I HATE Daily 5 in my 5th grade classroom.
There I said it. HATE...HATE...HATE! With a capital H!
To me this is not a reading program but a classroom management system that just doesn't seem to work for me or my students. It feels like a waste of time. It feels like a lot of lost opportunities and busy work. It feels like a complete failure everyday. It feels like a gimmick.
Now please do not get me wrong, I think the Daily 5 concepts work great in lower elementary grades. I think it provides a great structure to get them use to stamina and provides a break in the reading hour and a half that we have to do this but in 5th grade it just seems a little "childish". Move to stations, read for 20 minutes, if you look around too long we have to stop and practice (because we have time for that), you need to be writing for 20 minutes...write the whole time.
Well what do you do when you have students that just can't.
It isn't in their genetic make-up to be able to focus for 20 minutes.
They practice great. Practice for 20 days and in that 20 days it looks great but what do you do and how do you monitor what they are doing when you are working in small groups and they are in a corner?
Am I just doing it wrong?
It seems to never fail when my principal comes in to evaluate there is always someone "off task". Am I not providing enough engaging activities?
Truth be told that my experience with this program and my training consists of...here, read this book and implement the program.
I need help.
I need ideas.
I need to figure this out before I lose my mind.
Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I am drowning!
P.S. We do DRA levels. I have 28-80s in my classroom.
DRA 28 - 1 student
DRA 30 - 1 student
DRA 38 - 5 students
DRA 40 - 2 students
DRA 50 - 2 students
DRA 60 - 2 students
DRA 70 - 1 student
DRA 80 - 4 students
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