Tried it Tuesday: Daily 5

Last summer I shared a bunch about my thoughts on the book Daily 5, and how I incorporate the concepts into my classroom.  Since I didn't know many of you back then, I figured I would write a post with the different links to make it easy.

Word Work and Work on Writing

Read to Self

Daily 5 - Organizing groups

CAFE to FACE strategies

Yes, my 4th graders use Daily 5.  No, with our schedule it isn't possible to do all 5 rotations throughout the day.  I set it up a little different than the book, it's more like a Daily 3.  We complete Read to Self at the same time (right after lunch) every day.  Many of my kiddos over the years have always needed complete quiet to really focus, so it didn't make sense to have kids reading with a partner during that time.  Everyday we also complete Work on Writing.  They have their assignment that they must do (a small portion of the main weekly project), but when they are done they get to work on their writing choices.  In my district we have to use Open Court for our reading, but I also incorporate time for students to have 20-30 minutes of their choice of Word Work, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, or Read to Someone.  So - about 3x per day it's set up in a partial Daily 5 format.  We make choices, we do mini lessons, we have that motivation that the Sisters talk about.

During one of our times of rereading the weekly OC story, I give students the opportunity to Read to Someone (partner reading) with their comprehension checkmarks, and the opportunity to Listen to Reading using the MP3 players.  My teacher time is in small groups or working with individuals during that "workshop" choice time, during silent reading, or any other moments of the day that I have time to check in.

During teacher time that first year I did try to do the Open Court lesson with the small group of students, but going through the long stories 4 times throughout the day took forever - and it wasn't a good use of my time.  Small moments with those 4 "region" groups made a bigger impact.  (I broke my students up into our state's "regions" since we learn about them at the beginning of the year - so I have a coast, valley, mountains, and desert group.)

Have no clue what I'm talking about?  I highly recommend reading the Daily 5 book - and just read it knowing that you can adjust it to fit your own classroom.  The first year I tried to do it all - and was left feeling completely overwhelmed.  When I reread it during the next summer and made it my own - I was much happier. Linking up with Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper since this is something I've definitely tried.  :)

Happy Reading!