Do you do Daily 5 in your classroom! I love using Daily 5 for my small group rotations. Students have so much choice and autonomy when using Daily 5 and I can build important life skills, like making smart choices, though the use of this classroom routine. I’ve used it in grades K-2, which are the grades I have taught since I learned about the strategies in the Daily 5 book.
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Although I have done a few blog posts on using Daily 5 in second grade, Melissa from The Paisley Owl is here to share with you how to apply Daily 5 to upper grade classroom. This is great, because I have no experience implementing Daily 5 beyond second grade.
Do you teach upper grades? This post will help you implement it in your classroom. She even tells you about a few different features she has added it.
Hello there! This is Melissa from the Paisley Owl and I am super excited to be guest posting on What I have Learned Teaching! I am a HUGE fan of using center-based learning in the upper elementary classroom because it allows for differentiation and student choice! When I first read The Daily Five , I knew that I HAD to do it!!
However, I quickly realized that I would have to put my own “twist” on it in order to meet the needs of my fifth graders! I decided that I was not going to use the “read to someone” and “listen to reading” centers— although they are wonderful ideas, I felt that they just would not meet the needs of my class. Below, you will find detailed information about each of the “Daily Five” centers that I used in my classroom!
I basically followed what the two sisters suggested at this center. Students read their independent reading books in our classroom library. I allowed them to sprawl out on the floor, sit in bean bag chairs, and use pillows while they read! However, I wanted to keep them accountable for what they were reading.
My solution to the accountability issue was for them to keep a “independent reading journal”— they kept track of the title of the book, author, and wrote a quick summary of what they had read each day. When the kids came over to me for guided reading, they would briefly discuss their independent reading book with me!
This served as my vocabulary center. Word work looks MUCH different in an upper elementary classroom— I LOVED all of the ideas from the Daily Five and from other bloggers, but these were geared towards younger kids. I decided to make the word work myself because I wanted to get my students really thinking about their vocabulary words, but also keep them engaged!
I made two trifold board that held approximately 18 worksheets for them to choose from (of course, I introduced them only a few at a time!) For example, one activity that they could choose to do was build a “word theme park”, where they used their words to design and describe rides, restaurants, and write customer reviews. Another was “my word is alive” where they wrote a story about what would happen if their vocabulary words suddenly sprung to life!
If you want to grab a copy of my Word Work, you can head on over to my store!
My school district has a separate block for reading and writing, so I mostly used this center to have kids respond to their independent reading books! This was AWESOME for accountability as well!
I left menus hanging up at this center for students to choose from. For example, one of the prompts on the menu was called “Birthday Bash!” (How fun, who wouldn’t pick that??) The students had to plan a birthday party for each of the characters in their book. They were expected to write an invitation and write a paragraph explaining what they would get for each character. Students could also choose to write in our “whole class journals” during Work on Writing. One of the whole class journals was dedicated to book suggestions! This was wonderful! So many of my students choose independent reading books based on other students suggestions!!
I REALLY wanted to find a way to address the speaking and listening standards in the common core. I had also read a lot of amazing blog posts about allowing students to work on “passion projects” in the classroom. I could go on forever about passion projects, but to sum in up for you, it is basically when students are allowed to research, create a project, and present their work about a topic of their choosing. Of course their topics had to be approved by me, but that was never an issue!
Many of my students chose to teach themselves how to code! One of them even built a game using the MIT Scratch program (it’s totally free, check it out!) and presented it to the class. This was an AMAZING center and the kids just loved it!
I LOVE using technology in the classroom, and this was a perfect way to incorporate it. I was lucky enough to have a supportive administration and a lap top cart in my room, so I was able to have my students log on to Edmodo (a social media platform geared specifically towards students) and have book discussions in their literature circle groups.
So, now that you know what students did at each of the centers, you may be asking yourself “how do I get all of this done in one day??” Well, the great thing about the Daily Five is that students don’t HAVE to get to every center, every day. Although we did the Daily Five each day (we took the Daily part pretty seriously), students got to three centers a day.
I grouped students and had them rotate based on their groups (I had a rotation board in the front of my room), but you can also allow students to choose which center they go to. If you do this, I suggest having a quota otherwise you will inevitably end up with 20 out of 25 kids at one center. I liked assigning the groups because it made it easier for me to pull guided reading groups. However, I changed these groups often.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and I hope that you will be able to incorporate some of these ideas into your own classroom!
If you would like to find out more about Daily 5, I highly recommend their newest book, Daily 5, Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades. It really goes more in-depth for upper grade classrooms.
I am Melissa (The Paisley Owl)-- I taught upper elementary for a few years, and I am currently making the journey down to Kindergarten! I am a graduate of the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. I am passionate about finding new ways to differentiate instruction, and I believe that if the bar is raised high, students will excel. For upper elementary center-work to go along with the Daily Five, head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store or visit my blog.
I have a middle school special ed exceptional emotionally challenged classroom. I teach 12 different subjects to 25 different children with different ieps and needs… Help! How can I make this work when kids in groups quickly start exhibiting big behaviors. And then it becomes about Tue behaviors not the learning… I am supposed to have an assistant… Not yet opened position, red tape, … I have 10 of these students for 5-6 periods a day. Two I never see on my roster but they can drop in when there is a problem… And all of them need kinesthetic learning… And social skills, coping and deescalation skills ahhhahhhahahh! Each class is small but each student is wanting my full attention and get upset when I pay attention to another. Or seemingly side with another… Help!!
