Daily Five

Freebies:

http://freebie-licious.blogspot.ca/2013/07/daily-5-goodies.html

The term "The Daily Five" refers to the five choices that the students can choose from during their scheduled reading time.

Five Choices

1. Read to Self - Students choose a book, find a comfortable spot in the classroom, and read to themselves. This is the first step in Daily Five and forms the foundation for creating independent readers and writers. Like all of the components in Daily Five, Read to Self seems basic and simple, but teaching some specific reading techniques can make Read to Self a powerful tool for enhancing all literacy skills." (The Daily 5, p.46)

2. Read to Someone - Students pair up with a partner and take turns reading to each other.  While one student acts as the "reader", the other acts as the "Checker" who re-tells what was read by the "reader".  This skill is called "check for understanding".  Research shows that taking turns while reading increases reading involvement, attention, and collaboration." (The Daily 5, p. 60), so having students read with someone helps them become more self-sufficient and less reliant on the teacher for assistance.

3. Work on Writing - Students write about different topics in their writing journals.  "The writing component of the Daily Five provides additional support children require to become effective writers. Its purpose is to provide daily writing practice."(The Daily Five, p. 80)

4. Listen to Reading - While at a listening center, students follow along as they listen to a book. Listening to Reading is valuable for developing fluency and vocabulary.

5. Word Work - Students use different means to create words or different work studies such as sorting words, learning prefixes, suffixes and roots, etc .  "Creating and maintaining a time during each literacy block to focus on words is critical to developing readers, writers and communicators." (The Daily Five, p.85)

CAFE:  Also created by "The Sisters" CAFE is a menu of strategies that reflect the skills students must have in order to become proficient readers.  The CAFE acronym is as follows:

• Comprehension:  This is the most important on the menu, but also the most difficult for many students to achieve.  Comprehension includes skills such as making inferences, determining main idea, analyzing author's purpose, and recognizing literary elements.  

• Accuracy:  This skill is simply about reading the words correctly.  Most middle school readers have mastered this skill; however, when difficult text, some may need to rely on strategies such as blending sounds or chunking pieces of the word to sound it out.  

• Fluency:  Fluency involves reading with expression and not word by word.  Students use punctuation to determine phrasing. They can also adjust and apply different reading rates depending on the text.  Readers at the middle school level are usually equipped with the skills and strategies to be fluent readers.

• Expand Vocabulary:  Every student, no matter what their reading level, needs to  work on expanding vocabulary.  Expanding vocabulary includes skills such as using context clues, breaking words down into pieces (morphemes), bringing in prior knowledge, and relying on tools such as glossaries and dictionaries.

*There may be scheduling constraints at the middle school level, and the independent reading skills of students may be more advanced so the structure can be adapted ex: Daily 3 . 

VIDEOS: 

Daily 5: Introduction  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvHn_cHWl4

Read to Self Ichart   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVxqe04k8qg

Read to Someone: A Component Of The Daily Five  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkCqhzkp9s0

How to Use CAFÉ: Involving Students in Building Essential Reading Skills http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfJEp-thTeM

The Pensieve Daily 5 Cafe Book https://www.thedailycafe.com/cafe/starting-out/pensieve

Word Work in a Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Classroom  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_W6rrrUQ3I

English Language Learners