Fitting the Daily Five into a set time table in a multi grade class

[dakavanagh]

Hello,
I'm very new, I finished reading the book last week, and took copious notes. I have a few questions and this is the only place I know of to get help.
I'm the first person in this school to launch this programme. The school board mandates that we have so many minutes a week in all subjects, most days my ELA class is about 60 min long. Two days a week, I manage to squeeze a second one in, but 6 kids are with the SST hence its not ideal for the D5 when those kids who need it the most are out of the class.
At the end of March the entire Territory will be ordered to do the D5 90 min. a day (I think the roll out will happen with full compliance by August 2016). ( I also have to teach, music, and home Ec...in grade 6 -- ideally I'd like to nix Home Ec for another ELA class. )
So, here is where I'm stuck; how would you do the D5 in Science, or Social Studies, Health class etc.??? The only text book we have is for math. All else I write me own notes or use what I have found on the internet. I cannot say that this school is well equipped with respect to books on Science subjects, or social studies. What we have in those areas are too far beyond my students (I teach grade 6 but the reading level is about an early grade three and all students are ELL).
Today I introduced the concept of the D5, we covered: use of the Rain Stick, meeting place and three ways to read a book (we'll cover re-telling tomorrow).
Anwyay, I'll stop now bc I confuse you as well as me. I would love to see someones daily schedule for how this fits into your day along with having to teach your other subjects.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Cheers,
Deirdre (Taloyoak, NU...north of the Arctic Circle)

[mallory59]

D5 is all about behavior, no curriculum. Training the students to have the physical stamina to sit and read or do anything for a period of time. I have been working on implementing D5 for 3 years and even though I have a new group of kids each school year, I get better and better teaching D5. Starting last year I started weaving in CAFE strategies. So give yourself time. I started with the 10 steps to independence to EVERYTHING in my classroom. I do the 10 steps for walking in the hall, bathroom, science, reading etc. We practice nearly daily before reading even now as the kids forget reading behaviors. I watched a lot of the videos on the website to get the hang of voice tone and how to teach the 10 steps. I would pick 1 thing since you are new, see how it goes, how you need to tweek it, and perfect it. Generally, when I picked something to try from D5 it would not work to well but I would see just enough to know if I kept practicing it would be useful. So I kept practicing. It can be overwhelming but like anything new...baby steps till you are up and running!!

[dakavanagh]

Hi Mallory,

Oh, you've answered so many other questions I had, thank you so much.
I started small yesterday and I'll continue on that vein with introducing the rest.
I'll post again later with an update of how this is going.
Cheers,
Deirdre

[srea]

It sounds like you have some amazing adventures ahead of you!! Hopefully, you'll get lots of support from and with other teachers around you. As the "first person", you'll be able to share some of your successful (and not so successful) experiences with your co-workers.

One important thing I've learned through Daily 5 is that having coworkers to bounce ideas off of is very helpful. Getting ideas from others who've tried pieces of Daily 5 can be invaluable. Don't forget about this Discussion Board as another resource. Hopefully, you can find many ideas here.

As Mallory said, getting those 10 Steps to Independence in place is of upmost importance--and it WILL pay off in the end.

If you haven't already, sign up for the "Tip of the Week", which is a newsletter from the Sisters and other team members. Here's the link: https://www.thedailycafe.com/tip-of-the-week

Are you all doing the integration of CAFE with Daily 5? If so, I'd suggest getting familiar with the Interactive CAFE Menu at this link: https://www.thedailycafe.com/cafe/cafe-menus/interactive-cafe-menu Every article, video and other related materials can be found there, which makes searching much easier!!

Do ask any questions you have here on the Discussion Boards. There are lots of folks with all kinds of experience who share here. Wishing you the best on your journey!!

[dakavanagh]

HI Suzanne,
Thank you so much for your encouraging words. At the moment I am the lone teacher in the school attempting to implement this programme. My class is made up of ELL learners, 6 with attention issues, and three FAS kids two are moderately severe, the rest face extreme poverty and a few are from traditional families and are doing well in school.
It's hard to disrupt my schedule a lot bc our school is k-12 with approx 300 students. The SSA's (educational support people) are assigned to me for core subjects, hence for now the D5 will take place in English class. We have 10 weeks of school left; instead of saying "I'll wait for the new school year," I wanted to launch and work through it. Today the learning coach sat in and was able to assist me with my 'barometer children' (and I'm sooo thankful she did). We officially launched yesterday, although we did not get to read to self. We covered the three ways to read a book, I read a great book to them and today (6 of them remembered all three). Today I retold the story, followed by a discussion of 'reading'. We then created an I-Chart for RtoS --- I made sure to keep my barometer kids to the end, handing out the rest of the class first. For the most part my kids had no problem setting up around the room and reading. In fact I was so engrossed with how well one of my late bloomers was reading that the recess bell went and surprised all of us. How I'll manage without the learning coach in the room ...not sure yet but we'll see.
Re the Cafe....I haven't read that book yet, but I do have it----I made up the posters for C A F E but I'm not there yet.
I think my short term goal should be --- do well at read to self, then as suggested in the book, start working on future behaviours. I'm excited but feeling overwhelmed. It's also Science Fair...when so many of your kids are at the C/D level of reading it's hard for them to read and comprehend what they need for this event. To end on a really positive note-----the kids LOVED the fact that they got to sit/lie on the floor, and just read books at their level, they asked if they could do this every day. My response....YES, you most certainly will.

[srea]

I think your experiences are going to be an inspiration to us all!!

I agree that R to S is the core of Daily 5. And, in my experience, those kiddos with needs of all kinds really benefit from the calming environment that is created when everyone is reading on their own. Sometimes, the Barometer Kids start out as our greatest challenges and then become our best successes (although they give us lots of gray hairs!).

Hopefully, the Coach will be able to support you for a while until you get your feet planted on the ground with Daily 5.

Certainly, you do have a diverse class: for your attention-issue kids, the chance to choose a particular seating space can make a big difference. I know your kids are older and taller than the first and second graders I work mostly with, but one thing we've discovered is that a space that can "contain" their body really works well. We use plastic laundry tubs, and kids love them. Perhaps you could try one--letting their legs hang over the edge. Just an idea . . .

Please keep sharing your experiences and questions with us!