After doing much research this summer on reading and literacy, I have decided to implement a cutting-edge daily routine that will help with all areas of literacy in the classroom. The “Daily 5” was founded by sisters Gail Boushey and Joan Moaser, who have done extensive research in the areas of reading to self, reading to others, listening to reading, working on words, and working on writing. This center-based framework revolves around the idea that all students need to work on these five areas of literacy each day.
In our classroom, much of our morning will be devoted to this center rotation in which students will do activities and lessons in all five of the mentioned areas. Also during this time, I will be working with small groups of students to help in struggling areas for students at similar reading levels. I will also be working individually with students on their personal goals in reading. This will be a great time for me to touch base with each of the students to target their individual needs and goals.
The following are the Daily 5 Rotations that we have implemented so far this year:
*Read to Self: During this time, we read to ourselves to help us practice our fluency and confidence in reading. We learned that we must stay busy the whole time, stay focused, and read out of our "Just Right Books" from our book boxes.
*Work on Writing: Work on writing helps us become better writers. We also learned that by becoming better writers, we are also better readers! We can usually write about anything during Work on Writing time. Once a week, we turn in our journal and Miss Snowden responds to something we've written!
*Read to Someone: This is a fun time where we get to read to a friend. We practice Read to Someone because it helps us become better readers. It also helps us with our fluency (which means we read like we talk, not like a robot). During Read to Someone, we sit E.E.K.K. (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) and read in a soft voice. We always make sure our partner in paying attention by "Checking for Understanding."
*Word Work: During word work, we get to play with words! We will usually work with our spelling words, but Miss Snowden has all sorts of fun games, activities, and manipulatives for us to use during Word Work.
*Listen to Reading: During listen to reading, students have the opportunity to listen to a story on a CD. They follow along with their fingers and their eyes as they listen to the story. This is important in our reading in that it helps us with our fluency since we are listening and reading along with a fluent reader.
**As a reminder: all students need to have a set of headphones at schoo, there are still a few students who do not have headphones. Please contact me if you are having trouble providing them!**