Monday, June 25, 2012

The DAILY 5 ~ Chapter 1

Well, I have decided to be part of the blogging world.  This is my first post and I hope that I am doing it correctly.  I love reading all of your wonderful blogs out there and you all have such great ideas for your classrooms that I thought it was about time that I shared also.  This blog will mainly be for my parents and students when school starts but until then I am excited to be part of Lory's Book Study on the DAILY 5 and CAFE.

I am so excited that I found your blog Lory. I implemented the DAILY 5 and CAFE into my 2nd grade classroom last year. I found out about the two books when I was surfing the internet looking at other teachers websites.  I bought the two books and I completely fell in love with them. I am also a subscriber to Gail and Joan's website. I am such a visual learner and they provided great resources for me to learn by watching videos on how to implement these books into my classroom.  AND their Pensive is out of this world. If you haven't check it out, here is the link The Daily Cafe.

About my experience with Chapter 1 of the DAILY 5....I too had to laugh when I was rereading page 4.  I can so relate to what they said about running around redirecting students to do what they are suppose to be doing. I even felt a little bit of that this year when I implemented the DAILY 5 into my classroom.  I will say, though, that my reading block was ten times better than it ever has been before but I still have some "tweaking" to do.  For example, the headphones would not be working or the students could only hear on one side. (Some students would be okay with one side working and others it just bothered terribly).  The CD players battery life was dead. (Which happens often) The computer would not connect with the Internet or the student lost their password (even though it was attached to the computer last week).  My DAILY 5 choices for my students were:

Read to Someone
Word Work
Computers
Listen To Reading

My Read To Self was at a different time of day because of our districts requirements so all my students would Read To Self at the same time for about 30 minutes. The DAILY 5 that I did not do was Writing and this year I am going to add that to their choices. I'm not really sure why I decided not to place Writing into their choices.  Maybe I felt like it was too much for me to take on for the first year.

My advice to teachers that are going to start implementing this into their classrooms the first days of school is spend the full 20 days building community, defining and practicing behaviors, building your students stamina and assessing the needs of your students. (Fig 1-1 page 7) It is the explicit teaching and practicing of behaviors that set the DAILY 5 apart from other managment systems. I LOVED my reading block because I did take the time at the beginning of the year teaching my students how it was suppose to look and feel and we did it again, and again, and again. I can also say that my students cheered when it was DAILY 5 time.  They loved the structure that it provided for them and they all felt successful.

Thanks for letting me be apart of your Book Study and I hope to gain a greater understand of the DAILY 5 and especially the CAFE through this study.

Until Next Week,
        Happy Blogging

14 comments:

  1. Welcome to blogging! I just started my blog this summer, too. I have learned so much by following other's blogs and these online book studies. I have also been using Daily 5 for 2 years now and I love it!
    Carol
    Still Teaching After All These Years

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    1. Thanks for welcoming me Carol. It is very exciting. I seem to be spending way to much time on my computer looking at other people's blogs. There are sooooo many good ones out there.

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  2. I'm so happy you joined the book study and blogging. I'm eager to check out the website and watch the videos. I didn't know there were videos!

    I'd love to know if Daily 5 (with writing) will take the place of a writers workshop in your classroom? We have a mandatory time for writers and readers workshop which also includes centers and skills block. 1 1/2 hours for reading/skills/centers and 1 hour for writing. I can see how introducing the skill and working through independent centers would allow for both workshops to be completed through Daily 5. Any thoughts?

    Cheryl
    Primary Graffiti

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    1. Hi Cheryl and thank you for welcoming me to your book study. I am sad to say that our district does not put a lot of importance on the writing block. We have a mandatory 2 1/2 hours of reading (which includes 90 minutes of reading instruction, 30 minutes of reading extensions/intervention and 30 minutes of Reading and Conferencing). We are suppose to implement writing into the reading block but sometimes that was very hard to do especially if you had a skill that needed to be taught. With that said it only left me 30 minutes for writing and to me that is not enough time for good writing instruction. I am hoping with studying the CAFE a little more this summer that I can implement focus lessons. I would like to have three focus lessons everyday: Phonics, Comprehension strategy and Writing/Grammar with DAILY 5 being in between these lessons. I tried last year to start both the CAFE and DAILY 5 at the same time and it was too overwhelming for me. I decided that I would start out with the D5 first and then tackle the CAFE the following year. I am hoping like you said at the end of your comment that introducing the skill and working through independent centers will allow students more practice, practice, practice with writing. It sure helped my students with their reading. :)

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  3. Hi Tammy,
    Thanks so much for linking up. It is so great to hear pros/cons, ups and downs of the program. I had to giggle at the headphones/batteries/lost passwords etc... it's that the truth. We think we have it all figure out and then... ;) Our kiddos definately keep us on our toes! I will have to check out the website. I did not know about the videos either. Thank goodness "the sisters" think of everything ;) Thanks again.
    Lory

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    1. With the website, you do have to pay for a membership. I paid the 3 month subscription and then I got a discount and did the year subscription. I really paid off for me.

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  4. I'm glad there are other "newbies" out there! I started my blog last summer but never touched it! I'm not even sure if I'm linking correctly but I'm getting a lot of great advice from reading these posts!

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    1. I am so with you there Heather. I need to learn all the ins and outs about blogging. The first thing is to change my font and letter size to my comments. This is not working. :)

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  5. I just joined up with Lory's D5 post (my book finally came in the mail). I was so excited to read the part where it talked about taking your time going over the procedures. In my post I talk about feeling pressure to jump in there and get going . . . it was so refreshing to read the opposite. I am glad to hear that you liked D5 in your room and I can't wait to read more of your "seasoned" perspective. See you during the next post :)

    Kelley Dolling
    Teacher Idea Factory

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    1. Thanks Kelley. I am excited to learn more about the D5 and CAFE too. Also, thanks for being a follower of my Blog. Have a great weekend.

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  6. Welcome to blogging! I started blogging June 16, 2011 and it has made a marvelous difference in my class and teaching to be part of this awesome community of welcoming, sharing teachers! I ♥love, ♥love, ♥love it. (c:/> I'm sure you will, too. Thanks for sharing about D5.

    ✿.。.☆♪♫*❤*Melly*❤*☆.。.✿


    Stapler’s Strategies for Sizzlin' Second Graders!

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    1. Thanks for welcoming me to the blogging world. I am enjoying it but it can be very addicting. Also, thanks for becoming a member of my blog. Have a great weekend.

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  7. Welcome to the world of blogging. My teaching partner's name is Tammy. She will be soooo excited to find another Tammy out there!!!!! I see that you are in Wichita. Not to far from Ponca City! Maybe one of these days we will have ourselves a blogger meet-up!!!!

    imgoingfirst@gmail.com

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    1. I think I have met your teaching partner through her blog "Storybook Cafe". I would love to meet up with you guys sometime. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun! Thanks for welcoming me to the blogging world. It is very addicting.

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