Read to Someone

As I continue coaching the Daily 5 implementation, part of my coaching work is to document the process.
This video is my first attempt at creating a video completely on the iPad. Clips were recorded using the iPad and edited in iMovie. Just for fun, I created the little title sequence in a fun new app I am playing with called Video Scribe.

Daily 5- Read To Someone from MJGDS Classrooms on Vimeo.

Thinking about the video itself-
1. I LOVE the iPad as a video creation tool. The iMovie app took a little getting used to, but it could not be any easier. So. much. potential!
2. I think it's a little longish in the middle (the "Coaching or Time?" lesson might have been edited a bit more.
3. I don't love the music I chose for the Video Scribe sequence, but I do really like how polished that little bit of animation is, and so easy to create.

What does the video show about the Daily 5?
1. My favorite parts, of course, are where the kids are doing "read to someone." I saw genuine engagement in either reading aloud or following along by almost all of the students for the entire time.
2. I also love (although the filming is a little rough and probably could have used some more titles) how the kids modeled choosing a partner by following the carefully outlined steps:
-Raise your hand
-Look around for someone else with a raised hand.
-Make eye contact with the person.
-Walk over to the other person and say, "Will you please be my partner?"
-Person responds enthusiastically, "Sure. Thank you."
3. I also love how the Daily 5 turns each student into a reading coach by giving explicit directions, strategies and modeling.

Just a few general thoughts and reflections:
1. Nothing is ever simple. Or maybe it's that nothing worthwhile is simple. I believe in simplicity. I crave it. I thought the Daily 5 was simple. A no-brainer. Kids read and write. Teachers confer and teach. Grouping is flexible. Maybe my revelation is that what appears to be simple appears that way only because of the complexity that creates or enables it. Does that make any sense?
2. I love the fundamentals of this process. LOVE them. The best part is watching how it is working-the careful explanations and modeling, the trust in students, the staying out of the way.
3. In preparation for our Parent Connect, where we invited parents to come learn about the Daily 5, I searched back through lots of old materials I used when I worked for CRLP. I found this article, by John Shefelbine, that I think gives great evidence for the Daily 5.