Jessica says:It sounds like you need someone who can help you brainstorm some ideas for a Middle School Special Ed classroom. Perhaps another teacher in the district who may teach at a different school with a similar population can help you work through some of these issues and generate some ideas on how to create a learning environment that meets their needs while maintaining your sanity. I would encourage you to reach out to your principal, if that’s possible, or another teacher at your school site or district to help.
Michelle says: What type of vocabulary words do you use with your word work? The Paisley Owl says:Hi there! I actually just used the vocabulary curriculum through my school (Vocabulary Workshop), but you can find a lot of great grade-specific word lists online if you do not have a vocabulary curriculum!
Ginamarie says:I Was also wondering about the vocabulary you use with your word work. would it go with a science or social studies lesson? We use words their way so I may give them this time to work on that. I really don’t enjoy WTW becuase it has no connection to anything. Also, what is your whole class journal?
The Paisley Owl says:Great question! You can use the vocabulary words from any content area with the word work! The whole class journal is basically a “chain journal” that you leave out at a center. I glue the prompt to the cover of the journal, and students can choose to write in it when they are at the center. It is really fun because the kids get to read each others work too! I have had kids write “chain stories” (they pick up where someone left off) and even get inspiration from their classmate’s writing!
Jill Miles says: We use Flocabulary and the kids LOVE it. Nicole says:Thank you for sharing! My district uses the Reading Workshop model. After the mini-lesson, students are off readin independently and practicing the skills learned during our mini lessons(basically one of your center) but the whole class period. I think the Daily 5 will keep the students engaged for a long period of time. My question is, are they reading and reinforcing the skills taught from the mini lessons during the centers? I like how there are different topics, but how are the skills being reinforced?
Thanks again! -Nicole
Hi Nicole– another great question! Yes– skills are being reinforced at each center (vocabulary words, skills learned during writing at the work on writing center, independent reading strategies, research strategies, etc.)
Judy Barrera says:Can you post a larger photo of your rotation chart? I couldn’t read it and whenever I tried to enlarge it, it would only let me pin it. The rotation situation is where I need the most help. Thank you!
The Paisley Owl says:Hi there Judy! Unfortunately I cannot get a larger picture, but I just had the name of the center (with a number 1-5) and each child’s name. I put them in a pocket chart. Where they start on the pocket chart is their first center, and they rotate from there. At the end of the Daily 5, I have a child change the rotation chart to reflect where everyone starts the following day!
Amy says:You have so many wonderful ideas, thank you for sharing! I would love to learn more about your passion projects!
Katie Floyd says:How do you assign the stations each day or do you keep the same schedule for each group for the whole week and rotate the next week? Are you able to meet with each group every day? Is there a catch up day if they get behind or were absent?
Jessica Boschen says:In my second grade classroom, students chose their own stations each morning. I assigned the “teacher” and “read to self” stations. Students chose their other stations but had to vary that choice throughout the week, so they couldn’t choose “listen to reading” all week. I did three rotations each day, meeting with the lowest group every day, my middle groups 3x a week and my highest group 2x a week. This blog post tells about how I group students for instruction: https://whatihavelearnedteaching.com/group-students-small-group-reading/ and the rotation schedule. This blog post tells about how I ran my Daily 5 rotations: https://whatihavelearnedteaching.com/centers-vs-daily-5-and-new-blog-design/ Although these posts focus on second grade, I used the same process for upper grades but changed work requirements at each station to be grade-level appropriate.
Katie Floyd says:Do the complete each station at their leisure, or do they switch stations when you switch small groups?
Jessica Boschen says:This post was done by a guest author. In my classroom, we switch when I switch small groups, so there is an allotted amount of time for each station.
Meghan Vestal says:I am also a big fan of using Daily 5 in upper elementary. At first, I really struggled to make it work with my older students, but I have had a lot of success since attending the Daily 5 conference a few years ago. The biggest take away I learned is that it is important to modify Daily 5 to make it work for your classroom. It definitely it is not a one size fits all model. Like the author of this post, I have found it is best to just use Read to Self, Word Work, and Work on Writing in upper elementary.
Courtney Heath says:Do you do a 10-minute mini-lesson and then allow them to practice that skill in a station that day? Then after 20-30 mins or so do you do another 10-minute mini-lesson and allow them to practice that skill in a station? I ask this because if they are practicing the skill after that, what are the other students doing that aren’t at that particular station. For example, you do a mini-lesson on the spelling/decoding and then thats what’s in their word-work station that day, then what are the other one’s doing?
Jessica Boschen says:Great questions! This was a guest post from Melissa of the Paisly Owl. You can contact her on her blog here: http://fifthtokindergarten.blogspot.com/. I’m not 100% sure how she correlated what was taught and how it was practiced during the centers. The CAFE book will also go into more detail about what is taught during the 10-15 minute minilesson and how it correlates to the centers.
D.J says:I have 27 third grade students packed into SMALL classroom. I have just enough space for desks. I had a round table for groups but no one can get around it. These students were split since kindergarten do to major behavioral problems(principle can’t handle them). There is literally no room for a carpet area for mini lesson. I love the daily 5, but it seems impossible. Ideas? Seatingchart/design?
Angelia Potts says:I am going to implement The Daily 5 this coming school year 2022-2023. However, how do you introduce a mini-lesson from the Reading Cafe and your state standard? I usually don’t do stations on the day that I have to introduce a new skill. I am confused. Help?
Welcome! I'm Jessica.
My passion is making learning accessible to all students. I love scaffolding teaching, breaking down concepts, and building them up so students can see all the connections.
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