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How I Made Daily 5 Centers Successful in my Classroom

Are you running Daily 5 centers in your classroom? Is it running smoothly? Are you experiencing some hiccups? This is a post to share my experience of Daily 5 and what I learned from implementing it into my classroom.

If you want to start running Daily 5 centers in your classroom, I recommend you buy The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grade book. After reading it, you can do more research on Daily 5 online. The book lays out all you need to know in order to run Daily 5 in your class.

As a new teacher, learning Daily 5 centers and implementing it in my class was a huge struggle! It never seemed to run smooth, and a lot of the time I felt like my kids were off task.  It took me three years to successfully implement Daily 5 in my class. For some, that may seem a bit crazy, others may totally relate to the struggle (#thestruggleisreal) . Instead of giving up on Daily 5, I took time to reflect. I asked myself, "What patterns of behavior did you see in your students? What did they struggle to understand? How did I teach the introductory lessons?" I also took time to reread the Daily 5 book...AND WOW did that help.

The first time I read the book I was a first year teacher. Upon rereading it, and having classroom experience under my belt, things that I glossed over as a newbie, now stood out to me. Vocabulary and management strategies in the book made a lot more sense now that I had a classroom to connect them to! Isn't that something? We teach our students about prior knowledge and making connections to the text they are reading; application to real world experiences. Well, sometimes us teachers need that too! We also have to build the knowledge and experiences in our own classroom. It's how we learn and become better.

After rereading and reflection here are some lessons and areas that needed improvement:

  • Teaching Stamina
  • Teaching ways to read a book
  • Teaching them how to pick a good book
  • Spending time building stamina 
If you are thinking about running Daily 5 centers in your classroom, don't skip the stamina! Each year, I glossed over it. This year, I spent a solid lesson on it. I got my students excited about it, we made challenges, and we spent the time building our stamina.  The students loved it, they were invested, because I made it important. It has made a huge difference in the success of my Daily 5.
Our classroom "Staminasaurus" 
Don't skip or gloss over any of the lessons that give them a foundation for read to self. While teaching your students ways to read a book, or how to pick a good fit book make sure you  model it for them. The simple saying we learned during our college days, "I do, we do, they do." Show them your expectations, don't just talk about it.

This may seem pretty simple and obvious, but as teachers we get worried about our instructional minutes! After all, every minute counts, we can't get it back. During those first days of Daily 5 when you are practicing stamina over...and over...and over...and over again, you will start to worry,"Am I wasting time? I should be assessing my students. I should be starting my reading groups." Don't let that little voice win. These core lessons are so important to the rest of your year. Stay in the discomfort, know what you are doing is important, and valuable to the rest of your year. If you spend time on the stamina and teaching them these core lessons you will have the time to teach your small groups, guided reading groups, or intervention time with one-on-one students. 

Taking time to reflect on our teaching is a great way to grow. Don't be afraid to go back and reteach lessons your students may need to be successful! I hope these small takeaways helped you. If you have anymore questions about Daily 5 in my classroom, don't hesitate to email me. God bless you and happy teaching! 

Mrs.Albert
- Jesu Ufem Tobie -

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