DAILY 5 IN 4 TH GRADE

What is Daily 5  A management process to answer the question “What do the other students do while I am doing reading groups?”  Daily 5 is not your instruction…guided reading is your instruction.

Read to Self  Students need leveled books they can read.  Students find a quiet comfortable place in the classroom to read independently.  Students continue to read in the same place until the signal to change.

Read to Self

Work on Writing  Students need a journal or portfolio to write in or store their writing.  Students find a quiet and comfortable place in the classroom to write independently.  Students choose a topic to write about.  If students don’t know how to spell a word they sound the word out, underline the word and continue without disrupting their teacher.  Students continue to write in the same place until the signal to change.

Work on Writing

Work on writing

Read to Someone  Students need leveled books they can read.  Students sit side by side so they can talk quietly and see the same book.  Students can choose to read the same book or separate books.  Students check for understanding by asking each other questions about their reading.

Read to Someone

Word Work  Students need various supplies they can use for word work.  Students sit alone and work on vocabulary activities independently.  Students work from their weekly vocabulary list  Students check for understanding by asking each other questions about their reading.

Word Work

Listen to Reading  Students need computer with head phones.  Students go to or other websites where they can hear fluent reading.  Students listen to stories

Listen to Reading

Move slow to go fast  I did not pull reading groups this year until October.  If you really train students the process of daily 5 your guided reading groups will flow very smoothly.

Training students  Part of training students is setting expectations for each component by creating an I-Chart  I in I-Chart stands for independence  After setting the expectations you have to hold students accountable for the expectations the class created.

building stamina  The three minute start  Students start each component for only three minutes.  As students can successfully complete a component for a set amount of time add a few minutes each time up to 30 minutes.

The components  As students build stamina of minutes add another component  It is suggested the components are presented in this order  Read to self  Work on writing  Read to someone  Word work  Listen to Reading

I-Chart Examples

The components  Teaching students to work independently is very important to making daily 5 work in your classroom!  My students don’t notice when they work a little longer in a rotation or for a little less time.

What materials do I need?  Leveled books  A way of knowing specific reading levels for students  Chart tablets  Paper  Pencils  Crayons  Individual book storage  A comfortable environment for learning.  A signal so they know when the round is over.  A gathering place for when the round of daily 5 is over.