The Daily Five: Focus on Writing

Our class does The Daily Five during our literacy block.  I like the structure and independence that it provides.  If you are unfamiliar, check out The Daily Five by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  It is a fairly quick read and tells you everything you need to know to begin The Daily Five.

Once you get started, like anything else you will want to put your owe spin on it.  The first year I used The Daily Five, I pretty much followed the book to a T.  However, since then I have played around with some parts to find what works best with my class.

One way I have varied The Daily Five has been during my writing instruction.  I like to have all my little sweeties writing at the same time, instead of during rotations.  The Daily Five does not advocate a specific writing program or curriculum.  So long term, how you want to teach writing is up to you.  I use a variation of 6 Traits Writing.  

Throughout the year I continuously touch on the different traits, depending what mini lesson I am teaching.  The trait of Ideas is one that new writers struggle with.  Left to their own devices, first graders may write about loving their moms 50 times during the year.  While I am glad students love their moms, I want to see them branch out in regard to topics.  I want them to be able to, independently, come up with topics.  (Not, that I don't give a prompt every now and then.)  If first graders can produce writing based on their own topics and ideas, the writing is usually much richer.  Plus I think they really enjoy writing more if some choice is involved.

To help strudents' ideas flow, I like to use graphic organizers and model writing.  Below you can check out a few pictures of what these look like in my classroom.

 The writing binders and journals are not in The Daily Five book.  However, writing certainly is.  In my class, having the writing binders and journals help students organize their ideas so that they have plenty to write about through the year.

Questions, let me know.
Have a good evening.