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| Reading and Writing Data |
I have been catching up on some professional reading and revisiting one of my favourite websites -the 2 sisters. They are now suggesting a slight change to the order of introducing the five components of Daily 5. I love that they have made this suggestion as I have always been a fan of what is called the 'reciprocity' of reading and writing. So 'read to self' is still first and then comes 'work on writing'. The order of the next three is now not in any strict order. As I get my thoughts together for this year and our new group of students I am comforted by this change. 
Our reading results last year with 88 preps (first year of school) were amazing. We have one child who will spend another year with us at the same year level, another child who is very young but has made some improvement and one other child who is at the level. - but here is the exciting bit. We had the remaining 83 at least 6 months above their expected level with over 71% at least a year above. Within that 26%, 18 months to 2 years above where they needed to be. Together we worked very hard to achieve these results and are passing on an amazing cohort into Year 1. We will be tracking these students with great interest. In wriitng we had similiar results. 74% above their expecetd level and within that 17% are 18 months to 2 years above!
We attribute our success to using the strategies and teaching explicitly from Cafe Literacy. This is where the rigour comes from. If you haven't read either book I suggest strongly you have a read. Also get on their website as they have very helpful menus for each year level. These can be used for differentiation.
