Background
Around 2010, our school district hopped on the Daily 5 bandwagon. Administration called it a “non-negotiable” and required staff to do one hour of Daily 5 per day. So, each teacher was handed a Daily 5 book and was required to implement it in the classroom.
I learned about the five parts of Daily 5. Then I began to think of what this would look like in my classroom. I had a huge hanging chart attached to a chalkboard where I placed students’ names and then made little cards with the 5 choices and a color card for their guided reading group. Students would come to the board every morning and make their three choices; I required read to self every day.
Starting the Daily 5
When I started Daily 5, I had to organize my guided reading groups to fit into the mold as well. So based on recommendations from the Daily 5 book and the district, I would meet with my two low groups every day, my middle group every other day, and then my top two groups about 4 out of every 10 days. I figured out the logistics of this and grouped my students accordingly.
When crunching the numbers, I did not like what I was seeing. Yes, I was meeting with my low group 20 minutes a day during Daily 5. That meant there was 40 minutes a day, or 200 minutes a week that they were not getting direct instruction or even guidance from the teacher. But when I looked at my middle group it was even worse.
Low Readers
Many of these readers were still not at grade level and they were receiving on average 60 minutes of instruction a week (meeting 3 out of 5 days). So they were not being taught by me for 240 minutes a week. The worst, however, was my top two reading groups. Since I was seeing them on average 2 out of every 10 days for instruction (about 20 minutes a week), that meant that they were not having any teacher contact for 280 minutes a week! How is this OK for my students?
So, for the past 4 years, I followed our district guidelines and watched our district and state assessments flat line. Students were not showing gains in reading. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. They were not receiving direct instruction from their teacher that they needed.
Management Nightmare
The Daily 5 choice time became more of a management nightmare than a “golden key” to unlock student motivation and achievement. Many of my low readers who had 40 minutes of choice time each day would not use it effectively. No matter how hard I tried to structure their time, they were not on task, or were not making meaningful choices to show academic growth. I would have to sometimes even interrupt my guided reading group to get those students back on task.
A Change Was Needed
Last year I also made the decision to eliminate read to someone and listen to reading at the 5th grade level. No matter how hard I tried to teach the importance of fluency and comprehension for read to someone, I would have 5th graders pair up and not use their time wisely; it would happen on a daily basis. I also took away the listen to reading station because it did not prove effective for 5th grade students to listen to a story for 15 minutes. At this level they need to work on being independent readers, not listening to a story for 15 minutes.
So I was down to the core three choices: read to self, word work and work on writing. I used Words Their Way for the word work portion and that proved to be effective for most of the students. For work on writing I allowed students to continue to work on a writing project from class, or had writing choices for them to choose from. I kept read to self the same because I wanted students to have choice of what they were reading. But the minutes of instruction that I was not with the students didn’t change.
New Beginning
At the beginning of this school year, I decided to only have 4 guided reading groups instead of 5 which was recommended by the district. That way I could meet with each group every day for 15 minutes. I thought this way that I could reach all of my students every day. But students were now having 45 minutes of choice time compared to 40 with the old system.
I began to critically think about what is best for students. At the 5th grade level, students are getting ready to move onto middle school and more complicated texts, both in fiction and non-fiction. The time they were getting with me for instruction just wasn’t enough. Also, at the middle and high school level, texts are not leveled. Students will need to read what their peers read. This went against leveled guided reading groups and the Daily 5.
As in year’s past, I had a classroom subscription to Scholastic News. But I would either hand them out for students to read during Daily 5, or would use them as filler when we had those days where there was an extra spot in the day. That all changed this year, and I have to say that I have seen a huge improvement in not only students’ time on task during reading, but also their reading scores as well!
Day 1
This year I am still meeting with 4 groups, but not every day. I am now mixing abilities into each group. We follow a three day pacing guide for each Scholastic News article. The first day we watch the introductory video as a class that is online about each topic. Then I break the students into partners and they share what they learned from the video and what questions they have in regard to the topic. We follow it up with a whole class discussion.
Then, I have the whole class read the article by themselves. As they are reading, each student has a highlighter that they are using for a few purposes. They highlight: words they don’t know, parts they don’t understand, parts that they found interesting, and anything else that struck them as wanting to discuss in the next class. If students finish this before the hour is over, then they are allowed to have choice. But I am now free to monitor this and even meet with students to discuss the books they are reading, something that was missing from my previous instruction during Daily 5.
