Daily 5 - Chapter 1 Book Study - My Thoughts

I am a 6th Grade teacher. I started using Daily 5 3 years ago in 4th Grade being Self - Contained. I then moved to 4th Grade Reading/Writing/SS and last year and this coming year I am doing 6th Grade Reading/Writing/SS. I have joined this book study as a way to refresh and rethink, but maybe I can help in some ways too.

My rethinks:
1) I need to teach the procedures, rules, guidelines and practice them completely before I let the kids go.
2) Choice is part of the options
3) Part of the Daily 5 is the students being responsible for their own behaviors, not me being the behavior police (that's hard for me to break)

How I have done thing -

I have never done a true daily 5 due to time constraints and the age of my kids. I have always done Read to Self and Work On writing. I have also tried to incorporate Read to Someone. The two sisters will tell you that Read to Self is a MUST!!! This is where they grow. I added Read to Someone because a) they like it and b) with as many different levels in my classroom, the ability for each student to learn from another comes in handy.

For the last 2 years, I have had about 2 hours to complete REading/Writing/SS (much less time than the 2 sisters recommend) plus my lessons were hard to teach in that 5-7 minute mini lesson. Here is how I did my blocks.

1 - I tried for 2-3 10-15 minute Mini Lessons (usually 1 comprehension with a Picture book, 1 Writing, and 1 reading/SS for non fiction strategies)
2- Their Daily 5 (independent) activity was between 20-30 minutes long.
3- Your mandated curriculum, common core, or TEKS as we call them in Texas are taught during the mini lessons. Those are your strategies or skills.
4 - While the students are doing their Daily 5, you are pulling your small groups, or individual conference, and this is where your differentiation comes in.

I know for us upper teachers this system seems confusing the first time you go through it. It did for me as well. The first time I read Daily 5, I thought - Wow this is great but how am I going to do this, and this, and this. Then I read CAFE (The second part of this book study) and I went AH HA, that is how. Believe me it all comes together when you have read both books. Cafe will also connect to a lot of the mandated, Common Core, or TEKS requirements. Happy Reading. Hope this helps, and Can't Wait for Chapter 2.

These are my comments from the Daily 5 Book Study I am a part of.  Please feel free to go on over to the actual blog and read what others are saying.

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