A very good friend who also teaches 2nd grade did the Daily 5 this past year--the right way. By the time Thanksgiving rolled around she was loving it! I was already bored and stressed out over my reading block. So...I vow to stick with the Daily 5 unless my principal tells me I need to be doing something different. I'm hoping that not doing so much prep and grading for my reading block is going to relax me, therefore I will enjoy my ELAR as much as my Math & Science. Even if I only get through 2 rounds some days and 5 rounds others, that still gives me time to meet with those students that need that extra time with the teacher.
QUESTIONS:
1. Those of you have Daily 5 for more than one year, do you need to tweak it any year to year--depending on your class, or does it work the same every year and everyone eventually learns the behaviors?
2. What do you do with the students who are struggling readers and writers, and out-loud thinkers?
I'm interested to read whatcha think.
Together for Our Kids,
Denise
8 comments:
I am really excited to start the year with Daily 5. I really did not implement it fully. I think each years class is different, but that stamina building is really key from what I have discovered.
I had lots of ELL and lower guys this last year. You need to teach them that they can read the pictures and the words and they can read what they want! I had a student who read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom a gazillion times because she loved reading it and she could read it alone.
Same for writing. Let them write about what they know. I would love to know what to do with my out loud thinkers, lol!!
Omg, this is getting long!! I will add more to my post on Wednesday for Chapter 2. These are great questions that I will ponder.
Aloha,
Corinna
Surfin' Through Second
Hi Denise!
I've done daily five for four years now. I did it for three years in kinder and one year in second. Next year will be my second year to do it in second. I absolutely love it and fully believe that if you stick with it, you'll find your groove and grow to love it. You'll see how your children begin to manage themselves and you could literally get up and leave the room, come back 10 minutes later, and they'd still be on task. (I didn't do that, haha! But I did have to leave to go to the ladies room often in April/May since I'm expecting, and my inclusion teacher kept an eye out and was amazed at how not a single kid would get off task.)
Long comment but I want to answer your question:
1. You definitely have to tweak it for your classroom. My last year in kinder I had a super emotionally challenging classroom, so it took us longer to build stamina. But, once we got it, we got it. I never rushed through it because I knew it would pay off.
2. For my strugglers, I met with them everyday. They were in a reading or writing group with me everyday so I always made sure they were getting what they needed. I found it was the "middle-low" kids that were trickiest to keep an eye on, but if I noticed a problem, I would conference with a student about it, set a goal with him and give him more structure (narrow down his daily 5 for him) and it worked. I also gave each student a menu for the week, that helped them see what they've done and what they needed to do. I also had them turn in all their finished daily five work, with their menus stapled on top, for a grade on Fridays. So the kids had a lot of accountability. As far as out loud thinkers, we never had a problem. Because we discussed voice levels early on, the kids either realized on their own that they needed to lower their voice, or another student would politely remind them.
Sorry about the long post! I'd love to talk more with you about it. I started my blog after the end of this year, so I don't have pics of my room but I do have some daily fie files on my computer if you're interested. Happy reading!
Dixie
http://selvain2nd.blogspot.com/
I just linked up as my book was being held hostage on a FedEx truck until yesterday afternoon. I absolutely loved your honesty here. I could see where it would be so easy to cast this aside if you aren't "feeling it." I have liked things the way I have been runnin' them, but oh-me-oh-my I am gonna try :) So glad I found you this evening.
Kelley Dolling
Teacher Idea Factory
I am grateful for your honesty! I am starting Daily 5 in July and am nervous. You have confirmed that I really need to follow the book closely in order to have success. I will also follow through on the check off lists. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I would love it if you would check out my blog!
Heather at TeachItToday!
I am grateful for your honesty! I am starting Daily 5 in July and am nervous. You have confirmed that I really need to follow the book closely in order to have success. I will also follow through on the check off lists. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I would love it if you would check out my blog!
Heather at TeachItToday!
I used Daily 5 for the first full year this year in Second Grade. Last year I did it the 2nd half of the year. I was a little nervous about if my kids would have enough stamina at the beginning of 2nd grade since they are still young. My kids did awesome and impressed me a lot. I also used the CAFE wall to post different reading strategies and helped kids refer to it. I didn't have them pick a focus but am hoping to this year. I am attending the CAFE conference later this month. I love using the Daily 5 and cutting out all the work I used to do on getting work stations around. The kids seemed to enjoy and learned to really pick books they love to read. There isn't much I will change this year because I had such success.
Ok, I am buying the books! I have been toying with them for the last year.... and with our switch to Common Core this year, I really think this will be the way to run our literacy block! Thank you for the honest thoughts!!
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