The Daily 5 in the Intermediate Grades 3-5: Introduction

We’re sure that we are not the only intermediate teachers out there that have looked into adapting the Daily 5 into their classrooms. We have always been looking for best practices to promote literacy with our students and have found the structure of the Daily 5 to be of great benefit to the students. Our hope is to help share ideas, strategies, and activities that we have created to help you implement the Daily 5 into your classroom.

If you are not familiar with the Daily 5, here is a breakdown and short description of the five components:

1. Read To Self: students independently read books of their choice in the classroom for a sustained period of time.
2. Read To Someone: a pair of students read books to each other and check for understanding of what has been read.
3. Work on Writing: Students have a choice of what to write about and spend the entire time writing.
4. Word Work: Students do various spelling, grammar, and language skill activities in the classroom.
5. Listen To Reading: students are able to listen to books through vairous media (tape, CD, mp3…) at a designated location in the classroom.

Make sure to purchase the book: The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. It will be a great help to get you started on the Daily 5

We will be using this blog to share our journey with you. We hope this will help benefit all of us, especially other intermediate teachers who have been or will be implementing the Daily 5. Our future blog posts will include:

•  Organizing Your Classroom
• Read to Self
• Read to Someone
• Work on Writing
• Word Work
• Listen to Reading
• Assessment
• Pulling it All Together

Please feel free to comment on your thoughts regarding this topic.