WHINE! 🙁 {I could use a glass of wine right about now but seeing as how it’s not even noon, I’ll just stick with my coke zero} I’m sad discouraged about the latest development at school. Listen to this!!
Our district is now on program improvement because we did not meet our state test thingamajigs (I would love to put the acronyms but I get them mixed up so just go with it). However, MY SCHOOL DID. But that doesn’t matter. My principal called me (team leader) into her office yesterday to discuss what this means. We are now mandated to teach Language Arts from the time the kids arrive until lunch. That’s two and a half hours. And while some of you may be thinking, “yes, that’s right”, the schedule I used to have was perfect. And now I do NOT know what to do about Science, Social Studies, and Centers. Math just got pushed to after lunch which then pushes everything ELSE back and something’s got to give. And I think it’s going to have to be centers. WAAAAH! I LOVE centers! I like to buy, create, make, and brainstorm new center ideas all of the time.
BUT. I will admit that last year when my class size went up, centers were not what they used to be. Sometimes the kiddos could get too noisy and one or two would try to push the envelope and NOT actually do their center (I KNOW! THE NERVE!) but no matter what, they looked forward to centers every day. But sometimes I did not look forward to centers. So I’m willing to let centers go but I am still kind of sad discouraged about it.
I have been teaching first grade for 14 years but I am not one of THOSE veteran teachers who won’t budge or learn new things. I am always begging, borrowing, stealing, BLOG STALKING to improve my teaching.
Which brings me to all of you. I have been very interested in all of you Daily 5 people. But in a kind of . . . I should order that book . . . let me mention it to my partner . . . I’ll print that little goodie and put it in a file . . . kind of backburner type of way.
BUT NOW I NEED TO DO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE THINGS LIKE RIGHT NOW!!! YIKES!! PRINCIPAL JUST TOLD ME ABOUT THIS YESTERDAY AND SCHOOL STARTS WEDNESDAY! I mean, partner and I already planned the first two weeks of school and I’m supposed to be introducing and modeling four centers on THE FIRST DAY.
So is it okay to ask you guys for a little help here?? I don’t think the book is going to arrive on time. 🙁 I need some guidance. I have QUESTIONS. (a million, but I’ll try to scale it down)
1. Do the kids rotate through the Daily 5 choices or for example, if one student wants to ALWAYS “work on writing” can they always do that whenever a mini lesson is over and the kids go back to independent time?
2. After you have taught a mini lesson, such as writing, do the kids EVER complete an assigned writing assignment? Or if you taught a Phonics mini lesson, do the kids complete an assigned phonics worksheet? In other words, after you teach a mini lesson, do the kids ALWAYS go choose from the Daily 5? Or do they first do an assigned lesson???
**I am not a worksheet queen. We use Houghton Mifflin and if you have seen those workbooks, you know that some of those pages are the biggest waste of time and I feel really bad for those poor little trees. But I have created supplemental worksheets that are way more valuable and can be used for a quick assessment so that I know my kiddos have mastered a concept.**
3. After you have taught a mini lesson and you pull kids, do you do reading groups (or one on one reading) or do you use that time to reinforce the mini lesson with those pulled kids?
Okay, I think that’s it. I appreciate any and all of your help. And please don’t hate on me because I have used centers for 14 years. 🙁
Thank you, friends!!!!!!!
Happy Saturday!!!!
OK no CLUE about Daily 5 BUT I feel your pain… we were told Monday that our VERY LOVED BESTEST PRINCIPAL EVER EVER EVER and we only had him ONE year was being moved to a new school!!!!!! I cried like a baby for hours!!!! and now we are getting a brand new pricipal who has only taught elem. for like 3 years and then was a VP at the high school…YAY and did I mention because our #s are SO LOW we won't have a VP this year!!! Panic has set in!!! we will have to have a support team this year…and I read your post below and you went to SEA WORLD? where do you live? because if you say Texas I am thinking AH SOME!!!!ok I am doing that thingy were it will let me know you responded!!! 🙂 chin up!!!
and yes I had spelling errors up there…YUCK don't hate me 🙂 principal and WHERE (insert super red face of shame)
Hi!! Don't stress out, I have a file that I found on Proteacher that I think will help you. It's called "Daily Five for Dummies". While it definitely won't take the place of reading the book, I think it will give you a good idea of how to introduce each component. A bit part of Daily 5 is introducing it slowly this file will take you through the first 20(something) days of school and will explain what you should be introducing, and when. It also has CAFE imbedded into it which you don't necessarily have to do. Please email me at teachersisters@gmail.com if you would like a copy. I'll also look for some other things that I think will help you out in a pinch. Best of luck… I think something similar might happen to us since we didn't meet AYP for the 3rd year in a row.
