I can’t believe we only have 2 chapters to go! What?!? Anywho, this chapter is an important one, because it really is what gets the ball rolling with Daily 5! Without this chapter, we really just have read to self…and well, that defeats the whole point on D5, right?
So, how in the world are you supposed to know when to launch the next D5? Unfortunately, there isn’t an exact answer to this, but there are a few things you can think about when trying to decide:
- The age of your students – The 2 Sisters suggests making sure your students have built sufficient stamina in read to self before moving on to work on writing
- Your students in general – would they benefit from having a few days with just read to self? Do they need more modeling correct, incorrect, and correct behaviors?
- What day of the week is it? I’m sure this sounds silly, but I am not about to introduce something new on the Friday of the first week of school! I’m also not going to introduce a new D5 on the Monday of the second week of school. Call me crazy, but it’s just how I roll! Ha! Friday, just because I don’t introduce new things on Fridays, and not Monday because this Monday in particular is filled with LOTS of reviewing expectations, procedures, and routines from the first week of school
So those things being considered, there is no exact time frame or answer. If all things are running along smoothly, I usually introduce the next D5, the second week of school, on Tuesday or Wednesday, as long as my students have about 15 minutes of stamina built. This is a bit longer than The 2 Sisters suggest, but my students tend to lose just a little bit of read to self stamina when I introduce the next D5. I’m not sure why, but it’s happened every year. They gain it back quickly, but it does happen.
This seems like the appropriate time to mention that in the first edition of D5, Read to Someone was introduced second, however, The 2 Sisters decided that introducing Work on Writing should follow Read to Self, and I think this change is brilliant! It’s logical, and I like it. After Read to Self, however, you can technically introduce in whatever makes the most sense with regard to the needs of your students.
Launching Work on Writing
Work on Writing does not take the place of Writer’s Workshop in my class. It’s just an addition opportunity to practice writing. I love this because, we’re all writers. But we’re not necessarily writers who write for the purposes that we teach our students to write (in second grade it’s narratives, informational, and opinion). Most of what we write, are just day-to-day things: emails, posts on social media, blogging, notes, to-do lists, shopping lists, text messages, etc…work on writing provides a time for students to write in any and all of these areas.
Last year, my students could continue writing they were working on during Writer’s Workshop, write in one of our class journals, or do some sort of other writing in their writer’s notebooks. This year, I want to have more options for my writers. Things that encompass the list I shared above.
How does one launch Work on Writing? Well, if you’re new to this study, this would be a great time for you to read the other posts I’ve written as part of this book study. They’ll get you up to speed. You can find them here.
Work on Writing is launched in the same way your launched Read to Self, and while we’re talking about it, so will the other D5 parts. When sharing the options my students have, I start small. Like usually, they start with their Writer’s Notebooks. The next day, I might introduce the class writing journals. Then, I usually wait until their stamina is built in Work on Writing before sharing the other options they have. Too much all at once, tends to not go so well. And typically, time is wasted in trying to choose what to do, rather than actually building stamina.
I do have a writing center in my classroom. It’s not so much a writing center, as it is a place where our writing materials are stored and organized. I wish I had a picture, but I forgot to take one before I left my classroom for the summer. You’ll be able to see it when I do my Classroom Reveal in a month. Part of the launching process is to show students how the writing center is set up and organized. I usually do this as part of a writer’s workshop lesson, and not a D5 lesson.
I also usually have some fun creative writing prompts that are a little lighter than the content we discuss in writer’s workshop. The really great thing about these is that they very sneakily still have students practicing narrative, informational, opinion, and persuasive writing! It’s kind of like sneaking in vegetables by chopping them up and hiding them in the meatloaf! Ha! Take a look below…you might find some of them useful. You can find them here.
Introducing Choice and Releasing Students into Daily 5
Students will continue to build their stamina in both read to self and work on writing, and up until this point, the entire class is doing the same thing at the same time. But, now’s the time to introduce choice. It’s scary, I’m not going to lie. Usually because it’s about this point, that everything is really starting to run along nicely.
The beauty of introducing choice now, though, is that it’s small. They’re choosing one or the other. It’s a nice scaffold for when they’re choosing between 5 different options. The 2 Sisters use a check-in form, however, I don’t. Instead, my sweet friend Chandra from Teaching with Crayons and Curls introduced me to using some inexpensive pans from Dollar Tree, and each student’s name on a small piece of card stock with a magnet on the back. Students move their name to the choice they are choosing. Easy. Plus, I like that I can send a few students at a time. It tends to go more quickly than calling each student one at a time.
On my pans, I have the number of students who can participate in each D5 at a time. For example, only 2 students can do Listen to Reading at a time. I’m getting ahead of myself though.
I do think it’s a good idea to set up some sort of schedule of who you’ll be working with so students know to go to your small group meeting area instead of making a choice. This works well for small groups/guided reading groups. For conferences, I travel to students as they are in the midst of D5, so I want those students to make their choice.
Read to Someone
As I’ve mentioned before, Read to Someone is a fan favorite! Because of this, I limit the number of students who are able to choose this D5. Depending on the number of students I have, this is usually 6 or 8 students, which means 3 to 4 pairs. More than that, and I find it just doesn’t work so well.
When I launch Read to Someone, all students practice it for the first couple of days. It’s important they practice how to find a partner, and get started quickly. Plus, I want students to practice the different ways in which to read with a partner. The resources below can be found in the Daily 5 Resources pack in my TpT store. Or by clicking on any of the pictures below.
Listen to Reading
I’ve already shared much of what I do with Listen to Reading. But I’m not sure that I shared that I do have “Tech Support” jobs in the classroom. These are part of the rotation for all of my classroom jobs, however, I do pay close attention to those that are pretty proficient in the technology we have in the classroom, and make sure that those students are assigned to one of the tech support positions. These are students designated to help if there is an issue with technology. This way, I’m not being interrupted while working with other students. Often, it’s just the case of caps lock being pressed, or mistyping a password. Easy fixes that can be handled by more proficient students.
Word Work
My students really like Word Work (is there a D5 choice I’ve mentioned they don’t love, ha)! I have stamps, markers, letter tiles, and magnetic letters available for my students. Things were either really cheap, or were given to me. I don’t spend a lot of money of the materials here. It’s easy to get carried away, but I keep it small. Plus, I only let 4 students choose word work at a time, otherwise it get really crazy.
Have I mentioned that I can’t believe we only have 2 chapters left? Because, seriously, I can’t! I’m really, really excited about the next chapter because it’s new to this edition, and I’m totally using it in my classroom! The Math Daily 3 is up next! In the meantime, check out these other bloggers (seriously, they’re amazing!).
Happy Reading!