Daily 5 Book Study - Chapters 2 and 3

This week I have a little catching up to do so I am going to combine my post about The Daily 5 chapters 2 and 3.

Chapter 2 outlines the core beliefs of The Daily 5.  Chapter 3 focuses on the seventh belief, 10 Steps to Independence.  

Here are my major "take aways" from each section:

Trust & Respect

In order for meaningful learning to occur the teacher must first build trust and respect in the classroom.  Taking time to build this is the foundation upon which all the elements of The Daily 5 are built.

Community

Take the time to develop a healthy, safe, and fun classroom community.  A sense of community empowers students to hold each other accountable.

Choice

Providing students with choice is not only motivating but allows students to take ownership and responsibility for their learning.

Accountability

Teach students to be accountable for their learning and meaningfully independent.

Brain Research

The Daily 5 is firmly grounded in solid brain research.  I love the graph on page 31 that displays how the amount of time a student reads daily influences achievement.

It is amazing how an extra 10 minutes of reading per day can increase the amount of words students encounter by over 1 million words per year.  Yes, one million!  Crazy!

Transitions as Brain & Body Breaks

The Daily 5 consists of a short focus lesson followed by short work sessions that are split up with short bursts of movement and instruction.  By providing students with necessary breaks you reduce the amount of distracting behaviors that often pop up during longer work sessions.

10 Steps to Independence

Chapter 3 focuses on the seventh belief, the 10 Steps to Teaching & Learning Independence. 

By taking the time to explicitly teach, model, practice, and reflect on student independence, students will begin to build their stamina and establish the desired default Daily 5 behaviors.  This frees up the teacher to teach!

What beliefs and principals influence your teaching?

How do you teach independence?

Check out Adventures of Room 129, to learn more about chapter 2 and The Crazy School Teacher's blog to learn more about chapter 3.