Daily 5 Series: Read With A Teacher Resources


  1. Read to Self
  2. Read with Someone
  3. Word Work
  4. Listen to Reading
  5. Read with a Teacher/Teacher Time
What resources do you use during Read with a Teacher/Teacher Time?

I love meeting with my groups during Read with a Teacher! I typically have 5-6 kids in a group and it's wonderful reading through a chapter book with them and experiencing the story through their eyes.

We just finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and even though I have read it hundreds of times, I still love reading it during Teacher Time because it never ceases to be exciting and wondrous for my third graders :)

I love using chapter books for this time, so because of that, my resources have to be flexible to adapt to the variety of books, genres, and levels we read throughout the course of the school year.

EdHelper's Literature Units
 
One great resources I have just discovered is EdHelper's Literature Units. Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B first blogged about this and I immediately had to know more! It's a members-only option, but for only abour $20 a year, it's well worth it for me because they have questions, vocabulary, quizzes, and activity on HUNDREDS of books! The time it saves me is HUGE!

I organize them inside of a blue folder (blue=reading in my organizational system):
I do not use them with the kids as worksheets, I rather will use them for discussion questions, partnership activity focus questions and sometimes as a formative assessment along the way to check for comprehension.

We use Accelerated Reader for end-of-book comprehension quizzes, but I like how these units allow me to check in along the way to make sure their AR quiz will be as successful as possible.

Prompt Cards & Cubes

I love these {free!} Guided Reading Prompt Cards (thank you Shelley Gray!)


These cards have been super-helpful because they are so quick and easy. I sorted through them and don't use every one, but most of them are fitting. I just printed them and laminated them so they can stand up to lots of use. I keep them in a bucket and kids use them as a focus question as they read or an Exit Slip question before they leave group. They are very general, so it's a nice break and super easy to use, even for short stories or nonfiction articles.

I bought several different sets of these cubes from Really Good Stuff. I love these the most because they are a bit more complex than the card and one even focuses on vocabulary, prefixes/suffixes, and finding meaning through context clues- yay! Kids love to roll them and then focus on finding the answer to the cube as we read together.

As you can see, none of these are too complicated or heavy on the prep time. The choices serve the wide variety of abilities in my room as well as all of the books we read as a group. I really like how this has turned out and it's been fun to see kids grab a card and/or cube and have a specific goal to attain in our Read with a Teacher time. It has also made teaching a chapter book more enjoyable for me since the questions and vocab are all ready to go, so I am not having to tear my hair out the night before a new book thinking of them myself!

Do you use any of these resources or others during Teacher Time? I'd love to hear about it :)



8 comments

  1. Hey there!
    Thanks for the shout-out :)

    I have those cubes, too...but I often forget about them! Thanks for the reminder!!!

    Elizabeth

    Fun in Room 4B

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  2. Thanks for visiting my blog! I was just checking out yours, and I'm so excited to see that you use Daily 5. I've been reading the books (Daily 5 and CAFE) this year, and it's something I want to try to implement next year. I'll definitely be following you for more ideas and tips!

    Thanks for all you're sharing!
    Alison
    Eberopolis

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  3. Thanks so much!

    I am surprised how much my kids really love the cubes, even when I choose what question we are working on :)

    ~Stephanie

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  4. I teach Second, but glad I stumbled upon your blog! I've been using the Daily 5 and CAFE for about 3 years now and LOVE IT!!! Can NOT imagine our literacy block without it. Anyways, as far as "Teacher Time" goes, I call my small groups over with their book bags. We have two spinners with pre reading questions that I got at Mardel years ago. We talk about if the book is Fiction/Nonfiction, make a prediction, go on a picture walk, talk about new vocab. and then start reading (each child reads with a whisper phone while I go around the group and listen/work with each child, one at a time). We stop at the half way point and discuss what we've read so far and they read the rest at home. The next day, I have another spinner that they spin and answer after reading questions. We talk about the story elements and make connections. I also have some cards similar to the ones you have above that we use sometimes, but they just LOVE spinning the spinners.

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  5. do you have a favorite program that you use to create all of your cute signs?

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  6. I can't find all the cubes. When I visited really good stuff I only found the making connections cube set. Where are the others?

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately, they may not carry them anymore. I bought them over 5 years ago, so I would try contacting Really Good Stuff to see if they are still available. Good luck!

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  7. Hi...love your blog! I was wondering if everyone is one the same book in your groups or if they are working on the same skill in their "just right" books. I am having a hard time trying to decide which one will be best for me. Either way looks like it would work, but because of the level of the books they are in, we are having a hard time finishing their books. Any suggestions??

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