Daily 5!
It
won’t be long until you hear your child talking about “The Daily Five.”
The purpose of this blog 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 teachers 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 is comprised of:
• Read to Self
• Work on Writing
• Read with a Partner
• Listen to Reading
• Word Work
There
are very specific behavior expectations that go with each
Daily 5 component. We have been spending our first week working
intensely on building our reading and writing stamina, learning
the behaviors of the Daily 5 and fostering our classroom community.
Today students worked their "Read to Self" stamina up to 20 minutes! Tomorrow we will begin "Read with a Partner." The
students are very excited and proud of their new skills.
We
have also been spending time learning about your child’s strengths and
greatest needs as a reader in order to best plan for each student’s
instruction. Students will be spending most of their time actually
reading "Just Right Books", which research supports as the number one
way to improve reading. We 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.
Volunteers . . . begin the week of September 30th. We will send a schedule home in the Go-Home folders next Thursday. A thank you goes out to all of you who have so generously volunteered to donate your time.
Birthday Party Invitations:
Please do not send invitations for parties to school with your child to hand out. It is a very sensitive issue, as it hurts the feelings of students whom are not invited. With such a large class, it is inevitable that some students will be left out. Please also remind your child if they go to a birthday party, not to speak about it at school in mixed crowds. . . it's a matter of respect. Look for the Class Directory in the Go-Home Folders next week, with addresses, phone numbers, and emails with which you can mail invitations. Thank you kindly for understanding. :)
Reminder: Open House is on Thursday, September 26,
from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!
