The Daily 5 Chapter 2

It has been great to see so much interaction happening with this book study!
Today I am going over Chapter 2 which deals with the Foundation of The Daily 5.

The sisters go through the steps of setting a foundation for this program.

Like any good teaching you need to start from the bottom up, scaffolding if you will.  You can't start something new if a firm foundation isn't in place.

I think this was why I felt I could not fully implement all parts of the Daily 5 in my classroom this last year.  I really love that I can spend the time at the beginning of this year to do it!!

What goals do you have for your classroom as you work to implement the principles and foundations of the Daily 5 discussed in Chapter 2?

Okay so what are some things that are important to have in place?

Do you trust your students!?? I think this is a huge one for me.  I want things to be perfectly in order and go off without a hitch, but if I don't believe my students can do it, then they probably won't.

This is why I want to start building trust with my students from the moment they walk in the door.  I need to teach them explicitly what I want them to do, practice, praise, reteach if necessary, practice again and then let them go be independent learners.  We all know this doesn't happen over night and I need to remind myself to take baby steps.

You know as I read this section I realized I had some choices in my center activities, but I still had full control of how it all went down.  I really want to provide my kids with more choice this year.  My problem with this approach is What do I do if I have a student who only chooses to go to the same area each time??  How do I give them Choice, but not tell them where to go?  I am looking for ideas and more insight on this one, so I am fully armed and ready when we begin the year!

Okay this is one I know I can implement and am excited to do this year.  I really want to build a positive and caring classroom community this year.  I have gained so many wonderful ideas through virtual tours of everyone's classrooms.  I am implementing the Behavior Clip Chart this year! I love how it focuses on the positive kids and less on the negative.  I felt so awful this year many times that I didn't acknowledge those great kids who were so sweet and always did what they were supposed to be doing.  I spent way too much time with my group of rascals.  Along with the Clip Chart I am also adding the Bucket Fillers Chart.  I think this is such a fantastic way to help students gain self esteem and learn to think of others.  I find so many of my students think only within themselves and don't see the bigger picture.

With a great sense of community my students will be more aware of themselves and others around them. This would tie in directly to how a sense of community will make more responsible learners.

I know I often start to teach something and realize that  I have not explained why we are doing this.  Why do you read to yourself?  Why do you want to read to someone?  Why do you want to listen to reading?  This seems so simple, but this made a lot of sense to me and I want to make sure I do this more often in my class.  I need to hook my students in and let them know this is for them and they need to WANT to do their work.

This is such a simple concept. It was kind of like "Why haven't I always done this?" I love the example that Gail gives in the book about getting back in shape.  This year in my class we slowly built up our Read To Self Stamina. First we did a few minutes, then it went up slowly, but pretty soon my guys were reading for 20 and 30 minutes!! 

I love this one!!  I really want to be able to step back and watch my kids hard at work.  With my own two children I was always hovering and they learned to depend on me for everything!!  I have slowly put the responsibilty back on them and they are learning how to do things on their own.  I want to start off giving my students the responsibilty to be independent learners, show them exactly what I expect and just get out of the way!! (I think I need to teach this to some of my parents...)

What support do I need to do this??

Well right now I feel like I have tons of support from everyone doing this book study!!  However here are a few concerns:

Again, how do I give my students choices, but make sure they are doing everything they need to?

Did you inform your administrator that you are using Daily 5 or did you just do it?

Do you involve your parents in the process?

Well I don't have any  freebies yet, but stop by and visit our host Nicole.  She has a great Stamina chart for you!!

I look forward to reading everyone's ideas and feelings on this chapter!

Don't forget to link up!!