-Jackie-
Sister Teachers
Please check out my new class blog for more information on Daily5/Cafe. You can also see my schedule for the time I have allotted to the mini lessons and activities.
When I pull groups I plan to pull the students based on need. They will read silently and I will go around and have them read to me for a minute and then check for understanding. Then as a group review the skill. Hope this helps!
Thank you, Farley!!! I appreciate your support. I am in California! Are YOU in TX? My twin (who I love and miss dearly and who reads this blog along with EVERY SINGLE COMMENT, TOO {Hi, Kerry}) lives in Frisco, TX.
I understand about the principal thing – we lost our beloved VP the year before last (he became a principal at another school in our district) and OUR principal has been around for 8 years. And it's been a long 8 years. Luckily, she likes me. 🙂 Kiss Kiss but only when necessary.
Good luck with your new principal – that's always hard to adjust to! And I hate it when they don't have more experience in all of the grades because how can they really evaluate you when they truly don't understand?????
I didn't even catch your spelling errors. Seriously. 🙂
Kristin
A Teeny Tiny Teacher
I do Daily 5. I love it! I usually do 2 or 3 rotations a day and students must always do Read to Self in one of their rotations. I do the first mini-lesson on a phonics skill that will then move to Word Work. The second mini-lesson can be a poem or song. I usually do the third minilesson as my read aloud or shared reading, so that if I have an activity to do with the read aloud, we can complete it afterward. I do a separate writer's workshop to teach writing traits and have a writing time where all students are writing. I still do Work on Writing during Daily 5. Its a great way to meet all standards, make sure the kids are reading everyday, and to keep students engaged for a large block of time. I saw so much improvement in my kids' reading last year when I went from centers to Daily 5. Students make choices on choice sheet to make sure they are doing each rotation each week, and not the same one all the time. The book takes you through how to teach each compotent–Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, Writing, and Listening to Reading. You may also want to check out the 2 Sisters website too!
My class blog can be found at http://shepherdsshiningstars.wikispaces.com/
I'm so sorry you're having such a yank in your schedule right before school starts!
I have done several posts about Daily Five on my blog that might help you out… here's the link to the D5 posts: http://bainbridgeclass.blogspot.com/search/label/Daily%20Five
Hope that helps!
🙂
Christina
I've done Daily 5 and CAFE for the last 3 years and love it! You are still going to use your center activities, they will just be categorized differently. For example, if you have kids build words with playdoh, or stamp them, or whatever, those are word work choices. Just take your center activites and think about where they would logically fit.
I found that my schedule made it tough for the kiddos to have total choice about where they went when, so we would do a phonics minilesson and then all go to word work, a shared reading lesson and then all go to read to someone, and then usually some sort of comprehension lesson and then go to read to self. It made sense to me for them to practice the skill right after we learned it! You can have them complete a specific task and then choose another activity, or make it more open and differentiate as needed. Listen to reading was on a rotation system, and the kids would just move a clip and go tell the next person it was his/her turn on the cd player, or computer, or whatever. Eventually, I doubled up Word Work/Writing and they could choose.
Clear as mud?! Email me with any other questions! mandytaylor@live.com
Mandy
FirstGradeToTheCore
Hey Kristin!
