The success of Daily 5
By Soledad Ponce - 5th grade teacher
This year Godspell proposed a different modality to teach and work on literacy and enhance the skills of our students, through Daily 5.
The best part? I see a genuine enthusiasm for reading in my students. They want to share their books and writings with me. They tell me about the new books that their parents bought them and have in their houses.
They are not only learning, they are enjoying and adding value to their learning. They are excited and ready to continue growing and learning, with the goal of becoming better readers and writers.
Daily 5 in our classes:
We first explore the 10 steps to learning to be independent. We set out to model, explain, and exercise the concept of "Stamina," which is endurance, perseverance, or the ability to focus on reading and writing without distractions.
We start with the first station of Daily 5: Read to Self/Leer solo . At this station we have to choose books of our interest that we can read without getting lost in looking for word meanings. To do this, we model how to choose books that are consistent with the_cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_read level of each.
It was also important to know how to choose a place, a space to be comfortable and not change places or talk with colleagues. With the goal clarified_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_started motivated to choose in small groups books to read and place them in their personal bags.
Read to Self
At first the stamina didn't last even two minutes. When a student breaks stamina because he gets distracted or starts doing something else a knocker sounds and they all come to the mat to reflect and we fill in the graph together. Having the graph is essential for the kids to see how they are improving. As we practiced, the level of concentration grew as well as their interest in reaching the goal.
We went from a minute of Stamina the first day to more than 20 minutes in fifteen days.
Pictures of how reading stamina grows day by day
The goal of the second station, "Work on Writing / Practice writing" is to get our students to write freely on the topic that interests them most using the modality that most appeals to them. They can write personal stories, narrate unforgettable moments, create books on the topics that most interest them in the format of stories, letters, poems, etc. A key component of the station is being able to share writing with the rest of the class.
The other three stations are "Read to Someone/Leerle a algo", Listening to Reading/Escuchar la Lectura" and "Word Work/Work with words".
Once we practice all the stations together, the students can choose which rotation they want to go to each day.
Read to Someone
Word Work
Work on Writing
Listening to Reading
