I've looked through The Daily Five book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser and am really excited. From what I can tell, the premise is that students need to know what they are doing and be comfortable with it so they can focus on reading. I've spent years trying to come up with new and different activities in centers/stations so that my students won't be bored. I've also spent years complaining that my students don't know what to do in these same centers/stations. One of the other concepts of the Daily Five is training. Students need to be trained from scratch each year and given time to learn the routines and practice what they are to do. There are templates for the mini-lessons addressing each of the Daily Five components that includes making a chart of behaviors and discussing the chart before and after practice until students are independent. One point the sisters make is that teachers are to stay out of the way - students can not be independent if teachers are hovering. I can't count the times I've said, "I have to stand over my students for them to do ..." Guess I've missed the idea of independent over the years! So now I'm working on five to seven activities for Work on Words and a few different things for students to read to each other on a daily basis. I plan on having my students Read to Self and Listen to Reading daily; Word Work, Work on Writing and Read to Others may be rotated or given as a choice center for students.
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