Northside Sparkling

November 5, I spent the day at Northside Elementary School. I discovered many positive things and great efforts by staff members and students, but one small experience and one multi-classroom experience really left me feeling particularly inspired. The small moment happened when I asked a kindergarten student at lunch why he was wearing some green beads. I thought perhaps because of his orange shirt it was some sort of pumpkin motif. (Kindergartens always have something special going on...)  How wrong I was. He got the biggest grin and said with pride, “I’m the sparkle of the week.” I found out that as part of their Positive Behavior Support program, Northside uses “sparkle slips” to recognize "above the line" behavior and once a week names are drawn with lucky recipients receiving these sparkling beads to wear as “Sparkle of the Week." Anything that can teach and reinforce positive behavior and light up a child’s face with joy is a great idea indeed.

Shared reading...the Mondo Program (2nd grade)

I learned about another great idea as I visited seven different classrooms that happened to be doing reading at the time. I was struck by the consistent practice of literacy called the “Daily Five.” The Daily Five is based on the idea that students need to learn independence in their own literacy development. During the 90 minute literacy block in the classroom, following a shared reading mini-lesson for the whole class, some students work independently on skills while other students are involved in direct instruction (guided reading) with the classroom teacher.

Guided  Reading (1st grade)

All students get the shared reading lesson (the new Mondo Program) and small group guided reading at their skill level every day, plus 5 specific, structured literacy experiences. According to what I saw (and later researched), the Daily Five that the children rotate through are:

Read to Self: To become better readers, students must have opportunities to read. Strategies are taught to students that help them choose "just right" books to enjoy reading by themselves.

Read to someone...note the orange  coaching card
(3rd grade)

Read to Someone: Reading with someone helps readers and encourages self-sufficiency. Students learn about discussing the contents of the reading by checking each other for understanding during the reading. The cool thing is that students are given orange “coaching guides” so they aren’t just passively listening; they are thinking about how to help their partner read. This also means they are internalizing reading strategies themselves, of course.

Listen to Reading: Listening to good models of reading helps students improve their own reading and it provides the audio support for reading that some children may be lacking.

Work on Writing: Students write about things that matter to them. This could be something that a student began to write during the writing workshop time (when writing skills are taught). This gives students an independent time to develop their ideas.

Word Work: Practicing spelling helps students become better spellers and writers and, also, better readers. This time can be spent in working with spelling patterns, high frequency words or working with interesting words and vocabulary.

Just finishing read to self ...1st grade
(actually we fudged a bit and he read to me)

This model is based on the book, The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. I think the teachers at Northside deserve a “Sparkle” for trying this new approach that will better serve children by ensuring all aspects of reading instruction and practice are emphasized every day while building independent reading skills.

Lots of things sparkling at Northside!

Stay InspirED,
Tim Culver