The Daily 5

Before long, you will undoubtedly hear your child mention The Daily 5. The Daily 5 is a management tool that keeps the first graders engaged in meaningful reading and writing activities while I work with small groups or confer individually with students.

Each day we will have 3 sessions of the Daily 5. The first graders will choose 3 of the 5 following tasks to complete each day:

• Read to Self
• Work on Writing
• Read to Someone
• Word Work
• Listen to Reading

I spend the first few weeks of school explicitly teaching these 5 tasks so the students know exactly what to do. We start out practicing each task for 3 minutes or less and gradually increase the time as we "build stamina" for each task.

I know the time spent slowly introducing the Daily 5 is well worth it when I see the students truly engaged and working independently on authentic reading and writing activities. This allows me to work with other students in small groups with very few interruptions!