I am going to email you a novel of a response to this post. I don't do centers, never have and I do language arts all morning. I've only been teaching four years, and don't claim to know it all but I love daily 5 and would love to explain how I do it. Maybe I should do my own little post on this. 🙂
Anyway, I think you and your teaching partner do it however it best suits you. With all things in our classrooms we have to tweak them to fit our classroom and daily 5 is no different. I've done it different every year! So anyway, if you don't mind I'll email you. 🙂
Marcy @ http://busybeesandcupcakes.blogspot.com
Hi Kristen,
Please email me your address you want all your goodies mailed to…. I am so glad you won my give away! My email is on my blog or it is kinderteach50@gmail.com. I teach reading all morning … When the children all get to school we start our with Reading Workshop.. when they are finished they make their reading workshop choices… much like math workstations. Then, I pull a group for guided reading and so does my assistant. We just flip flop groups. I have 3-4 groups daily that I pull. It looks like this, one group with me… one group with assistant… one group at reading stations. It is a circus but it can be done. I pull them for about 20-25 min. a day. We go to brunch at 11:05. Then we have math work stations when we come back for lunch. This is divided into 2 groups. One group is pulled by me and the other by my assistant. Then we flip flop groups. If I am teaching Social studies or science I fit it in after we go outside for recess. I only get a 35 min planning time 4 days a week. It's a tight schedule but I do get it all in. I teach Kindergarten. We are mandated to teach reading at least 90 minutes a day. I feel your pain! Hope this helps.
Oh my gosh Pam, I LOVE how you said, "we go to BRunch everyday at 11:05"? Not sure if you meant that or not, but my classroom (and other 1st grades) go at 10:55 so I'm going to "borrow" this BRunch idea from now on. Hopefully you don't mind. 🙂
Marcy @ http://busybeesandcupcakes.blogspot.com
Kristen,
I am in the process of adding my Daily Five documents to my blog (www.twocandoit.blogspot.com) and soon going to have a page on my website (www.readingresource.net) for D5. In the meantime, I'd be more than happy to send you the stuff I have! Just e-mail me!
Don't panic…I'm sure you will find that you are already doing this stuff already!
Katie
If it helps…I'm pretty sure I bought my Daily 5 book at Barnes/Noble–at the store. With the time you have for L.A., the Daily 5 would be great!! You can join their website too…it was VERY helpful to me. Best of luck…last minute change is so hard!
Just wanted to say "hi" back to you! Don't stress. You will make this change easily and do an awesome job at it. Love you! 🙂
Hi Kristin,
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I am starting Daily 5 also after doing centers for 10 years! So I totally get what you mean. I tried it last year towards the end of the year trying to work out some "bumps" before starting it fresh this year. I am no expert but here is what worked for me. We have block scheduling at my school. Our Language Arts block is from 9:00-11:15.
Here is the schedule I came up.
8:45-9:00 Breakfast
9:00-9:10 Phonemic Awareness/Phonics Lesson
9:10-9:30 Intervention Group and Daily 5
9:30-9:40 Bathroom Break
9:40-9:55 Comprehension/Vocabulary Lesson (usually a read aloud)
9:55-10:15 Reading Group/Daily 5
10:15-10:25 Word Study/Fluency Lesson
10:25-10:45 1/1 Reading Conferences
10:45-10:50 Check In
10:50-11:10 Reading Group/Daily 5
11:10-11:15 Check In and Clean Up
11:15-11:45 Lunch/Recess
11:45-12:15 Science and Social Studies
12:15-1:25 Math/Math Stations/Math Intervention (This seems like a really long time but it is broken up between a whole group lesson, stations/small group, and a minilesson.)
1:25-2:15 Specials (PE, Library, Music, Art)
2:15-2:55 Writers Workshop
2:55-3:10 Clean up/Class Meeting/Authors Study
One of the things I liked most about the change was that my friends were building stamina. My centers worked great before but I always felt like my firsties were not getting enough time with just right books. I also liked having a separate time for Science/SS. I had always integrated it before and over the years had begun to focus more on the LA part than the Science and SS. Now, I feel like I can integrate it but I am not as pressured because I can teach the LA skills more directly during Daily 5 and Café.
