“Who can tell me an INFERENCE you can make about Caroline in this text?”
NO. ONE. RAISES. THEIR. HAND.
“Can someone share what they think the AUTHOR’S PURPOSE for writing this text is?”
ONE. HAND. UP.
“Happiness?…no… Frustration?”
Does this happen in your classroom? Of course it does! It happens in my classroom all the time! Students are STRUGGLING more than ever to keep what we are teaching in their minds EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! We are competing with TV shows, video games, IPads, and so much input. Inferences, author’s purpose, and all the reading skills get buried deep in our students’ brains and they are not accessible for quick recall when needed. Instead of BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL, I had to figure out a way to build in DAILY SPIRAL REVIEW for my students. It has been a GAME CHANGER!
I’ve been making sure I am fitting in daily spiral review of our language arts reading curriculum. Now, I know what you might be thinking—adding one more thing to your already packed schedules sounds daunting. But I promise, this little addition can make a world of difference for your students’ reading skills. All you need is 10 minutes per day!
So, why is daily spiral review so crucial? Well, think of it as flexing those reading muscles every day. Just like with any skill, consistent practice is key to improvement. By incorporating daily review sessions, we’re giving our students the chance to remember and apply their language arts reading skills REGULARLY. Skills don’t get buried or forgotten about. They stay at the forefront of our students’ brains.
As I developed a way to do a QUICK daily spiral review, I wanted to make sure that I checked as many boxes as I could…the most bang for my buck…time-wise. I wanted to incorporate many different genres of reading into our daily spiral review so that is would allow students to apply their reading skills to a variety of text types. Whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or even informational texts, each genre presents its own set of challenges and opportunities for learning. By building in this diverse range of materials, it’s helping students become more versatile and well-rounded readers.
Something I’ve found to be super effective is using the same text for two days in a row. This might sound unusual at first, but by revisiting the same reading material, students have the opportunity to dive deeper into the text, building up their comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary. It also allows for several mini-lessons as we correct their answers. If I don’t have time to get to something the first day, I can plan to revisit it the next day for a quick review.
Now, I know finding the right resources for daily spiral review can be a challenge, which is why I wanted to share a fantastic product that I’ve created and use EVERYDAY in my classroom: the Daily Reading Practice and Spiral Review of ELA Standards Year-Long Bundle. This comprehensive bundle takes the guesswork out of planning, providing you with everything you need to implement daily spiral review seamlessly. Literally PRINT and GO for the whole year!
So, see if you want some ideas about finding about 10+ minutes each day to make daily spiral review part of your language arts reading curriculum, you can read about that here. If you want to try it out, feel free to grab this FREEBIE from our Free Resource Library and give it a try! If you love it, you can grab the whole year long bundle here.
Here’s to the rest of the year filled with growth, learning, and lots of reading!
~Heather
