Transform Your Fifth Grade Classroom with the Daily 5 Framework
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I don’t know if you heard…
But the Daily 5 isn’t just for early elementary students!
I know, pretty exciting, right?
In fact, I brought the Daily 5 framework with me as I moved from first to fifth grade, and my fifth graders loved it! The framework had just the right amount of choice and allowed for just enough independence where my fifth graders felt in control of their time (which is something a lot of upper elementary students crave).
And the best part, we were still covering the content we needed to and I wasn’t feeling stressed trying to get it all in (IFKYK).
With the Daily 5, I’m able to effectively structure my literacy block, and increase student engagement, all while being able to pull small groups without being interrupted a million times.
But, how I structured the Daily 5 in my fifth-grade classroom looked a bit different than it did for my first-graders.
So what did I tweak to make this structure work for my upper elementary students?
The Importance of Implementing the Daily 5 in Fifth Grade
When teachers are just getting started with the Daily 5, they assume that it’s “too elementary” for upper elementary students.
But the Daily 5 in fifth grade is more than just literacy centers, it’s a structure that ensures that students are able to sustain and have the discipline to work independently so that you can pull reading groups.
Implementing the Daily 5 in upper elementary classrooms not only streamlines your literacy block, making it easier to manage and more effective, but it also creates an environment that honors choice and independence, something that my fifth graders thrived on.
But the key to making sure that the Daily 5 framework is working for you and your students is adapting activities to make sure they are age-appropriate while also maintaining the structures and routines. For example, instead of focusing on basic phonics skills during Word Work, upper elementary students can work on activities that will help them build their vocabulary or even focus on word etymology.
The general adaptability of the framework allows for it to be used flexibly, meeting the students where they are at so they can access the curriculum which is so important for upper elementary students. In these upper grades, the content ramps up and so do the skills they are expected to execute, making it really easy for students to start to fall behind.
This framework gives you the structure to ensure that none of your students fall through the cracks.
How the Daily 5 Transforms Literacy Instruction in Fifth Grade
The beauty of the Daily 5 framework is its flexibility.
No matter the grade level that you’re teaching, the core structure remains the same. For all grade levels, they still rotate through the 5 centers: Read to Self, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, Read to Someone, and Word Work. And no matter the age group of your students, you’re still pulling small groups.
So when it comes to implementing the Daily 5 into your fifth-grade classroom, the specific activities will vary from early elementary students, but the overall structure will remain constant, which is a game changer for both students and teachers.
Let’s explore how the Daily 5 framework can work in your upper elementary classroom by looking at how I used it in my fifth-grade classroom.
Upper Elementary Students Thrive on Choice and Independence
One of the biggest benefits of using the Daily 5 in upper elementary classrooms is that it provides a structured opportunity for student choice.
My fifth graders love having autonomy over their learning, and their ability to switch between tasks such as Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Book Club helped keep my students engaged.
I’ve found that it’s important for upper elementary students to feel like they have control of their work, increasing their engagement as well as overall focus, and ability to meet expectations.
Tailor Instruction to Meet Student Needs
And observation that I made switching from first to fight grade is that the achievement gap seemed to increase.
With such a wide range of levels, it can be difficult to meet the needs of all your students when teaching in a whole group setting, and it’s nearly impossible to do so discreetly.
Yes, discreetly.
Students in the upper elementary grades have already formulated opinions of whether or not they are “good” at school, and getting something different in front of other students (no matter how small it may appear) could be very embarrassing.
Because students are working independently through their centers, the tasks can easily be tailored to meet students’ literacy skills.
During Word Work, students can work on various skill-level work such as vocabulary development, word roots, and prefixes and suffixes. And for Work on Writing, this center becomes an opportunity for students to craft creative stories, research reports, or even blog posts, giving all students an access point that is suitable for their academic needs.
Efficiently Use Limited Instructional Time
Not having enough time seems to be the most common problem in education.
Whether it’s not having enough time during the day to get in a complete lesson, or not enough time during the year to get through all of the units in your district’s curriculum, it’s still a challenge that most teachers have to navigate.
The Daily 5 framework provides a creative use of time to ensure that you can get to all of the components of your structured lesson in a way that doesn’t leave you feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
But, there is a catch…
Transitions between centers need to be on point. If they aren’t, this can become the biggest time-suck of your day (not to mention it’s crazy stressful), which is why I love using my Daily 5 Choice Board.
Every day, I post the Daily 5 Choice Board on my smartboard for my students to see so they can switch centers independently, instead of me manually calling out choices. This small change has saved me five to ten minutes each day, which adds up to over an hour of extra time every week!
Resources to Implement the Daily 5 Fifth Grade
If you’re ready to transform your literacy block in your fifth-grade classroom and make your students more independent learners, my Daily 5 Starter Kit for Grades 3-5 is the perfect solution!
In it, I share everything that I use in my classroom to streamline my literacy block using the Daily 5 framework, giving your students choice, improving engagement, and producing the structure you need to meet with your reading groups.
Quick Tips to Transform Your Literacy Block
I know you’re really excited to implement the Daily 5 framework in your classroom (I’m just as excited for you!)
To help you get started, I’m offering a FREE 10-step guide that will walk you through the initial steps to implement Daily 5 in your classroom.