Daily 5, Chapter 5

Since it’s like a million degrees outside today,
I had a good excuse just to stay in and finish reading the remaining three chapters of the Daily 5.  This week’s book study is hosted by Mechelle, Kelli (with freebies), and Melissa (with freebies).

My friend Stef read the Daily 5 book a couple of weeks ago and she told me Chapter 5 really stuck with her, specifically “Read to Someone”.  I looked forward to getting into this chapter to see what it was all about and how it was managed.

Two additional components of the Daily 5 were introduced in this chapter – Read to Someone and Listen to Reading. 

Read to Someone is not only very engaging for the kids because it’s fun, but it also gives them ANOTHER opportunity to practice reading and increases fluency.  This component certainly isn’t rocket science as I think most, if not all, primary teachers have done partner reading in one way or another.  However, the Sisters take it a step or two further. There are three ways to read to someone…
- Read while partner checks for understanding – comprehension work
- I read, You read (same section) – fluency work
- Different Books – take turns reading a section to each other

Like with read to self, direct instruction on the expectations of this component and MODELING it over and over again are the keys.  I can see this turning into chaos in the classroom if the expectations are not made clear from the beginning and revisited often.  The book does include some strategies for solving some concerns that may arise like finding a partner and choosing which book to read together.  Showing the kids how to be reading coaches when their partners struggle with a word or comprehension is also addressed.  The kids are shown that helping isn’t always telling the answer, but sometimes it means giving wait time and being patient.  I like that.

Number 3 of the Daily 5 is Listen to Reading.  This is probably the simplest of components, but one I think is so important.  Most families of the kids in my class struggle with reading at home to their kids. Regardless if it’s lack of language, time, or effort the kids are missing a key piece to developing as readers.  Having the opportunity to listen to good readers read is essential, and a lot of our kids only get that in the classroom.  Audio books with copies of the book to go along with allow kids to get that listening in when they are not working with the teacher.  Again, this is not new for most primary teachers.  An a-ha for me was that the Sisters use individual listening devices rather than several students at a listening center.  Most of my books on tape have only a single book with them so it is difficult for a group to follow along with the words.  The individual devices allow for students to actually follow along, pointing to the words as they read.  Also, rather than the teacher deciding what book the group will listen to, each child has a little more choice if it is individual. 

I have boxes of books on tape so technically this should be easy.  However, they are cassette tapes so finding individual listening devices, ya know those cassette walkmans from the 80s,  will be more difficult.  There is a way of converting the tapes into mp3 which can then be burned on a cd or listened to on the computer or mp3 player.  The cost of it was quite reasonable, but the amount of time it takes might be an issue with hundreds of tapes to convert.  If anyone ran into and solved the same dilemma, I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

Overall, this chapter put a refreshing take on some old school strategies.  I enjoyed reading about some ways to make them even more effective.  It is also clear that modeling and practicing the expectations for each component are so important in order for the kids (not the teacher) to manage themselves.  I know that once the school year gets into full swing and each day is a time crunch to fit everything in, the constant revisiting will be difficult.  If I feel that I’m having to manage it too much, I won’t want to do it anymore.  I hope to frontload these strategies the first few weeks of school and then embed some time regularly into the year to keep things running smoothly. 

Here’s the linky thingy…