The Daily Five, Chapter 2

Can I just say that the more I learn about D5 the more excited I am to try it in August? I am always looking for change, and ways that I can improve my teaching and helping students the best way possible. I am so up for changing my guided reading/centers time to the way it is described in D5. I've known for a while now that my way of doing things was not the best possible way, but not knowing how else to do it, I felt a little trapped. I'm so grateful for this book study and all of you sharing your thoughts and ideas.

What "rings true for you" in this chapter?

I've always given my students the opportunity to choose the centers they wanted to do each day. I did, however, have certain centers that had to be done for the week. So giving the students choice to choose what centers they will be doing each day, rings very true with me. I do have a question, though ... when I pull my reading groups back to read, doesn't that kind of mess up their choices? If anyone has an idea for this, please help me to understand this better. 

The idea of trusting my students and building a community also rings true for me. I spend a lot of time the first few weeks of school doing a lot of team building with my students. Not only do I want to trust my students, but I also want them to trust each other and create a community like a family in our classroom. We also start our day with either a silly song, poem, or story. It is also at the beginning of the day that my students may share any good news they may have. This sets a wonderful tone in the classroom as well. Students need to feel they are trusted and loved in the classroom for any real learning to take place. When our students feel this way in our classrooms, they are more likely to take some risks as well for instance a struggling reader will try harder to work on his/her stamina in a classroom environment such as described above.

How are your students progressing with picking appropriate books?

I am so excited to try the IPICK ideas for my students to choose their own books. This is one area I've struggled with. I felt that my silent reading time was used more as a conference time at the classroom library because instead of reading, they were looking for a book and chit-chatting with their friends who were also looking for a book. Focusing on what a good fit book is, will be new for me. It makes sense to me. So many times I've had a below level reader pick up a book like Harry Potter and just turn the pages. 

What (if anything) could help improve the processes from this chapter in your classroom?

Like I stated in my post from Chapter 1, teaching the procedures of D5 and reading and writing stamina for the first couple months of school instead of a couple weeks really is the key to making D5 work in your classroom.

Follow along with the rest of us in your study of Daily 5. Link up with Nicole @ Teaching With Style.