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Showing posts from June, 2013

How to Set Up Your Cafe Notebook (Pensieve)

As I mentioned, I am very familiar with the book The Daily Five, and have been implementing it in my kinder classroom for several years now. This year my goal is to expand on that by using the CafĂ© Book as a guide on data collection for each student as well as to teach the metacognitive strategies in the book for readers to monitor their reading. I have already set up my binder, or Pensieve (as the book refers to it) the way it is described in the book so it is ready to go for August!  At the beginning of the binder is a class list. In it the teacher marks what date she will meet with that student again. This is a quick visual of how often I am meeting with each student. It will help me keep track of students that I need to meet with everyday, as well as those that may get forgotten about. It will give me information when the last time I met with a high reader was, and if I should meet with that student again. Instead of names, I put numbers on the forms because it helps me mainta...

Differentiation

Hi bloggers! I have been busy preparing for next year. I got a job in a different district, teaching kindergarten again. However, unlike my current class, who is generally homogeneously grouped, next year I will have all different ability levels in my classroom. My goal will be to differentiate instruction so that all learners are challenged. I have a few ideas of how I hope to accomplish this. For math, I plan to have a whole group lesson at the beginning of class. This may involve either a pre-assessment to determine ability grouping, or just an informal assessment with white boards at the carpet area. From there, I will have choice time. There will be 10 tubs available to students for choice time while I meet with groups. Inside the tubs are activities/games of concepts we’ve already learned, or things tied to this unit’s objective. This is determined by how much of the class needs to review concepts previously taught. The tubs are labeled 1-10. In the 1-3 tubs will be activiti...