writing 4 Self Comp. COMPASS TeacherReadWriting Words 3/4 to-Self Read-to- Read-toTeacher-3/4 Self Self COMPASS Read. TeacherChallenge Challenge Comp 3/4 This could be different next week, because I am FLEXIBLE and giving the students what they need. You may have other ideas for a station, such as a SMART Board station. And there could be a choice block included, if you were feeling democratic. But you get the idea. Make a chart, color code, know your RIT groups and what they need, and waa-laa! You have a plan! Don’t you feel better already?? P.S. The second sample schedule is the REAL LIFE schedule of the lovely and generous Mrs. Kelly Hopp, who also is willing to share with you her PowerPoint that she uses with her students daily to show them their rotations. You can find it at this link: http://www.pendleton.kyschools.us/olc/class.aspx?id=3708&s=80 jstahl 10 STEP SIX: Plan Your Small Group Instruction You have a lovely color-coded plan, but what will you do when the kids come to you in the Teacher Station? Well…..what do your kids need? Here’s where you can really hone in on some quality RIT Band instruction. Let me show you a few resources: www.fortheteachers.org www.foridahoteachers.org OK, both of these sites are simply awesome. You can find lesson plans already written by RIT Band. Really! And you can also find leveled text, materials and questions to use with small group lessons. So, if you were doing main idea in third grade, you would select that, print off the plan, write your RIT groups in the blanks, print out 3 leveled articles and go. A few clicks and some ink, and you have lessons to match what you are teaching in whole group broken down by RIT level for your small group students. You’ve GOT to check it out! http://mnwelementary-daily5andcafe.wikispaces.com/Daily+5+Resources This is a Daily 5 Gold Mine. I don’t think I’ve sent this out before, but stumbled on it while researching. It has a plethora of D5 resources, but also has completed lessons that would be appropriate for small group or mini lessons. There are resources for each center, suggestions for materials….I could go on and on because it goes on and on. It is by far the most comprehensive site I’ve found for the Daily 5. You absolutely have to check it out – it will change your life! www.readworks.org This site is advertised as the “solution to comprehension” and it might well be. It has tons of lesson plans, and 1,000s of non-fiction articles that are leveled and ready to print. So I’m a third grade teacher and I’m on Unit 2, which is Inspired by the Sea and focuses on skills like main idea and compare/contrast. I could go to ReadWorks, go to “find passages,” put in third grade, main idea, and sea, and it gives me an article with the Lexile level listed to print. What? I’m telling you, it can be this easy! Here are a few other websites that you should file away for future reference. All deal with Daily 5, CAFÉ, Small Group Instruction, or RIT Band grouping. http://6thgradescottforesmanreadingstreetresources.wordpress.com/cafe-and-daily-5/ http://pulaskidailyfive.blogspot.com/p/resources.html http://www.bhusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=59648&type=u&pREC_ID=314742 http://www.oswego.org/files/49/Small%20Group%20Reading%20Instruction%20booklet.docx.pdf http://www.readingresource.net/guidedreading.html http://www.slideshare.net/angelamaiers/fostering-independence-with-the-daily-five jstahl 11 So now you’ve got resources and you’ve got ideas. Think about your student needs and make a plan. What do they need? We have lots of things you can use during this small group time….pull out things we’ve done before: Making Words Activities LLI Early Success Soar Materials Leveled Readers from the Reading Series Lending Library Books Big Books Reading Strategy Cards (remember these?) Really, I could go on and on. It needs to be what your students need. You can do this! jstahl 12 STEP SEVEN: Train your students The up-front effort will be well worth it in the long run. Do it right, take the time, do the steps, and do it the same every day. Need help getting started? Here we go: 1. Review your Daily 5 procedures. Here are the Sister’s 10 steps for teaching and learning independence. a. Identify what is to be taught. b. Set a purpose and a sense of urgency. c. Brainstorm behaviors desired using an “I” chart. d. Model most desirable behaviors. e. Model least desirable behaviors. f. Place students around the room. g. Have everyone practice to build stamina (start with 3 minutes). h. Stay out of their way. i. Give a quiet signal to come back to whole group. j. Have a group check in time – evaluate “how did you do?” 2. Review your Daily 5 resources for help and suggestions. Use the following link for guidance: http://northernelementarypd.shutterfly.com/summerpd2012/8/Web%20Resources%20for%20Daily%2 05%20and%20Cafe%20Menu.docx. 3. Go back to the Daily 5 for Dummies and start all over, or where you left off, or where your students are. Here’s a link if you need one, and this site also has more D5 goodies: http://www.sanjuan.edu/webpages/gguthrie/balanced_literacy.cfm?subpage=127464 4. Like NIKE…..just do it. Training puppies is seldom fun. But it’s great when they are doing their business outside and not in your living room, and then it’s all well worth the effort. Same with small groups. Do the training. Do it right. It will be worth it. jstahl 13 FAQS Q: I’ve got the groups going, but when can I do individual reading in this plan? A: Build it into your group rotation. Meet with the group for 15 minutes and keep the last 5 for individual reading. Or shave some time in another area and make a 4th rotation where you do individuals. You can work it in. Q: Can I use this time to work on a Language Arts strategy, or should it always be reading comprehension? A: What do your students need? If you are incorporating RIT time, you are playing the role of doctor. You are using your professional expertise, RIT Band groupings and the DesCartes to guide you in next steps for those students. Use the time to take them from where they are and grow them to the next level in any of the ELA disciplines. Q: Can I do a worksheet in the Teacher Rotation? A: Really? You are going to ask me that? Ummm….no! This is your time with your students. They can do a worksheet without you. They can do a