Day 2
On day 2, I meet with the 4 groups. This day is a time to go over what the students highlighted in the featured article. We have rich, and deep discussions about their thoughts, their questions, and their understanding of the text. I assign the students to find evidence from the text with some questions that I post. So they then go back to their seats with the purpose of finding that evidence. The students that I am not meeting with are still doing their choices, but it is just this day that they are doing this.
Day 3
On day 3, we meet as a whole class and discuss the evidence that students found. I then hand out an assessment that has most of the same questions, and one or two new ones. Their goal is to work independently to answer the questions and use support from the text. Students are highly engaged during this reading time. They work hard to re-read the text again, find evidence, and write it down into meaningful sentences. It is easy for me to offer support to anyone that needs it in a quick and easy way. I am not tied down by reading groups during this hour.
Fiction
For fiction text, I used the Notice and Note reading program and we did a whole class novel together. This lead to many creative ways to hold discussions about the book we were reading. I could do partner share, group share, whole class share, and guided reading groups as well. The students loved using sticky notes to track their signposts and enjoyed the discussions we had about the literary elements in the book. Once again, I wasn’t tied down to only seeing students for 15-20 minutes. I could be actively engaged with them during the whole hour block.
Since implementing these approaches this school year, my students scores have gone up on both the DRA and STAR assessments. Through four months of teaching, my class as a whole has gone up over .5 in scores on the STAR assessment.
It may not all work for all teachers, but Daily 5 was not working in my classroom. I would love to hear your stories about what works in your upper elementary classroom in regard to reading instruction.
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I’m not teaching reading per se this year (yet I do whatever I can in SS) but I still wanted to hear your take on this! I definitely agree that independent reading is the most important component for kids in upper elementary especially. In the past, I’ve seen more growth from that than anything. Love how you guys always seek out ways to maximize learnin time while working around some pretty strict guidelines.
Thanks Andrea for your comments. The ultimate goal is student success and we are always trying to find ways to help our students reach their potential. Daily 5 was not doing it for our students.
I felt your pain when I read the start of the article about the bandwagon – this goes on where I live in Australia too and I have stubbornly refused to join in at any school I have worked despite being told to. Most will hop on a new bandwagon every year and this leaves no chance for anything to be properly implemented or results to be evaluated long-term. The reason behind my decision is that my students have always consistently improved when in my class in reading particularly and I figure why should I change something which is already effective. I have watched my colleagues go along with management so as not to ‘rock the boat’ and guess what? Each time their students progress less or in some cases not at all.
I wish as teachers we were given the professional courtesy by management/leadership to make decisions on how to teach in our own classrooms – after all, that’s why we went off to university! I like hearing about new methods and occasionally dabbling to see if it suits the needs of my students – but I will not be told ‘I must’ when it is my classroom and me that becomes answerable as to progress at the end of the year!
I really enjoyed reading your experiences. (Daily 5 is actually one I have heard of but not seen in any schools I have worked at yet).
A lot can be said for trusting the professional judgement of teachers. If reading scores are increasing, then something right must be happening in the classroom!
I found your article interesting. A lot of what you have discovered was how I felt and is certainly what the new edition of the Daily 5 states. Their intention was not 5 rotations a day but 5 things that should be taught each day. I think just as everything else, the success of Daily 5 depends on the teacher…
Well said Lezlie. There are some interesting ideas in this article but I think it depends on how programs are implemented. I haven’t used daily 5 so I can’t comment on the use of it. one thing that concerns me is that the author\s of this article missed one of the main aims of Daily 5 – to promote independent learners. sure there needs to be some time for teacher instruction but we have to be careful not to scaffold too much. The article features discussion about hours not spent with students, particularly the higher groups. This comes across as the teacher not being ok with letting go of control and allowing students to steer their learning. If they are capable readers, they should be capable of being more independent. Don’t get me wrong though, it would still need to be a balance and of course we need to spend time discussing things with those kids. However, in order to extend and challenge students, they do need substantial opportunities to do things on their own. If we don’t do that, then we’re not setting them up to be successful in Middle School
We 100% agree it depends on the teacher!
On day 2, when you meet with the 4 groups, what are your other students working on at that time?
Since it is in 15 minute block increments for the other three groups, the first block of time is finishing up what we did together in guided reading groups on Day 1. So that would be reading the text and looking for key details and unfamiliar words. One of the other blocks of time has to be reading a book of their choice for enjoyment. I still feel that is so important. The third choice is usually continuing work from writing class which we have right before our reading block. Kids love the extra time to continue to work on their narratives, persuasive essays, informational writing, and other writing topics covered throughout the year.
