What are We Doing in Class Today?
Motivating Beginning Readers with a Daily Schedule (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Stage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
4-12
Grade Range:
K 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6thFood Groups:
Primary: Classroom Organization & Time Management Secondary: Motivation for Literacy
Transcript
This is my daily schedule, this is what we use every day. I consider this important because my kids, when they come every day, they know what to expect. That makes them feel good. You might have noticed also that there's no math on today's schedule. The reason for that is that as a First Grade teacher, I realized that my students need a certain amount of time to get to work and be productive. So I decided that one day, we would do just language all morning, and then the following day, we will do just math. Then the following day, just language. So there is a lot of time to do our Daily 5, to do the lesson, and then to do the activities that belong to that lesson. This is just more productive for the First Graders to have extra time to sit down and be productive. It's a way of practicing their reading. They for some reason even the students that I consider are struggling a little bit, for some reason, they know exactly what it is. They know if we're having math, if we're having language, if we're having dance or media literacy or whatever it is, and then they can read it. What they use to figure out is obviously the beginning letters. They somehow know that the L and the A sounds /la/ and then the N, /lan/. So they already know that that should be language. If I had words and pictures next to them, for some students it could be just easy to look at the pictures and never try to sound out the letters. I think that is something important for them to do to feel that they can read. At this age, it's very important for them to feel that. That they can read, that they look around and think "oh, look I can read this". So they get very excited when they can do that. This is an opportunity that they can use.
Activity Objective
The goal of What are We Doing in Class Today?: Motivating Beginning Readers with a Written Daily Schedule (Virtual Tour) is to engage young children with an authentic purpose for using their decoding skills, figuring out their daily schedule. Students learn what will be happening throughout the day while expanding their vocabulary and building confidence as readers.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Post the schedule somewhere that is easily accessible to all of your students.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
Literacy CAFE in First Grade: Fostering Independence using a Menu of Strategies (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
The Daily 5 in First Grade: Engaging Students with a Balanced Literacy Approach (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Predicting and Inferring: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies using an Explicit Framework (Virtual Tour)
1st - 3rd
Revising and Editing in First Grade: Using Success Criteria to Focus the Writing Process (Virtual Tour)
K - 6th
Classroom Timer: Building Time Concepts and Management in the Primary Grades (Virtual Tour)
K - 2nd
