Bell Work (5 minutes)

Bell Work (5-6 minutes):

The first five minutes of class will focus on several things:

• Vocabulary/Dictionary Skills (Frayer Model) once a week
• Focus Standards Recap during a unit
• Prior Knowledge Questions at the beginning of a unit
• KWL Chart at the beginning of a lesson

Each bell work students will work independently and we will end with a whole class discussion to assess and to provide instant feedback.


Minilesson (Flexible):

The minilesson will target on focus standards. Teaching them how to apply skills and modeling how to apply the skill towards their independent reading time.

Minilesson Structure in my classroom:

• Discuss the standard/skill you will focus on during the minilesson.
• I try to create anchor charts with the students with new information and place it on the wall where we can revisit in the future. 
• Introduce the mentor text to the students with background knowledge. 
• Read the mentor text and discuss how you can use the skill or standard with the mentor text.
• I try to reteach or remind the students about other standards or skills from the previous lesson as I read the mentor text.
• I try to have an open conversation with students to assess if they are understanding the lesson or if it needs to be extended to more class time or the next day. 

Reading and Responding (20-25 minutes):

• At the beginning of the year I would go over procedures on how to select books. They will know what books are above their level, below level, or challenging by just scanning the books visually. 
• I will have desks placed in groups where they will read independently. I hope to also have a place in my room where the groups will rotate and sit in cushion chairs. 
• I am hoping to have an online blog/journal to have the students respond to their reading. They will also have the option to write down their responses in their writing tab inside their journals. They will be given time to respond/comment on each others discussion or posts to receive feedback from both students and teachers. 
• During the independent reading I will have pull outs depending on the skill/standard that was presented during the minilesson. I can go over their formal and informal assessments to find out which of the students are struggling with the standard in order to create the pull out groups. Meanwhile the other students will have an assign questions, worksheet, or purpose during their independent reading.

Share Time (10 minutes):

• Literature Circles will focus on their share learning. They can discuss what they have read or what they conclude about characters, depending on what their focus is during the literature circles. My main goal is to start them of with a focus during their literature circles at the beginning of the year and then back off when I see that they can guide their own discussions. 

• Other days we can share their reflections from their blogs and have students discuss what the students has written in their discussion. 

Organize physical and online spaces:

This is going to my biggest task of the year. I will need to learn how to incorporate both the online world and the physical world in my classroom to differentiate the different type of learning styles. I am hoping to eventually have in all online classroom down the road.