worksheet….never, really, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing. But with you during your precious 20 minutes? Nah. Do something authentic and meaningful that involves real life reading and writing. HOWEVER….I would have a “something” on hand for an emergency. This isn’t a perfect world, you know. You are meeting with the group, having a lovely lesson, and Johnny pukes. Or Jill’s computer went funky. Have a Plan B, which could be an appropriate worksheet, nearby that you can give to your group to keep them rolling while you go tend to said emergency. Q: Can I do worksheets as the other stations? A: What’s with the worksheet questions? If you ask, then I have to say no. Do something real, with real reading and real authentic writing. Do one of those TARGET activities you worked so hard on several years ago. Do something hands-on and maybe even FUN. Use books, use technology, use real lined paper and pencils, make students use their brains, but let’s not use worksheets. Save those for an emergency situation (see above with Johnny and Jill) or a substitute teacher or a migraine headache. Q: I’m doing the Daily 5. I have all of the literacy tasks covered, and they are grounded in the Common Core standards, and I’m doing what is asked in our curriculum unit. But I’m not doing small groups… I’m doing it all large group. Isn’t that good enough? A: First of all, great job! You’ve almost hit a home run! You’ve doing great things in your ELA instruction! But if you read the Daily 5, it IS small group. And it’s best practice. So, you HAVE to do small groups. It’s a district initiative, it’s a NES goal, it’s part of our growth plans, it’s a practice grounded in tons of educational research, and it’s what’s best for students. I hear you, I do. You are saying: My kids can’t handle it. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the materials. I flat-out don’t want to. Start at the top of this article and read the steps again. You’ll find how to train your kids to handle it, how to make the time, and where to find the materials. It will be ok. I’ll do whatever I can to make this easier for you. And I’ll feed you chocolate along the way. There…..feel better? jstahl 14 Q: You seriously expect me to get this rolling? This year? I’m totally overwhelmed! A: First of all, you’re not alone. The changing to the Common Core and a new testing system knocked us all to equal levels. No matter how good you were as a teacher, how much stuff you had, how many years you’ve taught, how high you had your test scores soaring, it all was swept away in the hurricane named Senate Bill 1 and the Common Core Initiative. So last year, we all were in the same place, with one little leg on the first rung of the New Game ladder. If you were fortunate enough to be in the same grade teaching the same content this year, you now have a leg on rung number 2. If you were newly hired, switched a grade level, or switched content, or were like Kindergarten and went from whole day to half day, you are likely still on the first rung. But regardless, none of us is any higher! We’re all at the bottom together, with nowhere to go but up. So don’t feel alone – all of your sisters are in the same place in this journey. Secondly, it’s a tall ladder. The course we are on will take us years. No one expects you to have it all perfect now. I’ve said that before. I’ll say it again. I’ll print signs and hang them in the bathroom if that will help you remember. Oh, I forgot. Who has time to pee? Anyway….no one is expecting you to scamper to the top of the New Game ladder this year. Just make another step. And help your sisters make the step with you. Don’t step on their heads or their fingers or talk negatively and “nay-say” and make it harder. Keep your eyes forward, move ahead, and we will all be fine. We are a FAMILY! And we are here to help each other. Q: OK, so I’ll do small groups. But how am I supposed to do all of the other things, too? Like PBIS, and completing my Units, and be engaging? Too much, already!! A: When you go on a long journey, like we are on, you have to pack your bags. In our bags, we’ve packed 8 things….the “Great 8”: RBI Time, Formative Assessment, Student Engagement, Learning Targets, PBIS, Goal Setting, Unit Development, and Program Review/Writing. Everyone has SOME of everything in their suitcase. But because we are traveling as a group, not everyone has to pack A LOT of everything. We all have 3 main things in our suitcase: RBI Time, Formative Assessment and Student Engagement. These are things that the majority of you chose for your PGP goals, and these are the things that the district feels will get us the quickest “bang for our buck” as we grow. Some of you may also have another main thing or two packed with you, depending on your personal goals for your growth. But all we really expect from you is GROWTH. Move one more step up the ladder. If you feel pressure towards perfection, then I dare to say that pressure is coming from within. Our NES plan is for the Great 8 to continue to be our Great 8 next year, and the next year, and the next. If we all move one more step each year, we WILL be great. Together – like the NES family that we are. Q: When will this go away? Daily 5, Small Group, MAP, Compass, the Great 8, District Walkthroughs, Common Core, new tests…..all of it? A: It’s here to stay, girls. All of it. And it’s good stuff; really it is. And good teachers do good stuff and new stuff and become better at teaching because they are good teachers. And good teachers realize that what we tell our students is the truth: you never stop learning. Teaching is an art form. New things come along and we modify. We roll, we grow, we are flexible. We have a growth mindset. It’s who we are. It’s what we do. My very good friend and colleague retired this week. To me, she will always be a role model for us all; a “Michael Jordan” of teaching. I told her this, because I admire her, and because it is true: In all of her years, she never “quit” learning, doing, or working. She never developed an attitude that said “I’m good enough, I know enough, I’m not learning or doing anymore.” She never became an “old dog” who wouldn’t learn “new tricks.” Every year she improved. Every year her teaching was better than the year before. She went out at the top of her game. I don’t want to be “just like Mike,” I want to be just like Janice. Don’t you? jstahl 15