You have completely missed the whole point of Daily 5! Makes me so frustrated when poor teachers like you blast a system that is fully research based and yet what you are doing flies in the face of research.
Most importantly, I find it fascinating that you are offering products all around The Daily 5, which is trademarked and copyrighted, yet you do not give credit where credit is due. Who is jumping on a bandwagon? You are a sad representation of teachers everywhere.
Peter,
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. However, I would be shocked if you were involved in the education field for deciding to say that we are “a sad representation of teachers everywhere.” This is a very irrational statement coming from someone who has never set foot into our classrooms. We have taught for over a combined 40 plus years and have watched countless classes of students pass district and state mandated tests.
Yes, we do have FREE Daily 5 resources in our TPT store, under the store name Wise Guys. If you read the description, it gives FULL credit to the two sisters, and was approved by them and the administrators at TPT. I encourage you to download them in our store if you are a proponent. Once again, our store is Wise Guys on TPT.
Have a great day Peter!
I think you need to review the “fact” that it is “fully researched.” Furthermore, “the sisters” themselves are just out to profit by placing a new spin on simple tasks and giving them catchy phrases. They’re by no means reinventing the wheel.
I read your article with interest and found myself agreeing with you more than once. I, too, have tried to implement the Daily 5 in my fifth grade classroom (after using it successfully in grade 3), but with 55 min. to “do it all”, I was finding I couldn’t “do it all.” I like the way you have set up the 3 day rotation, and am seriously looking at implementing it when we return from spring break. I do have a balanced literacy schedule established and feel that would work nicely within the time frame. Thank you for representing those of us who feel as you do but don’t have the avenues to express our thoughts.
Nancy
Thanks Nancy! As educators we have to find what works for us!
If you have ever had the opportunity to attend a workshop offered by the sisters, they are very clear that D5 rotations in grades 3-5 are limited to 2 longer rotations-one for read to self and the other for work on writing. Also, if you’ve read the book, it is clear that students should be of mixed ability with the same need in terms of strategy not grouped by a guided reading levels. As with everything, there is good and bad. If someone has figured out the right way to teach reading then by all means package that formula up and sell it!
We have thought about it! Maybe we could be “The Two Brothers?” 😉
The structure you were using for The Daily 5 was recommended for primary grades. In the upper grades, you should have two longer rounds, pulling your groups by strategy rather than by levels then going around having conferences with students. I think the biggest problem your district had was implementing it as non-negotiable. It’s offensive to most teachers, myself included. It’s because of that I’m assuming you did not follow the recommendations of the authors of the Daily 5 and thus your program suffered.
I believe whatever works for a particular teacher should be applauded. Education is not an assembly line process. We became teachers so that we could be creative and do whatever it takes to reach our students. I’ve been in the profession for 35 years and have seen many “New” ideas come and go. Most are just renamed or a combination of strategies teachers have been using for years. Testing requirements and standards have taken the joy out of learning and teaching, the sooner “they” understand this and leave teachers alone to teach the better off our future generations will be.
I am so glad I read this article and the comments. I see I need to re-read the Daily 5 book. Daily 5 has not been working as well for me this year with my current 3rd graders, as it has in the past. I am wanting to do go more in the direction of a reading workshop model. Lots to think about.
Also I wanted to say that I was planning to do the same thing for when I get back from spring break until the end of the year. I have several Scholastic News I haven’t gotten to and I feel I never do them justice. It is affirming that you have done this also and it works well.
I discovered Daily 5 a few years ago and went to a training with the Sisters. I tried it out for less than half a year, when I decided it was probably more for lower elementary than upper. I ditched the “read to partner” early on. I decided the “listen to reading” was when I read out loud during snack time. So that got me down to the 3 you mentioned, which is what Upper Elem needs. My kids do a lot of independent reading, and I do a “page check” every day. They tell me the title of the book they are reading, and the page they are on. I type it in on Google docs and show it on the Smart Board, and the kids absolutely love seeing how many books they’ve read throughout the year. I told them it was getting too long and I wanted to start a new, clean doc and they all had a fit! And if I forget to do it, they ask for it. A Stephanie Harvey workshop I went to last year made me leave believing that kids need time to read! And by always pulling out the low kids for instruction, they always get less time to read than anyone, when they are the ones who need more.
