Book Review: Book 3

Book 3 is: The Daily 5 Fostering Literacy Independence In The Elementary Grades

By Gail Boushey and Joan Moser "the sisters"

 



This book is one that our school system uses in many classrooms as the Language Arts portion of the curriculum, in conjunction with other material.  I've had to run the Daily 5 many times in my years of subbing, but never really understood the reasons behind it.  I knew it had to be good concept in order to have so many of the teachers I respect using it, but it wasn't until I was invited to a grade level meeting in one of the buildings that the Elementary English Language Arts Coach made the suggestion that maybe I would like to read the book.

 

Honestly, when I took the book I intended to just glance through it.  Being an avid reader, I have a whole list of books I want to read this year, and this one was not already on the list.  Yet, since I highly respect the person who made the suggestion I decided to go ahead and read the book. 

 

Basically, there are 5 Daily Language activities that, during the course of the first weeks of school, the students are introduced to.  They are Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Work on Words.  These areas are the ones that are foundational for developing readers, and writers.  The idea is that the more the students practice in these areas the greater their stamina to keep going in these areas will be. Students are taught to participate in these areas through modeling right and wrong ways to do each of these different steps.  Students are also taught how to sustain activity in each of these areas on their own.  First, for 3 minutes, and then gradually up to around 25 minutes.  After all areas are demonstrated and practiced the students spend time in each area on their own at the same time.  Eventually, they are allowed to pick which one they want to do first, or in some classrooms it seems to rotate which one they do first, with eventually all 5 areas going on simultaneously.  Again these are independent work activities that the students are working on. While they are working on their various Daily 5 activities the teacher is meeting with individuals or small groups to gather data on how the students are doing, reinforce concepts and encourage growth.  After each session the students come back to the group location for additional Language lessons, before being released to another round of Daily 5.

 

I believe the idea behind the Daily 5 is wonderful.  I feel that it does help teach stamina, and encourage reading and writing.  I've seen it used very successfully in various settings, and I've also witnessed rooms where it doesn't quite work. The book addresses the fact that for students with attention issues or for very young learners it is a harder concept.  The unfortunate problem is the schools have lots of children who have not had a good foundation of learning already. Children who have very short attention spans due to many hours of being entertained by computer and television graphics that move continuously. With this in mind I believe teachers will find themselves having to adapt the material a bit more for it to relate to their classrooms.

 

I'm thankful that I read the Daily 5 book.  I believe it gives me a better understanding of what the teachers I sub for are trying to accomplish and why things are happening the way they are.  Educators who read this book will benefit from the knowledge the authors have in their area of expertise and I believe will find ways to incorporate these ideas into their rooms.

 

I would give this book 5 stars.