The Daily 5

Chapter 1: This chapter focuses on how teaching has evolved in our schools.  Our management has evolved from the first years of teaching, to five years ago, and now with the Daily Five.  They looked more closely at how teachers were structuring the learning environment.  One example is that in the first years of teaching we would mention behaviors once and expect students to know and do them.  Five years ago we would teach and practice behaviors once or twice and students were expected to know them.  Now, we teach and practice skills until behaviors become habits.  The Daily Five is different from other management models because they rely on the teaching of independence, manage the entire literacy block, allow three to five focus lessons and more intentions teaching, provide students substantial time to read and write, and more.

Chapter 2: The Daily Five believes in certain foundational principles.  Those principles include trusting students, providing choice, nurturing community, creating a sense of urgency, building stamina, and staying out of the students' way once routines are established.  It's important to treat students as individuals and build a trust between teacher and student because positive relationships are vital.  During Daily Five activities, students how the power to choice what they want to do depending on their goals and motivation.  They could choose reading to self, reading to someone, listening to reading, working on writing, or spelling work.  It's important to create a community in your classroom so students can take ownership of their learning.  It's also important to make sure students understand why they need to do activities.  Teachers have to support students and cheer them on so they can help them succeed.  Once students have developed the practiced strategies and built their stamina, teachers need to stay out of the way and let them read.

Chapter 3: In the first days of school, we have to introduce students to key materials, routines, and concepts.  These include establishing a gathering place for brain and body breaks, developing the concept of "good-fit" books through a series of lessons, creating anchor charts with students for referencing behaviors, short, repeated intervals of independent practice, calm signals and check-in procedures, and using the correct model/incorrect model approach for demonstrating appropriate behaviors.  You need a gathering place so students can all come together and sit on the floor.  We have to spend time making sure students pick books that are a good fit for them and will challenge them.  Students should ask why they want to read a book, if it interests them, if they are understanding what they're reading, and if they know most of the words.  At the beginning of the year, you have to provide students with a variety of books because we don't know their level of reading yet.  Anchor charts in the classroom are a good way to make thinking permanent.  Students can use these charts to trace their work, build on earlier learning, and remember different lessons.  We need to practice routines so students understand what is expected of them and this needs to be done numerous times.  We have to come up with signals for students to respond to so they can check in and stop what they're doing.  This way students aren't getting lost in their activity and it won't take forever to get them to move on.  We also have to show students the correct way to do Daily Five activities and incorrect ways so they know what not to do and what is expected of them.

Chapter 4: There are three ways to read a book.  These include reading and talking about the pictures, reading the words, and retelling a previously read book.  We have to teach these strategies to students as a gradual release.  We have to model for students, let the students practice, work independently, and then let them work on their own and only provide help if they really need it.  We have to help students form the correct behaviors so they know what is expected of them.  Then, we have students start practicing reading to themselves.  We start with the three-minute practice because most students can be successful for that amount of time so they are able to practice reading to themselves and displaying the correct behaviors.  After three minutes, students need to check back in and then they will repeat the process again.  After all of the practice sessions, the class will come together and review how the lesson went.  It's important to continuously review the important parts of the students Daily Five with them.  On day two, they will continue to practice and work on building their stamina and train student's muscle memories.  Students will continue to practice and a few minutes will be added each day until students are up to 30 minutes and can sustain for up to 45 minutes.

Chapter 5: The next step is to practice reading to someone and listen to reading.  Students normally like reading to someone and it also increasing the volume of reading, the level of attention to reading, reading motivation, fluency, reading rate, word-attack skills, and the love of reading.  We have to discuss why it is important to read to someone else before starting the activity and no, it's not just because it's fun.  Students need to understand why each activity is important.  It'll start with teaching students how to be a good reading partner.  On chart paper, the teacher will write the acronym "EEKK", which means elbow, elbow and knee, knee so students know how they need to behave while being a reading partner.  Voice level needs to be discussed so students stay on track and aren't distracting others.  Then, we teach students how to check for understanding by stopping at the end of every page or so to remember who they were reading about and what was happening.  The teacher will model for students then they will practice and later check back in.  Then, students will learn to partner read by reading a couple pages and then having their partner read the same pages again.  Students will learn how to choose books, how to choose their own classroom spot, and how to choose a good partner.  Audio stories are also helpful for students who get their first exposure to English when they enter the classroom.

The Daily Five activities are a great way to help students succeed in reading in the classroom.  I would definitely use these activities in my own classroom so students are prepared, know what is expected of them, and are exposed to many different strategies to help them become better readers.

Questions to consider:

• How do we modify and accommodate in order to maximize literacy learning for all students?
• What does effective instruction look like when teaching literacy? What should we teach? How do we teach it?
• What is the teacher's role and how does it change?
• What does effective classroom management look like in the literacy and performing arts classrooms?

Reference:

Boushey, Gail. Moser, Joan. Stenhouse Publishers. Portland, Maine. 2006. Print.