The Daily 5 is a Balanced Literacy Program developed by 'Sisters' Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Through experience, research and strategic planning in the classroom, they devised an excellent way to make literacy fun and engaging for students. http://www.the2sisters.com/the_sisters.html
The five elements of this program are all interconnected and are all equally important for a holistic approach to literacy. Although the 'Sisters' have a distinct plan with the Daily 5, it is important to note that even if you can try part of this plan and then individualize it for your needs then you will be on your way to helping students achieve literacy success. Every little bit of literacy enthusiasm helps!
One teacher's interpretation
5 minute prep time before Daily 5: Time to pick out books, pick a buddy, sharpen pencil, get paper...
1. Read to yourself: Each student already has TWO appropriate books they can take anywhere in the room to read quietly. Why two? Because when they sit down to read they have chosen a spot for the duration of the time allotted and if they finish their book or want a different one they already have it.
2. You read to/with someone else: Students have preselected their reading buddy and have picked out TWO books during prep time.They find their place in the room where they can read in a quiet inside voice with each other. Try to get the students to take turns reading and to encourage each other.
3. You listen to reading: This could be set up on the computer, IPods, IPads, SmartBoard, CD player... Allow the student to close their eyes and imagine, draw the image on paper, or read along to the story if possible: http://storynory.com/ has great read along stories.
4. You write: Each student has their own notebook where they can choose to write a story, letter, poem, list, ideas, play - the teacher should have a list of directives that guides the student to write. This could include starter sentences for younger grades or actual topics in older grades.
5. You do word work: This would be a section/table that is more teacher prepared. It could include their 'student dictionaries' that they write full of new words from their books, word walls, grammar activities, spelling reviews, rhyming, poetry, mixed up words to unscramble or a-z worksheets.
There are various ways to implement the Daily 5 into your classroom. Here is one way:
- Break it down. Start with reading to self start with ten minutes and build an additional minute daily. Once the students are up to about 25/30 minutes of independent reading without interruptions (no bathroom breaks, nobody gets up, no sharpening pencil - this distracts from the learning) then you can add another part such as reading to a buddy. This means that half the class might be doing independent reading and the other half is reading to a buddy. If the class is able to maintain this for 25/30 minutes without disruption for a week or so then add another component.. and so on. It is important that the students are able to complete their sections independently so that the teacher is able to then spend quality time with individual students zoning in on their areas of need.
- The Switch: If doing the Daily 5 for an hour you might want to consider a 'switch' once or twice. If you sense students are feeling unsettled then simply say 'you have 2 minutes to change to another activity'. This gets the students moving and refreshed while giving them the option to change.
- Double up: When doing read to self a student may also carry a mini notebook for working on words. They can write down new vocabulary or difficult words they wish to look up in the dictionary, that should be easily accessible.
- Author's Chair! Place a stool or chair at the front of your classroom. At the completion of every Daily 5 session it is important to debrief the experience and legitimize the purpose for the students:
Ask - Does anyone want to share about the book the were reading? Would anyone like to come up to the Author's Chair and read their writing? Does anyone have a new word they would like to share? This is the students opportunity to share 'h Ha moments of exciting experiences had during Daily 5.
- Intermediate Implementation of the Daily 5 would include more independent work with longer stretches of reading and writing exercises. The excellent aspect of the Daily 5 is the choice the students have - it doesn't matter which option they pick they are still enhancing their literacy skills.
The goal is to have all five sections running at the same time. This may sound like a heavy task, but you would be surprised how eager students are to settle into their task. The key is to have your classroom well organized and prepared with sufficient resources, tools and books to support learning.
In Ontario classrooms, the Language Arts Curriculum coincides with the Daily 5 and can be found at:
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language.html
Here's an example for kindergarten to grade 2 levels to implement the Daily 5:
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