Saturday, August 25, 2012

D5 Questions

I am trying to implement Daily 5 into my classroom this year. We've worked on Read to Self and Read to Someone and are continuing to build our stamina. I have finished our kindergarten review (the first weeks of school in our reading series are review) and I've finished our Beginning of Year (boy) assessments to get a feel of the the students' varied abilities so I'm going to start Word Work soon.

My questions:
Though I have the ability to teach the subjects in any order that I want I do have to use the textbooks and workbooks provided. Which I'm okay with.

That said
  1. How many minutes do you 'carve' out for D5? (This might be my main question)
  2. In first grade how high do you build your stamina?
  3. Do you (in practical teaching land not I wish I could in an ideal situation land) do all 5 daily?
  4. How often do you switch the books in their book boxes? Do you do it or do you have the kiddos?
  5. I put Ranger Rick magazines in my book boxes...do you think school appropriate magazines are okay?
  6. Do you choose to give them the freedom as suggested? I think I'm going to assign them to a group and let them choose an activity within that station.
  7. Do you sometimes have the whole class doing one of the five things? (ie whole class Work on Writing time or Read to Self time)
  8. When your students are building their stamina and are quiet, still, looking through books, and minding their own buisness but you don't really think they're picture reading or real reading do you think it's okay?
    1. Since it's the beginning of the year is it more about reading or more about learning the procedures/rules?

7 Replies:

Marianna Dunn said...

I'm so jealous that you've gotten so far in implementing Daily 5!! We start school Monday and, while I already miss summer, I'm itching to get started with it again!

The way we've planned so far, and how I've done it in the past, is Daily 5 is our entire language arts block, so an hour and a half. In practical teaching land, we did 3 each day. Read to Self and Work on Writing were done everyday and then the students chose one between the other three each day. We did three 15-minute rotations (yes, first graders CAN have 15 minutes of stamina!). Even though Read to Self and Work on Writing were "have-tos" they could do them during any of the three rotations. So no, there wasn't a time where the whole class was doing the same thing. (We might be doing this differently this year, because of AR.) Magazines are GREAT! My kids LOVED them. And we ended up changing book boxes out every Friday. That part kind of takes some figuring out, but a week with one set of books seemed to work best for us.

I think making sure the rules/procedures are set in the beginning is really important, but you also want to really emphasize the proper reading behaviors. If you start seeing too many quiet students that are minding their own business but not necessarily reading it would definitely be worth it to review the I-Chart.

Sorry for such the long comment, but I hope this helps! :)

Marianna
Delightfully Dunn

Laura said...

Okay, I don't know how helpful this is, but here are my anwers-
1-We work on Daily 5 for 1 1/2 hours.
2-We build stamina to 15 minutes before starting Daily 5.
3-We complete 3 rounds each day. I'd be nuts if we did all 5 in one day.
4-The children are allowed 10 books in their boxes. They choose 5. The other 5 are from Guided Reading time. They may change out their choices everyday.
5-I think Ranger Rick is appropriate. We teach them to read pictures and retell, so why not?
6-I assign groups-can't do the freedom thing yet.
7-We all Read to Self at times. I enjoy this time of day!
8-I think it's okay for them to just follow directions while building stamina. I do believe it's about procedures at the beginning. As their reading skills improve, they'll actually read.
I hope this helps you somewhat. I have learned the hard way to practice, practice, practice before truly starting Daily 5. Good luck!
Laura
Peace, Love, and First Grade

Laura said...

Okay, that should have read answers...
Laura

Joell W. said...

I love your questions and the great answers here. I was going to try just doing Read to Self this year, but now I might not even do that. Right now reading is the only subject area where everything isn't completely new this year. So I might for my sanity's sake hold on until next year to really try daily 5.

Joell
Totally Terrific Teaching

Miss Cosby said...

Thanks for the feedback. A lot of good ideas and some stuff to think about.

@Joell We're starting a new reading series next year so I wanted to test the D5 waters.

Liz said...

I've enjoyed reading through the responses. I'm always interested in knowing how the Daily 5 runs in other classrooms.
1. We work for 1 hr to 1 hr 20.
2. Stamina building to 15 min.
3. Nope, I just do 4 - read to self, someone, word work, listen to reading
4.I make a book shopping chart & they have to shop in the morning before we start for our day. I leave a post it note on their desk telling them how many books they can pick out. The 2nd half of 1st grade I make them fill out a reading log.
5. Love the magazine idea!
6. They choose to go to word work, but can choose any activity with it.
7. Sometimes I have them all read to self because I just need the quiet.
8. Yes _ I think it's more about procedures at this point.

Julie DiBenedetto said...

Hi there! I sure hope I can be helpful to you! And just a few fast fun facts about my class... I have 26 students in a suburban area close to the city, with a lot of transient students populating in and out.
1. 90 minutes (10-15 minute mini-lesson, followed by a 20 Round of D5) and we do that 3 times a day.
2. We have been in school 5 days. I start D5 on the second day of school. We are at 7 minutes of stamina!
3. Yes! (after the first 30 days of introductions, I have Read to Self as an added choice for morning work fast finishers. So when it comes time for D5 rounds, the first 2 choices are always Work on Writing and Word Work. The third choice bounces between the other 2.
4. I just answered the question in my latest blog post so definitely hop on over and read some!
5.Of course!
6. Yes! Students CHECK OUT with me before each round and select where they are off to...hehehe! But, there is a CAP on the amount of students that can be at each place. For example, Listen to Reading CAPS at 5 students per round. Word Work CAPS at 8 students per round.
7. At the very beginning, I jot down notes in my Pensieve on what types of reading behaviors I am seeing. Then, I try to have small 4 minute conferring lessons with those students on that particular reading behavior. You could call it "strategy grouping for reading behaviors" during each round of D5 (during the first few weeks).

Please hop on over to visit more with me! I am a HUGE fan of Daily 5! Just saw the Sisters in July...AGAIN! And this is my third year of using it! Gets better every year! So remember this... Daily 5 is a Literacy FRAMEWORK, not reading program. It is like a skeleton that FLEXS into your current reading series..With a few tweeks here and there! Have a wonderful day!
Julie

Ms. Marciniak's First Grade Critter Cafe

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