Learn More

40 Hour Workweek

Uncategorized   |   Jul 26, 2010

Book review: The Daily 5

By Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Book review: The Daily 5

By Angela Watson

1571104291-01-mzzzzzzz

I’ve never had so many web visitors ask for my opinion on a book as I have with The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades. And as soon as I started reading, I realized why.

“The sisters” are obviously long-lost relatives of mine.

Let’s run down the list of similarities here, shall we?  Gail Boushey and Joan Moser were classroom teachers when they wrote the book and tell about systems they created with their own students, they don’t advocate one ‘right’ way to teach that requires you to throw out everything else you do, and they show you how to teach your students to run the classroom. Check, check, and CHECK. I’m totally on board.

Most of you reading this review are already familiar with the Daily 5 (it’s been out since 2006), so I’ll make this less of a book summary and more of an opinion piece. I loved how readable the book was.  The tone was conversational and easy-to-understand. I loved the ongoing discussion of how their teaching practice has changed and evolved over the years. Not only does this make the sisters seem like real people who didn’t start off as master teachers on day one, but it gives permission to the rest of us to grow and let go of ineffective practices we’ve become attached to.  I also love how the book emphasizes the element of choice for children. This truly is a student-centered way to run your literacy block.

But mostly,  I love the way the sisters emphasize modeling and practice for routines. This is something I’ve been droning on about for years, but I’ve never seen the concept so perfectly explained for the context of literacy routines.  Even if you’re not using the Daily 5, the procedures the book advocates for teaching children to be independent is applicable to whatever literacy tasks you have them regularly complete…and would work for math routines, too. The explanation of how to model and practice is definitely the crown jewel of The Daily 5.

There were two aspects of teaching routines in The Daily 5 that I had never thought about.  The first is doing 3 minute practice periods to build stamina. My practice periods were usually starting at 10 minutes for 3rd graders, but the sisters point out that you must stop before any children have a chance to get off-task: start small so they can be successful and train their ‘muscle memories’ to complete the procedure correctly. The other new concept for me is the premise of not managing with eye control or proximity (my two favorite techniques) when practicing literacy routines. This was a radical idea in my mind: What, no raised eyebrows and the ‘um-i-don’t-think-so-buddy’ glare when a kid starts picking at his shoelaces instead of reading? Not during the Daily 5 stamina-building sessions. Instead, you’re supposed to stop the whole class and revisit the anchor chart so kids can reflect on their own practices. We’re talking student ownership on the next level.

Obviously since I’m obsessed with teaching routines and procedures, I really keyed in on that aspect. As for the Daily 5 elements themselves (Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work)…I can get with those, too. The concepts aren’t anything revolutionary, nor do the sisters claim they are–they’re just best practices that focus on authentic reading rather than teacher-contrived busywork. These elements have been going on in classrooms for a long time under many pseudonyms, and they work. I found yet another commonality with my long-lost sisters in that I, too, started making the switch from assigning reading activities to having kids READ after studying Regie Routman’s Reading Essentials. That book changed everything for me, and it heavily influenced the sisters, too.

The only downside of The Daily 5 being such a short and easy read is that it’s possibly TOO short–personally, I would like to have read a lot more than 100 pages on this topic.  The book left me with a number of unanswered questions. For example, the recommended daily schedule shows whole-group reading instruction being completed solely in four 5-7 minute mini lessons.  How could that be possible, especially if you’re mandated to use a basal or complete daily test prep practice? Wouldn’t longer lessons be needed in the upper elementary grades in which skills are more complex? I headed over to the website to look for support, but was disappointed to find that the online resources are available only for members at the rate of $39 for a 3 month subscription or $69 annually (um, ouch.)  So I started a Daily 5 discussion on Facebook and found, as usual, that teachers have all the answers I’m looking for. Not only did they explain that the Daily 5 Structure is highly adaptable and it’s the teacher’s choice how long the mini-lessons run, they explained just how they use the structure in their own classrooms and gave practical tips.

Wonderful, practical, and free advice from teachers on how they implement The Daily 5 is abundant on the web (especially on the ProTeacher message boards).  I’ve researched their reviews extensively, and the overwhelming response from classroom teachers is that IT WORKS. The Daily 5 has an incredible following of teachers whose students can’t wait for the literacy block each day because they’ve developed such a deep love of reading that’s totally independent of adult direction. What more could we want for our students? Go ‘head, sisters.

*review copy provided by Stenhouse Publishers

Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Angela created the first version of this site in 2003, when she was a classroom teacher herself. With 11 years of teaching experience and more than a decade of experience as an instructional coach, Angela oversees and contributes regularly to...
Browse Articles by Angela

Discussion


  1. I first found out about his book a little over a year ago when I was in graduate school. I, too, like how they emphasize modeling and practice for routines. Thanks for the review. It was a great reminder to head back to some of my resources to “freshen up” and get ready for a new school year. 🙂

  2. I absolutely love the Daily 5! Last year, I focused on implementing reading to self and reading to a buddy. My kids loved learning about “stamina.” We built are reading stamina all year! By the end of the year, my students could read for 20-30 minutes at a time (and they were first graders!)

    I love, love, love this book! It is time for me to reread and add something new this year!

  3. Hi Angela,

    Great Post! I have experimented with parts of Daily 5 for grade 2 and love it! My question is have you come across any research supporting Daily 5. My new administrator is open to change, but he wants to implement research based strategies.

    Thanks!

    Liz

    1. Hi, Liz! There is a teacher who did action research to show the effectiveness of the Daily 5. I found this on the sisters’ website, as someone submitted it to them. I don’t remember where on the site it was (it’s been awhile) but you can try looking around, and also do a Google search.

      When talking to your admin, point out that the sisters created their approach after researching a number of best practices, which are sited throughout the book. The Daily 5 just gives practical implementation tips for well-founded reading research conducted by Fountas & Pinell, Regie Routman, and many others. Hopefully that will be convincing evidence that the principles behind the Daily 5 are clearly research-based.

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion? Feel free to contribute!