Daily 5...My Way

I would like to take some time to explain exactly how I run Daily 5 in my first grade classroom. Let me start by saying that I am by no means an expert in Daily 5, and this is the first year I have truly implemented it in my classroom so it's constantly evolving as I learn what works and what doesn't. The great thing about Daily 5 (well, one of many) is that you can tweek it to fit the needs of your classroom and students, and it's very flexible. I read the books over the summer, and they were pretty life changing (well, from a teaching standpoint). I will NEVER go back to doing "centers" as I did for so many years in kindergarten. Centers are a ton of work, you have to change them every week (and train the kids on the new centers every time you change them), and you have to monitor and organize who goes where every day. It's extremely time consuming. So, here's my take on Daily 5...

The number one benefit of Daily 5 is that students learn to work independently and monitor their own learning, which allows you uninterrupted time to work with small groups, conference with individual students, and assess as needed.  Once they are properly trained on the procedures and have had ample time to practice and build stamina (this does take quite some time...we are two months in and just now getting to the point where students are making choices, working independently, and I am free to work with groups), Daily 5 time is amazing. It's a quiet, peaceful time in the classroom where students are building reading fluency by practicing (either by themselves, with a buddy, or through a computer program), becoming better writers by practicing writing for a variety of purposes (lists, how to, letters, stories), and working on sight words using fun materials.

For Daily 5 in my classroom, students each have a book box that contains all of their Daily 5 materials (leveled readers and library books, notebook, monthly writing journal, and folder). During the initial introduction phase, each component is practiced for just a few minutes at a time, adding a minute each day until they are able to work for 20 minutes without interruption. We call this "building stamina". We make anchor charts as we discuss the rules and procedures for each component, and after each practice round we come together and discuss how we did. We also graph our stamina. The first two components students learn are read to self and work on writing. They start off doing both at their seats, but eventually they work up to being able to choose where they sit in the classroom (the floor, a table, etc.). During the introductory phase of work on writing, students are taught the different purposes for writing and they are assigned a writing assignment each day based on what they are learning. Eventually they get to start making choices about their writing. I keep a ton of writing materials, paper, and supplies in my writing center, and each month they receive a journal to use for prompts. They must start with either their journal or a specific writing assignment, then they can choose fun things like bucket filler slips, lists, letters to a friend, and picture stories. After awhile, we add in read to someone. I choose their partner, and they either practice reading our reading story for the week or our fluency story for the week. Once these three components are going smoothly, I add in word work. Initially (the first month) we do word work together. They start with a "must do" which is usually some type of practice with sight words or word families that must be handed in. Then they have the option of practicing their sight words for the week with a variety of materials such as play dough, keyboards, wikki sticks, magnets, white boards, or stamps. These are the "may do" word work choices. I know that all sounds super confusing, but it really does run smoothly once the initial training phase is over and students are able to work independently.

We are now pretty much to the point where we can do 3-4 20 minute "rounds". At the start of each round we review procedures and expectations, talk about any "must do" work for word work and work on writing, and I call each students name and have them tell me where they want to start. They can do Daily 5 in any order they want, and they won't get to all 5 components every day because of time, but they must do word work and work on writing every day, and each of those two components has a "must do" that is to be turned in, that way I can monitor students and make sure they are actually working.

This is just a basic overview of how I have started using Daily 5 in my classroom, and I hope to add more details and advice (as well as pictures and resources) as I go along. I also think it is important for parents to understand how Daily 5 works, and how it truly improves student achievement in literacy.