A Daily Five Diary Part 1: Implementing Daily 5 in a Departmentalized Upper Elementary Classroom

Over the summer I finally read The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Due to the masters classes I'd been taking over the past few years, I kept putting it off, but now that I've read it I am fully in! All five parts that make up the daily regiment -- Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work -- are research-based and contribute to a balanced literacy program. A total win-win, right?

So, here are my obstacles I'm trying to overcome as I implement Daily 5 in my fourth grade classroom:

Fiction Comprehension Task Cards

The hubby is popping popcorn and the family movie is about to come on, so I'll be quick. I just posted to my TpT store a fabulous product that I use with my upper elementary reading students: I Mustache (Must Ask) You Something... General Fiction Task Cards. 

There are 16 cards included, but the great thing is that they are "general," meaning they can be paired with any fictional text with very little prep work from you. The questions range in complexity from easy, text-dependent to higher-level thinking.

I've used these cards with fourth and fifth graders in a variety of ways. Most recently, students used them after partner-reading upper elementary level picture books, while I worked with a small group of students. 

The download can be printed on card stock or good quality copy paper, and then cut into fourths. Laminate or cover them with clear contact paper for extra durability. (This also keeps you from reprinting them over and over.)

I honestly love these and use them quite a bit with different texts. I hope you will like them too.

Well, the movie has started. Have a great weekend!

(My informational text task cards are in the works, so check back soon.)

Reading Strategies Bookmark

I've been crazy busy this week and completely forgot to add a link to a freebie for you! These are Fix-Up Strategies Bookmarks that my students used to help them when they realized that what they had just read didn't make sense. We discussed that good readers are always making sure it makes sense and then we went over the steps they should go through when it doesn't make sense. 

Teaching Key Vocabulary for English & Reading Test Prep in Upper Elementary -- Ideas & Download Link

       Working in a rural Virginia elementary school, I found that one of the issues my students were having was a fundamental deficit in vocabulary language. It seemed that several students had the reading skills and strategies, but their lack of vocabulary knowledge prevented them from finding success on the reading tests that simulated the Virginia English SOL test, which is the standardized test that 3rd grade and up take each year. Obviously, I don't want to "teach to the test," but I also don't want to set my students up for failure either.

To combat this issue there were a few things we did this past school year.