The+Daily+Five

__//The Daily Five//__ by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (Stenhouse Publishing)

The //Daily Five// is a concept based on the idea that our students need to learn independence in their own literacy development. During the literacy block in the classroom, students need to work independently on skills while other students are involved in direct instruction with the classroom teacher or other staff member.

The //Daily Five// are:
 * **Read to Self:** in order to become better readers, students must have opportunities to read. Strategies are taught to students that help them choose "just right" books to enjoy reading by themselves.
 * **Read to Someone**: reading with someone helps readers and encourages self-sufficiency.Students learn about positioning their bodies for reading together and about discussing the contents of the reading by checking each other for understanding during the reading.
 * **Listen to Reading:** listen to good models of reading helps students to improve their own reading and it provides the audio support for reading that some children may be lacking.
 * **Work on Writing:** students need time to write about things that really matter to them. This could be something that a student began to write during a writing workshop time. This gives students an independent time to develop their ideas.
 * **Word Work:** practicing spelling helps students become better spellers and writers and, also, better readers. This time can be spent in working with spelling patterns, high frequency words or working with interesting words and vocabulary.


 * Word Work Resource** - A very helpful resource for working with the Dolch List (high frequency words) is **The Dolch Kit** found at http://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/Dolch/Contents.html It has an overview, management tips and lots of materials to print out and use. Not to be missed is the "Dolch Word Practice", created by first graders, using the words in context - excellent!