Daily Five Reading

Schedule

I started with figuring out a schedule that fit into our current school/district requirements and could include the necessary components of the Daily Five philosophy. Here is what I came up...

15 minutes Writing Lesson

20 minute Whole Group Reading Lesson

10 minute Independent Reading

2 - 15 minute Small Groups

15 minute Read Aloud

2 - 15 minute Small Groups

The Plan

Our Writing Lesson is shorter because they will work on the writing process more during a Writing Choice. Also, on Mondays do writing checks during small group time to look at writing samples, help and practice specific skills, and practice handwriting.

The whole group Reading lesson is time to introduce, practice and assess a skill. Our week looks like this:
Monday
Spelling Pretest (see Differentiation tab for more info) and introduce Grammar skill with games and/or correcting sentences on a chart.
**We use 2 choice rounds to work on also introducing the Reading Skill for the week
Tuesday 
Practice Reading Comprehension 
Wednesday
**We use this time and our Writing time to go to the Library on campus
Thursday
Practice Reading Comprehension with short passage quiz to be checked during small group on Fridays
Friday
Spelling Test (again, see Differentiation tab)

Our district wants for all students to have some time for independent reading. My students have self-selected book bags. They have time during choices to switch books out once a six weeks, but can do so earlier if they need to. They choose 6-8 books. I have a chapter book club that can have a chapter book from our collection to read as well. During this time, I walk around to drop in on them reading and monitor.

Our small group time is different on each day:
Monday: Writing Check and using 2 rounds to introduce weekly skills
Tuesday and Wednesday: read Leveled Readers and do activities using the books to practice spelling, grammar, writing, and reading skills
Thursday: comprehension practice using passages
Friday: spelling tests, check Passage Practice quiz from yesterday, and reviewing work done during the week in choices.

Our district also stresses the importance of having time to read aloud to our students. Each time we read, we have a purpose. It might be a reading skill, character traits, etc.

Management

Making Choices

I used to do a menu, but found it to be more trouble than it helped. Instead I started giving the students their choice (Read to Self, etc) then they decided which activity within that choice they wanted to do. This led to them eventually choosing where they wanted to go while I guided them with questions like, "Have you already made that choice today or yesterday?" or "Have you already made all five choices?". With the way our schedule works, they can make 3 choices a day,so it takes them a coule days to make all 5. We make our choices using a popsicle stick with their class number on it. I usually have a volunteer be in charge of placing the stick in the correct pocket while I record their choice on a chart that I keep on my clipboard. This way I keep track of their weekly choices. 

Differentiated Spelling

I set up our spelling plan basically as follows:

   - Spelling Inventory is given in parts during the first 2 weeks of school to assess their spelling pattern skills. They will hi-light the words they know on their High Frequency Words charts which are kept in their Reading folders that are kept in a crate at my small group meeting table.

   - Mondays: Call out a pretest of a mix of 6 basic and challenging words which follow the weekly phonics pattern. Check these quickly as I walk around, and based on scores, give them either the approaching, on-level, or beyond list when we meet in small group. Then they choose 4 words from their High Frequency Words chart to practice. Then I give them 2 additional review words they missed on previous spelling tests. These 12 words get written onto their Homework Menu as well as in their Reading Notebook to practice during word work choices.

Check out this great website by Beth Newingham for ideas on Spelling Word Study in Action

They take their Reading Notebook with them to each Daily Five choice and record their work. Then they bring their Notebook with them to small group so I can quickly check their progress. We also use it to record small group work.

The Daily Five Choices

 Word Work

I have plastic bins (Target) with all of our materials on a shelf. They just have to grab the bin and take it to the floor space they want to play at.

* Stamp It - use letter stamps to stamp out their words into their journal
* Stencils - use letter stencils to spell out their words into their journal
* Magnets - use magnets to spell words using similiar weekly phonics pattern and write words in their journal
* File Folder games
* Rainbow - use three crayons to write their words
* Sand Spell - pencil boxes with sand and a pencil (or use their finger) to write their words in
* Handwriting - dry-erase boards with handwriting lines (Target Dollar Spot) to practice words then write in journal
* Magazine Hunt - look for their words in a magazine or use letters to spell out words and glue into journal
* Spelling Sort - sort word cards on a pocket chart how ever they want then write chart into their journals and include other words that fit into their sort
* Dictionary - find their words in a dictionary and write the word, definition and page number in journal

Check out this great blog with some of these activities and more! You can also purchase the activity cards, but I made my own with materials and I-chart on them too.
Ms. Nickerson's blog



Work on Writing


* Theme Journals - spirals with themes (chosen by students earlier in the year) They write the date, title and their name as author and add their own story to the journal
* Thank You Letter - use letter format to write to anyone they want or to cereal box/TV and movie characters
* Book - make a foldable book with writing and illustrations
* Recipe or How-To
* Poem
* Card


Listen to Reading

* MMH DVD to read previous selection stories on the computer
* Audio books using personal CD players (check out Half Price Books for great deals on audio books!)

Read to Someone

* Choose to either read from book bags to each other or a "Twin Book" (previous leveled readers)
* complete the I Read, U Read chart in their Reading Notebooks

Read to Self

Our book bags are in gallon zip locks and have leveled readers which are given to them based on level as well as books they chose from our catergorized classroom library using IPICK method. Before every reading unit (every 5-6 weeks) we do a big book swap for them to choose new books.

*Read from their book bags then chose a bookmark to write responses in their Reading Notebooks.