Daily 5 and Wonders
Welcome to a new school year! I am implementing a new literacy program this year. I'm sure you have already heard your child talking about “The Daily Five.” The purpose of this posting is to fill you in on what The Daily Five is all about, so you don’t have to nod your head while wondering what in the world your child is referring to.
The Daily Five is a way of structuring the reading block so every student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. These research based tasks are ones that will have the biggest impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as help foster children who love to read and write. Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write independently while I provide focused, intense instruction to individuals and small groups of students.
When it is up and running smoothly, students will be engaged in the Daily Five, which are comprised of:
* Read to Self
* Work on Writing
* Read to Someone
* Listen to Reading
* Word Work
There are very specific behavior expectations that go with each Daily 5 component. We will spend our first weeks working intensely on building our reading and writing stamina, learning the behaviors of the Daily 5, and fostering our classroom community. I will also spend time learning about your child’s strengths and greatest needs as a reader in order to best plan for each student’s instruction.
One thing you’ll notice that may be a change for you is a direct decrease in the number of worksheets your child brings home. Your child will be taught to select “Good Fit Books” or books they can read, understand and are interested in, which they will read during Daily 5. They will be spending most of their time actually reading, which research supports as the number one way to improve reading. I anticipate the motivation and enjoyment of reading will skyrocket when this gift of choosing their own books is accompanied by extended practice and specific reading instruction for each individual child.
Daily 5 is how we schedule our language block.
We will be using a new reading series called WONDERS. We will incorporate this series into our Daily 5 routines. Each week, students will have writing, grammar, and spelling activities, which will be part of our word work and work on writing activities. Once we have our routines and procedures practiced and students have built stamina in each of our activities, I will start pulling small groups of students to work with while the other students are engaged in other literacy tasks.
The Daily Five is a way of structuring the reading block so every student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. These research based tasks are ones that will have the biggest impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as help foster children who love to read and write. Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write independently while I provide focused, intense instruction to individuals and small groups of students.
When it is up and running smoothly, students will be engaged in the Daily Five, which are comprised of:
* Read to Self
* Work on Writing
* Read to Someone
* Listen to Reading
* Word Work
There are very specific behavior expectations that go with each Daily 5 component. We will spend our first weeks working intensely on building our reading and writing stamina, learning the behaviors of the Daily 5, and fostering our classroom community. I will also spend time learning about your child’s strengths and greatest needs as a reader in order to best plan for each student’s instruction.
One thing you’ll notice that may be a change for you is a direct decrease in the number of worksheets your child brings home. Your child will be taught to select “Good Fit Books” or books they can read, understand and are interested in, which they will read during Daily 5. They will be spending most of their time actually reading, which research supports as the number one way to improve reading. I anticipate the motivation and enjoyment of reading will skyrocket when this gift of choosing their own books is accompanied by extended practice and specific reading instruction for each individual child.
Daily 5 is how we schedule our language block.
We will be using a new reading series called WONDERS. We will incorporate this series into our Daily 5 routines. Each week, students will have writing, grammar, and spelling activities, which will be part of our word work and work on writing activities. Once we have our routines and procedures practiced and students have built stamina in each of our activities, I will start pulling small groups of students to work with while the other students are engaged in other literacy tasks.
Writing Notebooks
Students will be writing several times a week. Not everything is graded. Some days it will be on a specific topic or prompt, other days it will be free writing. We start the year by getting our ideas on paper. We will start working on more formal writing later in the year.
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER reading goal
The best way to become a better reader is to read. I would encourage you to have your child read at home for 10 to 15 minutes a night. We will be participating in a Reading Program called Accelerated Reader (AR). In this program, students earn points for answering questions correctly on books at their reading comprehension level. We will initially place students in bands of levels (for example 4.0-4.5, or 3.7-4.3) which they can then choose books to read.
Strategies to Focus On
The first strategies we will focus on are:
*The first is Check for Understanding. With this strategy, the child stops frequently to make sure that they know what is happening in the selection they are reading.
*We have also practice comparing and contrasting characters in a story.
*Preview what you are going to read and predict what will happen.
NEW STRATEGIES- Identify Character and Setting
- Problem and Solution in a story
Remember that the best way to improve reading, is to practice regularly.