Today began my first day of implementing the Daily 5 into my Social Studies block in 5th grade. I decided to do it today since I had both 5th grade classes in the afternoon which meant that I had each class for only an hour (versus the two days that I have them in the mornings for the hour and a half block). I guess I figured if it did not go too well then I had less time to scurry around to find them something else to do. I also chose today after being frustrated with the lack of enthusiasm in my Social Studies' classes over the last week. It could just be the rainy, ugly, hot weather making everyone tired and draining us of energy. Or, maybe the kids need another way of learning Social Studies.
I also had been reading my Daily 5 book the last few evenings and had liked how it matched up with how I used to teach Reader's Workshop (back in the days of elementary teachers teaching all subject areas). The principal also talked about incorporating more reading into the Social Studies curriculum at our PLC meeting yesterday. I have been wrestling with how I am going to do it since last January. I have been ordering books off of Ebay, buying books from Scholastic and library book sales, and setting up Donorschoose.org projects to add more books for the time periods that I will teach this year. The Language Arts teacher said that she wanted to try the Daily 5 this year. It reminded me of learning about in a graduate class I took a few years ago. I began wondering if I could use the Daily 5 in Social Studies.
When my students came back from lunch yesterday, many of them were flipping through their library books instead of getting ready for the math intervention lesson that I was going to teach. With the principal's words of giving the kids more time to read ringing in the back of my mind, I asked the kids if they would prefer to read their library books. They excitedly said yes which led them to spending the next half hour enjoying their books while I jotted down a rough plan of reader's workshop. When the students finished reading, I then had a community meeting about whether we should do an experiment and try to do more of a reader's workshop for Social Studies class. After explaining the plan and answering questions, I asked kids to write in their journals their opinion of the plan. Overwhelming most of them were in favor of it. Thus began day 1 of Social Studies Daily 5 Cafe.
We began with the suggested go over the 3 ways to read a book. Then we took down the purpose of reading individually (Read-To-Self). All of my students really wanted to contribute, especially when they saw that I was putting names after their suggestions. Sadly, known of them said that we read for fun, but they did use a lot of reading vocabulary in their answers (plot, theme, setting, characters). Finally, we were able to move on to what the students do and what the teacher does during Read-To-Self time. The students were very good with their suggestions for themselves, but couldn't quite come up with what I should be doing. I had to explain to them my job of reading groups and conferencing (My grading and other duties should be limited to before/after school. They are my priority during the school day.)
Next began the most interesting part for most of them. They got to take turns modeling the inappropriate ways followed by the appropriate ways to read during Read-To-Self time. I had so many kids that wanted to model it for the class. Each kid wanted to outshine the student before him or her. A handful of kids wanted to go twice. I took the book's suggestion and allowed them to get their attention now rather than later. After the modeling, then I had the students go back to their reading areas one at a time to begin the independent reading. My first class did really well with this, but this was my homeroom that had written the journal entries the day before. My second class had to go back to the gathering area a few times to practice going to a quiet area to read. I think I will have my second class journal write their opinions tomorrow so that they have more of a voice on whether we should try the workshop model (which hopefully they will want to do).
Here is the link to the Daily 5 Cafe:
Here is a link to the Daily 5 book on half.ebay.com:
Now wish me luck on Day 2 tomorrow!
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