Monday, September 12, 2011

What is The Daily 5?

In Literacy instruction, the classroom structure I use is called "Daily 5."  Soon your child will be talking about "The Daily 5" at home if they have not already told you about it.  The purpose of this post is to explain to you what The Daily 5 is. 

The Daily 5 is a literacy structure that teaches independence and gives children the skills needed to create a lifetime love of reading and writing.  It consists of five tasks that are introduced individually.  When introduced to each task, the children discuss what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to engage in the tasks independently.  Then, the children work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent while doing that task. 

The five tasks include:
1. Read to Self
2. Read to Someone
3. Listen to Reading
4. Work on Writing
5.  Word Work

When all five tasks have been introduced and the children are fully engaged in reading and writing activitites, I am able to work with small Guided Reading Groups and confer with children one-on-one. 

In between the tasks, I am doing whole-group mini-lessons on phonics, reading strategies, word wall words, writing, etc.

I look forward to see your children grow in reading and writing this year! 
Thank you for you support!
Mrs. Harris

Information for this post was adapted from a letter written by Allison Behne www.thedailycafe.com