Show & Tell: Daily 5

Denise over at Sunny Days in Second Grade is hosting her weekly Show & Tell!  Normally on Tuesdays I'm asleep by ten o'clock five-thirty after a healthy meal of sprouts eating three cheeseburgers and drinking a box of wine. (I kid. I kid.)  Anyway, it's hard for me to get to the mid-week linky parties! But this one, I just couldn't resist.

The linky party all about how we structure our literacy centers.  Since I use The Daily Five, I thought I'd chime in on how I organize it since it's a tiny bit different than the sisters' way.

The Culture
Before I talk about how I use the elements of The Daily Five, I feel that I should really emphasize what I feel is the keystone of the program:

We indoctrinate children.
We indoctrinate them into believing that reading the the most wonderful, magical, amazing thing in the world -- and it is more important than anything ever.

All the I-Charts that you make and debriefing you do ad nauseum creates a culture of literacy where children truly believe that reading is everything.

And reading is!

Setting it Up
Technically, you need to have resources for the five Daily Fives.  That means you need a functional classroom library or access to lots of books from your school library.

I try to have my students keep only 4 books in their book box (magazine file), but as the year progresses they hoard books.  I'm conflicted about whether I care, since I love that they love reading.

Next, you need lots of happy spaces since students can site anywhere they want except the rafters.  Although if they could reach them and it wasn't a huge liability, they could probably sit there too.

My Reality
I don't do five Daily Fives.  Sorry, 'Listen to Reading', but you've been booted due to lack of resources.  If I had 4 iPods, I would do it.  But I don't.  I have only one.  And it's old. It wasn't old in 2005 but now it is. Boo. Maybe next year!

The Daily Fives I have are:
- Read to Self
- Read to Someone
- Work with Words
- Work on Writing
- Meet with Teacher

The biggest change I've made to The Daily Five is that I create a schedule for my students. 
The reason I do that is because I find it difficult to meet with my groups without a schedule. I don't like to interrupt their Daily 5 work and I need to make sure that I'm meeting with all of my groups regularly.

My students are divided into 4-5 groups. Those groups change frequently.  Even though it's not good for my color printer, I still change them often.

Tips

• Since I don't like my students to always have the same partner for Read to Someone, I almost always have more than two groups scheduled for that.  Then my struggling readers can read with more experienced readers.  
• I have a 'choice' card. Students who are scheduled for 'choice' are allowed to choose any Daily 5 they aren't scheduled for on that day.  Toward the end of the year, more choice cards are scheduled!
• I schedule me. On my rotation chart, my students are scheduled for their meeting time with me. This helps me stay organized.
• During the week, I also schedule several Daily 5 rotations when no one meets with me.  That gives me a little flexibility to pull one or two students for some targeted interventions. 
• If you have cute I-Charts, do not substitute them for making them together with your class.  Students need to help you create the I-Chart for it to stick!
• Make lots of I-Charts. I've made about 30 this year alone.  Every few months (even though my cute ones are hanging up), I recreate the I-Charts and review the procedures and expectations.

Free Stuff
Here are some freebies I made for The Daily Five! (I posted these before, so they might look familiar.) All graphics are by Scrappin' Doodles.

Cute I-Charts:

 

Pocket Chart Labels.  Print on labels and stick on index cards.

I hope you get a chance to visit Sunny Days to see some more ideas about Literacy Centers! And if you're a Daily Five fan, I'd love to hear about how you've tweaked it to work for you!

Happy Tuesday!