Common Core, CAFE, Daily 5...tying it all together

I have to say, it is only the end of week 3 and we have gotten so much done already! I finally finished all of my assessments (thank goodness for bilingual coaches who can help out!) which is usually the hardest part this time of the year. But, it is all done *sigh*

I have been working very hard all summer trying to figure out how in the world I'm going to fit it all in this year. We adopted the Santillana "Descubre el español" curriculum and although I absolutely love it, it has been quite a challenge to decide what's "most" important. Not only do we have that, but we also follow Harcourt Trophies and now Common Core. Last year I started the Daily  5 and CAFE because that was the only way I could mesh everything together without going crazy!

So, this summer my Spanish teammate and I got together and came up with a curriculum map that organizes everything into weekly chunks of what those "most" important lessons are. Although it was a TON of work it was so worth it since we don't have the energy or time to figure out all that stuff around this time of the year. Our district is also following the Marzano evaluation model (which means learning goals and learning scales!) and I have fallen in love with teaching this way. We have transformed the reading common core standards into our learning goals- and we have used the Harcourt and Santillana as the resources to teach the learning goals. I was a bit nervous at first, but after this week I am so excited to see how much my students get out of it! (I'll have to do a separate post on learning goals and learning scales). Anyway, our first goal was working on visualizing while we read- which fits perfect with the CAFE strategy and this is what we did:

1. First we used this template and we worked on it together while I read a story and we discussed what "visualizing" means and we went over the learning scale (what a "3" is etc). The kids then stapled this paper into their reading notebook. **when you preview the documents in google doc. they look a little weird- but once you download them the font in Word will look like it's supposed to**

 

2. A few days later they practiced their "visualizing" strategy and they had to draw a picture based on the sentences on this paper. One of them drew a bird for the first box. Um, Señora Plata is not a bird :/ I put a learning scale "grade" on their paper and we discussed why they got a 2 vs. a 3 or a 4. They then stapled this paper into their notebook. Click here to download.

 

3. Finally, after much practice orally they took a little assessment. I read 3 sentences about a little story from our Spanish curriculum and they had to draw the pictures that went along with it. I graded it using the learning scale and then they stapled it in their notebook. A lot of my students even wrote sentences! Click here to download.

I'm using this organizer to document their learning goals.(don't mind the "5's": everybody makes mistakes, even teachers! My kids just crossed them out)  I print the learning goal on labels and then they write the date and circle what number they received on that specific time. I seriously thought it was going to be a complete disaster. Not only was it the 3rd week of school, but I am teaching entirely in Spanish (some kids are brand new to the program) and they are only little first graders. But, wow. I am so impressed with how well they did. This makes me incredibly excited for this year! Click here to download.

So, these have been sort of my "mini-lessons". We've been practicing the Daily 5 in between. A huge difference is that my English counterpart is doing the Daily 5 as well (she started it later in the year last year) and that has been so helpful. I've covered Read to Self and Writing, and she has done Read to Self and Read with Someone. The introduction lessons take less time now because they're practicing it in both rooms :) I will have to do a post on the Daily 5 later on as well.  Next week we are moving to Checking for Understanding (quien y que) and it will flow perfectly when I introduce Read with Someone!  

We are only required to use 6 learning scales this year, but I find it so much easier to teach when I use them for everything! We'll see how the rest of the year goes, happy teaching!

How do you keep track of student progress? Are any of you out there using the Marzano model for your teacher evaluations, and if so how is it working out?