Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 1

It has been a while since I last read, The Daily 5, by the 3 Sisters, and there is a new edition out.  I borrowed an old copy from a teacher friend to scan as a refresher while I waited for the new edition to arrive in the mail compliments of the fast and furious Amazon Prime 2-day shipping!  It should arrive just in the nick of time for me to participate with some other fabulous bloggers in a little summer book study.

This week, Primary Inspired is hosting the book study with a focus on Chapter 1:  How Daily 5 Has Evolved.

What is the Daily 5 you ask?

The Daily 5 is a framework for structuring literacy time so students develop lifelong habits of reading, writing, and working independently.

Students work though activities such as:

- Reading to Self
- Reading with a Partner
- Writing about Reading
- Listening to Reading
- Word Work and Spelling

These activities are completed independently by students providing the teacher with time to confer with individuals or to pull small groups for reading instruction.

The second edition of The Daily 5 places an emphasis on flexibility.  This is not a one size fits all program.  Students do not have to move through all 5 rounds of the Daily 5 in one day.  You are the teacher, and you know what works best for your individual students, so do what you know is best.

While reading chapter 1 I immediately think of how we integrated Engage NY's ELA Modules into our ELA block this year.  

We spent the first hour of our ELA block working through a module lesson.  The second hour was spent on reading centers and guided reading.  We did not complete all 5 rounds of the Daily 5.  There was simply not enough time.  What was important is that students were actively involved in reading, writing, and working independently during the second half of our ELA block which provided me with valuable teacher time to work with small groups on individual needs.

I will admit, during my first few years of teaching I had students complete a lot of "busy" work during reading centers.  I had them creating book reports, completing projects, playing games, and doing all kinds of "cute" things?  Did they learn?  Yes!  Was there a lot of prep work?  Yes!  Did it waste a lot of time?  Yes!  Was it really worth it?  No!  Not when you can get a bigger bang for your buck using a structure like Daily 5.  Hey, you live you learn!

Have you tried Daily 5 in your classroom?  If you have, I'd love to hear how it works in your classroom?

Check back soon!  I will be posting about my thoughts on chapter 2.