I have heard many teachers say “What should the kids be doing when they come in during the mornings?” For me, my kids needed reading, so that is what we do. I know each teacher does things differently, but don’t waste the time that the students are filtering in. I always use this time. The kids are fresh and if you set up good routines at the start of the year, they will be able to jump right in!
Stephanie and I like to do a “Makers’ Monday” every Monday which is an easy start to the week where the kids do an art project or some sort of creative work. So that leaves me with Tuesday-Friday. With a class that struggles with reading, it is important to give them text to read independently and some questions to answer based on that text. I give them the same passage 2 days in a row. This gives them the chance to read it several times, strengthening their fluency and comprehension. Then I give them different questions to answer about the text each day. After we have corrected the the first day’s work and we’ve gone over some of that vocabulary, the second day they tend to be a lot more successful.
I find this morning work time a great time to pull a few kids over to my table. I usually check in with kids as they write in their homework agenda notebook, but I have them come to me. I plant myself in the same spot every morning, a table in the back of the room. The class does their morning routine of unpacking, they write down their homework, and then they come to me. I check what they wrote down, and then I give them a smiley face in their agenda. By having them come to me, I can have a few kids sitting near by who will work independently, but have me to check in with them, to keep them on track or support as needed.
Having the same reading passage two days in a row, really helps students build up their reading fluency and vocabulary. After they finish their morning work they keep their packet out on their desk and they can pull out a book to read or work on anything else they need to get done from their folders. After everybody has arrived at school, right after morning announcements, we take about 5 to 10 minutes to correct their morning work. This is a great opportunity to review the standards that were in the questions that day. I can do a little mini lesson (2-3 min) review on whatever the skill might have been for that day. This gives the kids a chance (if they didn’t initally) to go back into the text and find their evidence.
It’s really fun to watch them pick up on my cues. The first couple weeks of school I’ll say, “Okay we’re going to correct our morning work” and they’ll will go over the first question. I’ll ask them what they got for their answer and I’ll say okay now I want you to go back and show me where you highlighted the evidence from the text that helped you answer. I can hear a rustle of kids digging through their pencil boxes looking for their highlighter….they realize that they forgot to do that~ If we do the same tasks in the morning every day, within a week or two, I can walk around the room in the morning and see the kids have their highlighter out on their desk and they’re independently highlighting. So consistency helps them to internalize the strategy of looking back and highlighting or underlining where they found the text evidence to answer their question. This is a really good way to get them to be more independent.
If you think that this style of morning work would work in your classroom, or if you would just like to give it a try, grab this FREEBIE in our Free Resource Library. It includes 10 days of morning work. This set is at the end of second grade, beginning of third grade level. I created it for my struggling readers this past school year. If you like using them, I am going to continue to post them in my TpT store here.
So I hope that you are able to make your mornings work for you! I am able to work with a small group, as needed, promote independence and procedures, and practice reading skills and strategies, all before the first period of our day starts!
How do you work your mornings? Are they working for you? I’d love to hear about them.
~Heather Johnson 33