We also do a Writers Workshop for 45 minutes at the end of the day. I love this time. It is a calming way to end the day. My kids worked on all daily 5 activities during Daily 5 including writing. However, I saved the writing minilessons for Writers Workshop. They chose what they worked on and I made a check in on the SMARTboard. I have 4 rounds and three mini lessons. I really liked having one round to meet with kids 1/1. However, this meant I did not meet with every group every day-a problem at first but I found it worked great because that is the group I met with 1/1 that day. If I had kids who wanted to do a daily in more than one round…I let them. Sometimes, they would get into a story or book and not want to stop. Since this is actually the stamina I wanted to build.I figured it couldn’t hurt. I just didn't let it become a pattern. I did not have kids work on assigned seat work during daily 5 like I did when I had centers but they did complete response work to books and word work as needed. I found the key was to let them choose when they would use these strategies and if they didn't and I thought they needed to then I "suggested" it during a conference. Hope that helps. Sorry this is so long but I really enjoyed reading all the comments and maybe this can help someone else also. By the way…I see these cute CAFÉ posters all over the blogs with pictures but haven’t found any to download. If you see any…Let me know.
Anais
First Grade Garden
Kristin, I'm not sure what your requirements will be, but if you need help from a non Daily 5 perspective I am more than willing to offer any assistance you need. My school also uses Houghton Mifflin and we have A LOT of requirements for our literacy block that are county mandated based on the Reading First framework. We are required to teach the 5 domains of reading (Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Fluency) daily. Our centers must directly relate back to these skills. It translates to a LOT of prep work. While I am only required to teach literacy for 90 minutes I feel like it needs more time than that and I give it at least 120. I do a 15-30 minute whole group which includes a read aloud and hitting all 5 domains. Then we do centers for about 90 minutes. We are not allowed to include writing instruction in this time, so my writing lessons are separate. However, my centers (especially comprehension and fluency) include a lot of written reader responses. My children only go to one center a day (the county doesn't really like us to do it that way) because I feel it allows them to get into a meatier activity. Once they are done with their required centers for the day they are allowed free choice for supplementary review/word work. I don't know if we use the exact version of Houghton Mifflin that you use, but I'd be more than willing to let you know what we've done for centers for each theme. Email me if you need any help at all. I definitely feel you about those workbooks! I only use them to tear pages out of to send home for homework. (Although the kids love it when I allow them as a free choice! – probably because they are so easy?)
Good Luck! And don't stress out too much, you can always work on establishing your other routines and wait a little while to introduce rotating centers.
Tammi
Having Fun K-1
TammiL(dot)13(at)gmail(dot)com
I swapped from centers to the Daily 5 last year. It definitely takes time to set it up the way "The Sisters" explain in the book. But it is well worth the time spent. You start by teaching the kids how to "Read to Self" first. After that you will add one aspect of the 5 a little at a time. There is no order to how the children make their choices. They can go to writing first (even if you have just taught a phonics lesson). In theory, the activities they do should be for review and not need to be taught right before they are practiced. That's probably the one thing I didn't like and had to change. I felt like my kids should be writing AFTER the writing mini-lesson. In a perfect world I would have time (like the book says) to let the kids free write during Daily 5 and also "structure write" during Writing Workshop… but it's not a perfect world.
The basic format is Mini Lesson– Student Choice 1– Mini Lesson– Student Choice 2 and so on until you cover five lessons and five choices. That was a little too much transition for me. So, I teach a little longer and combine 2 lessons, then my kids go to 2 choices back to back. Once you read the book you will quickly catch on to their plan and it won't be hard to make changes to fit your teaching style and the kids in your class.
The best part, in my opinion, is the amount of time you will have available for small group and independent conferencing. Since the kids go to five choices, you have five 15-20 minute time slots to meet with kids. I used one for intervention, one for a small group (not always my lowest kids), and the other three for individual conferences.
I think once you read the Daily 5 you might not be so reluctant to swap from centers. The biggest challenge is going to be finding time to squeeze in everything else. You can definitely still find one hour for math and writing will be covered in your reading block. It's science/social studies that will suffer. Maybe one of the "five" should be something related to your unit? A box of unit-themed books for "read to someone", maybe a unit-themed activity for "word work", an exploration activity, possibly a writing prompt based on the unit?? With a little thought, you can probably cover a good chunk of the SS/Sciene standards during one Daily 5 activity each day. Just a thought!
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