I don’t know what I’d do without the Daily 5. Prior to it’s implementation I struggled with what to do with my other students when meeting with small groups of kids. Granted, I use my professional judgement and change things up a bit, but my Read to Self kids are reading more than ever and my Read to Someone students are accountable for summarizing what they’ve read.
Thank you for your honest post about the Daily 5. I’ve been trying to decide if this is the “new and better” way to go for my kindergartners and I’m starting to believe that I should just do what I know already works. It seems like a lot of work and if five graders need more support etc. then my little ones need me even more. I’ll try some of it just to see but I think it will look different. Happy teaching.
I will be teaching 5th grade ELAR/Social Studies this year. I have a 90 minute block of time for my ELAR and want to implement the Daily 5 at a 5th grade level. I found your article to be very informative and useful as it applies to my teaching position this year. I hope I can be successful with them and instill in them a love of reading.
Jennifer — I am moving to a Grade 5 teaching position (ELAR/Social Studies) – my principal wants me to implement the Daily 5 in my classroom. I haven’t got a clue!! I was wondering — how did it work for you? Can you give me any ideas of what to do initially? I have the book and I am willing to give it a go, but am a bit overwhelmed right now. Thank you so much for your feedback!
I teach 5th grade and have been slowly implementing D5 and CAFE over the last 3 years. I love D5 as a structure to teach my students to sit and read for more than 5 min. I use the 10 steps to teaching and learning independence to teach “everything” in my classroom. I use it for how to sit and read, how to enter the classroom, how to walk in the hallway etc. I have attended 2 of the The Sister’s conferences and learned D5 is nothing but a classroom management framework. Once I figure that out I was able to use the 10 steps more effectively. I got over very quickly I can’t use the daily 5 in D5. I have a 50 min. period and all my students get is Read to Self and Writing to Self (sometimes). My 10-12 min. read to self time is daily and my students LOVE it and if that time is missed they want it back. I do confer in that 10 mins of D5 but generally my low readers and book hoppers. I am still pretty slow but each year with practice I am faster than I was. After our read to self time I switch into what my district wants me to teach. I have learned to connect my Texas standards to the CAFE menu and use the lessons when I can from the D5/CAFE website. From what I read in your post I sensed frustration and not a clear understanding that D5 is not written in stone. As teachers we can manipulate D5 however we need to in order to fit our classroom. If all you use is the D5 framework to teach your students to sit and read independently for a period of time, you are using it successfully!!!
Beautifully said!!! You understand the Daily 5!!! I had to release my grip of the front of the classroom, and teach my students (and then trust my students) to read independently, write independently, and do word work!!! I LOVE when I hear a student chuckle out loud because they are so engrossed in their book that they get lost in where they are!!! I never had that, and I desperately want that for them!!! The Daily 5 does work – you can modify it to your classroom and your teaching style!!!
I wanted to know, what do you do with your students that’s not on grade level?
Thank you so much for the article. I purchased the book, watched the videos online and listened to advocates of the programme. However, it wasn’t until a colleague mentioned that I already had a reading/writing model that was working for me that I decided that I would take bits and pieces and incorporate it into my programme.
I, too, am a huge fan of Scholastic News in a 5th Grade classroom. I use almost all of the components, including the vocabulary the videos, and especially the writing prompts. The close reading questions have really been helping with comprehension. The articles really lend themselves to small group instruction and follow up discussions, as you said.
Yes, we have found that Scholastic News does a great job of providing questions that align with the CCSS and is a great tool for informational text.
Our district has also asked that teachers use Daily 5, but in conjunction with the Fountas and Pinnel guided reading model. We do our whole class mini lesson first which is where we hit our standards for the whole group. Then we break out into daily 5 and do our groups and work with teacher. It just sounded like from your article that you didn’t know how to meet with ALL your students to get the content that you needed to teach across to them but that’s where the mini lesson portion comes to play. Then wrap it up and review at the end. We try to pace and plan for one standard a week so we are slowly building on the same skill all week long. When students to do read to self, they are tasked with working on some whatever strategy we worked on in the mini lesson to practice the strategy. This is what has worked for us. Hope this helped!
Do you rotate between nonfiction and fiction every 3 days?
Mary Jo, no we usually rotate after finishing a whole class novel or guided reading group. We try to cover both fiction and nonfiction every trimester at our school.