Critical Thinking ?s #1

•What is the one thing you wish you had know before you start your inquiry process?

-I wish that before starting the inquiry process I would have known my learners. When I began the inquiry process I was gauging my knowledge on research and past experience. While these combined tools can be very powerful, each class has their own personality and perspective.

I am not sure that my process would have changed. However, I would be interested to have gathered a baseline on students participating in Daily 5 without a Critical Friend.

•What resources have you encountered that has contradicted your action research?

While "The Sisters" do not contradict my philosophy we have different philosophies. I see my most powerful teaching time with students to be during guided reading and the students' peers. I feel as though if I were to set their goal for them or with them each time their reflection would be too teacher guided rather than a motivation for the student. I also, am not ready to give up my guided reading time to meet with students in such a structured manner as "The CAFE" would suggest.

Student's Goals and Thoughts

Today as we started lining up for recess a student came up to me in a panic and said, "Mrs.Thomas I need to check in with my critical friend before going to recess. I need to tell her if I have met my goal." I thought it was interesting and exciting that even as we were lining up for recess this student was still conscious of the goal set with their critical friend.

Goals Set By...

Low average student: "I will work on word work today so that I can get better at spelling, reading and writing words."

Average student: "I will practice reading to someone today so I can practice my strategies when I get stuck and my partner can do 'Helpful Kangaroo'".

High student: "I will do read to self today so I can practice visualizing the story to help me understand it."

Most Daily 5 conversations...

"I did not meet my goal today because I forgot what my goal was."

"I met my goal today but not I need to practice reading the words I wrote."

"My read to self partner was a Helpful Kangaroo."

"I used Skippy Frog, Stretch Snake, and Flippy Dolphin today."

Click on this link to see visuals of what is posted under the "A for Accuracy" on our CAFE menu.

After Break

After the Holiday Break all students were given a new Critical Friend. I decided to pair students of different abilities. I placed high students with low-average students and low kids with high-average students. After two weeks of observation I have not noticed a significant difference in the way the students share their goals, execute their goals, and check back in.

Here are some of the goals students have been sharing:

Low Student- Read to someone, read to self, and word work to get better at my writing.

Average Student- My goal is to read to somebody to get better at reading so when I see the words I can know them right away.

High Student- Do all the Daily 5s to get better at reading, writing and spelling.