We use the structure of Daily 5 for our reading block. This structure teaches the children to make independent work choices that help them grow as readers and writers. In 2nd grade we have 3 rounds of Daily 5 everyday. I meet with a group of students each round to work on reading skills and strategies, writing, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. When not meeting with me, the students choose from read to self, read to someone, work on writing, word work, or listen to reading.
Each choice was introduced slowly at the beginning of the year with an emphasis on building habits to help make us as successful as possible. We revisit these expectations often of staying focused, working quietly, and reading or writing the whole time.
Our Daily 5 block opens up everyday with a read aloud in which we focus on a skill or strategy for the students to be using and practicing in their own reading. We are currently working on word attack strategies to help us work through tricky words in text. A few examples are "chunky monkey" which means to look for chunks in the word you may know or "skippy scott" which means to skip over the word and read the rest of the sentence to gain some context clues to help out.
The students are doing a fantastic job in Daily 5. They are excited about books and reading! There is nothing that makes me happier than students rushing up to me with a book they just have to share, or to tell me about making it through a tricky word, or that they finished a story they've worked really hard on!
