To Daily 5 or not to Daily 5? That Is The Question….

Last summer I began to see tweets using the Daily5 hastag (#Daily5) and hear about teachers discussing the implementation of the CAFE model.  I had been looking for a program that would help me improve my student’s reading skills, so I immediately purchased both books……and then thought nothing else of it.  About mid way in the school year, I began to work with small groups in a way that seemed beneficial.  Most of the work assigned to students working independently was on the computer – and I was fine semi-ok with that, but I felt like there were other more activities that the students could be completing that would also be beneficial.  Besides, it takes some time before the students (well actually I) became comfortable with using the netbooks independently and I wanted activities that I could begin right away while I was conferencing with students and/or groups.

I was also disatisfied with my independent reading program.  Many of my students were not reading, they were just going through the motions and by the end of the year I just wanted the fakers to be quiet so that the one’s who wanted to read – actually could without their disruptions.  But, I knew that the fakers were the ones who really needed to be reading – I just couldn’t reach them.

Insert the Daily Five.  This summer, I opened my Kindle app on my iPad and actually began reading The Daily Five.  Voila!   Here was a program thaat I could implement on Day One that was composed of all the components that are essential to students being successful as proficient readers.

I truly feel that the concept of the Daily 5 is what I need, although there are a few obstacles I need to overcome.  One:  I only have a 60 minute block to teach reading and writing skills.  Two:  I will have aproximately 100 students total this year.  I have found resources that support a 60 minute block and have begun pulling resources to support what will probably look like the Daily 2 or 3.

Students will rotate between Read to Self (Daily), Word Work, Work on Writing, and possibly Listen to Reading.  I have purchased Composition Notebooks, which will be where they will complete their Daily 2 or 3 assignments, I think…..

Daily 5 Notebooks

Stay tuned for upcoming posts on each section of the Daily 5 2 or 3 implementation….

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7 Comments
  1. Good luck with the implementation. Are you in an elementary or middle school? If elementary, do some of your colleagues already use Daily 5? If so, could they be support? If not in an elementary school could you contact elementary school teachers in your district to find out if they use it?

    I have dabbled in Daily 5 the past three years (I teach fourth grade). The only one of the activities I don’t do is “listen”. I don’t believe students at this age benefit from just passively listening to a story being read. I guess my whole group read aloud is my “listening” activity. We cognitively interact with the text while reading. Best wishes!

    • I am in a middle school and I don’t think that anyone in our district is using Daily 5. I have put Listen to Reading in and taken it out almost a dozen times. I’m still tossing ideas around, but one thought is that probably my extremely low students will be the only ones to participate in this activity. Another idea is to have students make connections (Text to Self, Text, and World) during Read to Self and Listen to Reading. That’s one of the reason why I want to use those composition notebooks. I really don’t want to have to deal with a bunch of worksheets. I really plan to push “active” reading this year.*fingers crossed*

  2. I tossed around Daily 5 and CAFE all year last year. I too am a 6th grade middle school teacher and struggled with how to do this in a 60-75 minute period seeing 100-120 students every day. I can really see where this would be helpful for my kids (low readers and ESL/ELL). I look forward to seeing your ideas, keep us posted!

  3. As a 4/5 multiage teacher in an elementary building, I used Daily 5 (by the book) with great success for the past two year. I have never seen students so excited to read. It was almost too simple – the more they read, the better readers they become. My team had an 90 minute literacy block for Daily 5.

    I just made a move to teach 6th grade LA in one of our district middle schools. The idea of everyone being on the same page whole group for 50 minutes with the basal makes me cringe. I am very committed to doing some variation of Daily 5 (2?3?) in the 50 minutes I have. So, I will follow along & keep you posted on the adventure too!

  4. I am a 6th grade LA teacher also looking to find a way to bring Daily 5 or 3 to my classroom as well. Please keep us posted on how you implemented it.

  5. How did the implementation of the Daily 5/3 work for you? I, too, have recently purchased the books and would like to adapt the program for middle school (grade 6). I would love to hear any ideas/advice.

  6. Thanks for posting this! I have gone around around with the idea of doing lit. circles vs. whole class novels and now I am thinking there must be a way to do Lit. Circles and Daily 5 in conjunction. I really don’t know a lot about Daily 5 but I’ll be buying the book right away! Thanks for your ideas!

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