mosaic@literacyworkshop.org writes: >Hi, > >I'm planning to start The Daily Five next year with my second >graders. I have read the book and have bought The CAFE book as well. >I have a few questions.
**I teach fourth grade so keep that in mind while I respond!** > > >1. How long is YOUR Daily Five? I don't know how the sisters fit the >DF along with writing, math, science, social studies and specials all >into the afternoon. I've done the math and it literally does not add >up to the amount of minutes in the day. And that does not even take >into account recess (which all our kids need), transitions, getting >ready for home, birthday parties, assemblies, etc. What works for >you? **I actually do a Weekly Five because I only have 30 minutes of Daily Five time each day. I only teach reading so in each of my blocks, I teach for 45 minutes and then do Daily Five the last 30.** > > >2. After you do your mini-lesson ( say a comprehension strategy) and >students make a choice, do you expect the students who are at the DF >component that corresponds to the mini-lesson (in this example RS and >R) to be working on that comprehension strategy? How does that work >for with word work? Maybe there is a closed sort that corresponds >with the word work lesson, but you haven't taught that lesson yet and >students are working at that station. Do they just work on that >closed sort the next day? **I had the kids show their thinking if they were reading with a partner, listening to reading, or reading to self. This meant they had to put a sticky note with their thinking on a bulletin board. Sometimes I would direct them. If we had been working on making connections, I would say during the transition time "When you show me your thinking, I want you to make a connection." Then the last 2-3 minutes of Daily Five time I would say "Show me your thinking." Kids would take their favorite sticky from their book and put it on the bulletin board. As everyone was getting ready to change classes, I would read a couple out loud. Sometimes, I let them just think freely with no guidance.** **As far as word work goes, I had 2 things they did each week. One was a Making Words lesson that I recorded myself teaching. It's kind of hard to explain so here's my website that you can check them out on. http://eastscs.sharpschool.com/cms/One.aspx?portalId=286211&pageId=2520070 Fourth graders each have their own laptop so this was easy in my room but this may be difficult if there is a limited number of computers in the room. The other activity they did was a word stem activity. I would have a stem (like "urb"). They had to add a word with that stem on a poster board, write a sentence on a sentence strip using their word and put it in a pocket chart, and then do a short activity using the stem in their word work journal.** > > > >3. How long do you keep the word work materials available before >changing them? A week? **I kept the word work materials available for a week usually. However, if it was a short week or things were a bit busy, I might keep the same materials available for 2 weeks and if a student had already done it, they just wouldn't do word work the second week.** > > >4. After reading the chapter on choice, I realized that the teachers >(I must have missed it somewhere earlier in the book) are assigning >which component the students will be working on. How have you done >this? **I assigned students days to do word work. All others were free choice. I have a list of students and I call out one child at a time. They tell me what they want to do and I write the abbreviation down beside their name. If a student chose something that I did not want him/her to do, I would ask them to see me before they got started. I would then talk them into changing their mind. I made sure the kids felt it was free choice (even when I made the choice).** > > >5. I didn't see any trouble shooting in the Listen to Reading about >the scenario when half of the class wants to RS or LR. How do you >make sure that each child does all of the components? I noticed there >were only 4 listening spots. How do you make sure everyone gets their >turn? **In fourth grade, I actually didn't care if they did the listen to reading or partner reading each week. My only requirements were Read to Self and Word Work at least once a week. As far as listening to reading, my school has a subscription to Dell Sylvan publishing that has e-books online. So, that was their listening to reading option and since each student has their own laptop, that worked out well.** > > >I appreciate all your help. It seems that there are some management >issues that weren't addressed in the book. **This was my first year doing Daily Five and I am the only teacher in my county that uses it. It has been my saving grace since SSR was not working in my classroom. I took the summer before and spent a few weeks picturing how I wanted it to look in my classroom. I wrote up a notebook full of notes and then typed up my plan. The great thing about Daily Five is that it is flexible enough for anyone to take it and make it theirs! I already have some things I'm going to change for next year-I am going to do away with partner reading and listen to reading because I have read a lot from others and the Sisters, themselves, that says these two are not essential for the higher grades and my kids really abused it this year and I am going to only do 1 word work activity each week and alternate them between weeks.** **Good luck! Just make it yours!** Angela Hatley Almond, NBCT Fourth Grade East Albemarle Elementary School All email correspondence to and from this address is subject to North Carolina Public Records Law which may result in monitoring and disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
