Action Research Project By Faith Witham University of St. Mary

Will interventions decrease the amount of disruptions and the number of students off task during Daily 5? Research Question:

Desired Outcome Improve student self-regulation and increase small group instructional time by allowing student choice during Daily 5. Interventions Modeling expectations of how to make good choices for each component of Daily 5 Student choice during daily 5 student daily self-assessment sheet

What is Daily 5? Daily 5 is a series of literacy tasks that allows the teacher to meet with a small reading group or confer with individual students. Daily 5 is a structure that promotes student independence through choice. This structure was highly encouraged in our school district to differentiate and meet the needs of our students in small reading groups

Read to Self - students are able to choose appropriate reading level books and build their independent reading stamina. Components of Daily 5 Work on Writing -self- selected topics is chosen by student to freely write about what matters to them. Read to Someone - students are able to successfully choose a partner to practice building fluency, use reading strategies, and frequently check for partner understanding. Listen to Reading- students listen to examples of fluent readers while following along in text to build vocabulary. Work on Words- vocabulary words and spelling words are used in a variety of ways for students to experiment with high- frequency words and recognize spelling patterns

What Researchers say…  Boushey and Moser (2005) consistently emphasize how essential it is for teachers to observe and intervene immediately when an undesired behavior is observed and discuss has a whole group desired expectations.  “Self-selection of reading material is clearly linked to student enjoyment and sustained reading experiences” (Palmer & Codliing, 1994).  “…’managed choice’ is the instructional environment that allows students to work on similar but different tasks. “ (Kracl, p )

Interview Process Interviewee: A veteran teacher in my building. She used to teach 3rd grade with me a couple of years ago and is currently teaching 2nd grade. She has been using Daily 5 for 3 years. Three teachers at various grade levels were given a survey on their experience with Daily 5.

Interview Results How do you manage students’ misbehavior during Daily 5 when you are in the middle of teaching a small group? If I am in the middle of small group, I will tell them to move their clip and then following small group I will have a visit with them of their actions and why they were asked to move their clip. Moving their clip results in loss of recess time. Usually a simple reminder will work. What strategies seem to help your students stay on task? Strategies that seem to really help with launching Daily 5 are explicit instruction, modeling, and lots of practice. I usually pick a student who struggles with behavior to model both incorrect behavior and correct behavior. How do you manage student choices during Daily 5 and making sure they are getting a good balance of reading, writing, and spelling practice? I assign students a Daily 5 activity for he first quarter. Until they become comfortable and familiar with each component.. After the first quarter, I allow students to make their own choices. I call off each student’s name in the morning and they report their choice back to me.

Interview continued… Summary: Allowing choice in the classroom allows students to be a part of the decision-making process. When students feel they have more power of what they activity they can do, they are more likely to spend a longer amount of time staying on task. Some students may need more modeling and more practice to build up their reading stamina than others.

Survey Results Survey QuestionsTeacher ATeacher BTeacher C Amount of Daily 5 teaching experience 1 year2 years3 years What grade do you teach? 3rd4th5th How many mini lessons do you teach? 5 days10 days5-8 days How do you set a purpose? Through modeling Uses objectives for each component Explicit instruction, modeling, and practice How do you manage student choices? Teacher makes choice for student until they show they are responsible to make their own choices. Students move clip on chart to make their choice. Students cannot repeat an activity until they have completed each one. Teacher has checklist and each morning student announces what they activity they will complete. Students also have a Daily 5 chart to check off their activity. How does providing choices increase student motivation and stamina? They get to choose, within limits, what they feel like doing that day. They take more ownership in their work and spend a longer period of time on that activity. Choices allow students to become more comfortable and feel as if they are the ones in charge. How do you manage students’ behavior if they become off task? Students are asked to revisit the anchor chart to read expectations of that activity. Students are asked to return to desk if behavior occurs again. A quick reminder is usually all that is needed. Students are asked to revisit anchor chart. If it is a repeated behavior, student is asked to do another activity and closer to guided reading table near teacher. Do you have any successful suggestions? Daily 5 for math called BUILD works just as well for guided math. Consistency and enforce expectations in the beginning while introducing each component. Assigning specific spots around the room for each activity. Turning the lights off allowing natural light to calm students.

Methodology 1. Modeling Daily 5 with the use of Anchor Charts for the first 10 days of school. 2. Modeling how to use the self-assessment sheet the first 10 days. 3.First week of Daily 5, track the amount of disruptions on tally chart for baseline data. 4.Students make a choice of activity in the morning and provided time to take a daily self-assessment of students’ daily 5 work. 5.Following three weeks of implementation, compare weekly tallies to baseline data.

Artifacts Artifact #1: The daily student self-assessment sheet will allow students to rate themselves as far as getting started right away, staying on task, and transitioning. Did you… 123 Get right to work? I did not get right to work. It took me a few minutes to get to work. I got right to work. Stay focused and work the whole time? I did not stay focused the whole time. I was a little unfocused, but remained focused most of the time. I was completely focused the whole time. Complete quality work? I did not complete quality work. I completed some quality work. I completed quality work. Transition to my next daily 5 or small group teacher on time? I needed a reminder to get back on task with my next activity. It took a few minutes for me to transition to my next activity. I quickly cleaned up and transitioned to my next activity. Writing___ Read to Self___Read to Someone____Reading Group____ Word Work___Listening___ Total Score ___/12 How did you do at Daily 5 today? Comments: _________________________________________________________________________________________________

Total Disruptions During Daily 5 Small Group Artifact #2: A recording sheet of tallies and a graph comparing the baseline data of the number of disruptions during the practice of Daily 5 and the number of disruptions throughout the following weeks of implementing the interventions.

Artifact #3 Students will take a survey that will provide feedback from students on their perspective as an independent reader and the importance of reading. At the end of the three weeks, the same survey to see if students’ thinking have changed since implementing Daily 5 choice and self-assessment.

Conclusions Teachers that have used Daily 5 have allowed student choice during the school year and with explicit teaching and modeling, teachers have seen positive results with behavior management. Based off the results from the interview and surveys, students are more likely to self-regulate and stay on task when provided the opportunity to make their own choice. Future implementation: I will incorporate some “wrap-up“ time following Daily 5 for students to share what they worked on during Daily 5. By allowing students to share, I believe other students may become more interested in reading books they hear about from their peers. **Conclusions and Reflection is based off survey and interview results due to currently not in a classroom.

Reflection Students need many opportunities for practice and reflection on their progress appropriate decision-making. Modifications may need to be made with the self-reflection sheet if students need alternate expectations.

References Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2006). The Daily 5: Fostering literacy independence in the elementary grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Kracl, C. (2011). Managing small group instruction through the implementation of literacy work stations. (Published doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska) Retrieved from Palmer, B. M., Gambrell, L. B., & Codling, R. M. (1994). In their own words: What elementary students have to say about motivation to read. National Reading Research Center, 48(2), Retrieved May 22 from Academic Search Complete database.