The grade 2/3’s have worked very hard at building their stamina during Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Read to Someone. Each of our rounds is now 20-25 minutes and the students are really enjoying choosing which Daily they want to do for each round.
This slide show shows how we spent our third round of Daily 5 today and the things we like best about learning this way.
More Daily 5 on PhotoPeach
Tomorrow we get to add another choice to our Daily 5 time… Listen to Reading!
Wow, you all look like you are very focused learners during Daily 5. You have certainly worked hard to build your stamina to 25 minutes per session.
Mrs Watson, while the children are working on Daily 5, are you taking groups of children for guided reading?
Do you have a separate time for teaching writing skills?
And finally, do the children choose what to write about or do you have some class themes?
from Mrs McKenzie
Dear Mrs. McKenzie,
Daily 5 is brand new to me this year. I am very proud of how focused the students are and how independent they have become. I am also very proud of how they are able to assess their own reading, set goals, and identify strategies to help them meet those goals.
While the students are working independently I either meet with individuals or work with strategy groups (groups of students all needing guidance with the same strategy/area). We do three 30 minute rounds of Daily 5 each day and spend the first 5-10 minutes as a whole class doing a focus lesson. This is where we cover reading strategies and writing lessons that apply to the whole class. Individual needs are met during the strategy groups (for example, I might pull a group of four students to work with me on quotation marks).
For the most part the students choose what they would like to write about. Occasionally, I will ask them to all write something specific like our stories for the October issue of the school newspaper. We have brainstormed lists of things to write about and different forms of writing they might want to experiment with. These lists are on a writing board in our room.
Mrs. W
Dear Mrs Watson and students,
I enjoyed watching your slideshow about the Daily 5. I have heard quite a bit about this program but I have never actually seen it in action. It seems like the children really enjoy it. Like Mrs McKenzie, I am wondering what the teacher’s role is? I assume you conduct conferences with children or you work with a group?
In your slideshow I saw a display titled “Literacy Cafe Menu” and I’m wondering if you could explain what that is? Is it the different reading groups or a variety of strategies children use while reading?
Keep up the great work everyone!
Your friend,
Miss Jordan
Dear Miss Jordan,
This is our first year doing Daily 5 and I am very happy with how things are going. The students definitely enjoy doing language arts this way. I think they love having choice and more responsibility for their learning.
The Cafe Menu is divided into Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary. We introduce different strategies that will help the students with each of these areas. The students set goals based on these four areas and then strategy groups are formed and meet based on students with similar goals. These goals change for individual students as needed and so do the strategy groups.
I love listening to the students identify their strengths, their reading goals, and talk about the strategies they are using when they read.
Mrs. W 🙂