Daily 5!

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!