Book:
Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2009). The Café Book: Engaging All Student in Daily
Literacy
Assessment
and Instruction. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse
Publishers.
“The
Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades” by Gail Boushey
and Joan Moser outlines the “Daily Five” approach for literacy teachers in the
early years. The Daily Five
consists of five literacy activities for a class to follow to engage all students
in literacy development at their “challenge” level. These five activities are: Read to Self, Read to Someone,
Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, and Spelling/Word Work. The goal of the Daily Five programme is to
foster independent and meaningful literacy development through a specific
learning environment structure (Boushey and Moser, 2006, p. 7). The Daily Five offers students choice,
within guidelines, the chance to work alone and with various partners, and the
ability to work at their own reading level. This is particularly useful for
classes with students who are at varying reading levels.
The
book begins by introducing the background and development of the Daily Five
programme and continues by describing and providing additional resources for
each of the five activities as well as details of the foundations of the Daily
Five programme. By showing how the
Daily Five programme developed in their own classrooms, Boushey and Moser are
able to effectively show teachers where its use can benefit other classrooms
and how to use the programme to respond to difficulties in teaching literacy
development. The resources that
are provided to help teachers keep track of their students’ development through
the Daily Five programme are each described and justified in a way that shows
teachers the goals of each resource as well as how to accurately implement its
use. These resources can also be
easily adapted to fit other subject areas, which is an added bonus. The book provides master copies of each
resource and also shows teachers completed examples so that we can see how each
is used in practice.
The bulk of the
book is dedicated to describing methods for implementing the Café/Daily Five in
the classroom. There are specific
examples and methods given. Each
aspect of the Daily Five programme is described in detail and there are clear
steps for how to implement each aspect in a classroom. There are additional resources, such as
book lists that teachers can draw on in order to help them implement the Daily
Five in their classrooms. In
addition, examples are given of real classroom examples of how the Daily Five
programme works. Each aspect of the programme is laid out in clear detail and
can be followed in a step-by-step manner.
Although written in book format, each section can be easily turned into
its own lesson plan and followed as such.
There are sections that detail how to hold conferences with students in
order to assess their progress as well as how to effectively observe students
who are working in order to inform assessment. There is a detailed section that outlines whole-class
instruction methods that are used in addition to individual student work on the
five areas of the Daily Five. The
bulk of the book finishes with a detailed section about how to group students
for individual work. This section
shows how students can be grouped in many different categories depending on
which particular goal is being worked on at a given point in time. This section also discusses the
different opinions that have been put forth in regard to grouping students
(whether or not we should and if we do, how we should).
The appendix
contains detailed lesson plans for launching the programme as well as for the
first five weeks or the programme, for each of the five activities. There are sample schedules of how a
literacy block fits into a classroom schedule. In addition, there is a huge number of master copies of
resources that can be used in the Daily Five programme, such as resources for
assessing students and keeping track of student progress as well as reference
sheets for teachers that detail how and why to approach each teachings strategy
in the Café/Daily Five programme.
I
think that this book is a very good resource for teachers who want to use the Daily
Five in their classrooms. I also
think that it is a good resource for teachers to draw aspects from if the Daily
Five programme doesn’t fit into the classroom (even though the programme is
designed to be implemented as a whole).
From my experiences with the Daily Five in practicum and from reading
the book in detail, I think that this is a useful approach to literacy
teaching. It is particularly good
for those students who are either above or below grade level as everyone is
able to complete the same tasks while doing so at a level that is appropriate
and challenging for their own learning level. The Daily Five is also good for literacy development as it
removes the ‘boredom’ that many students associate with reading and literacy
development by providing a number of choices for activities that promote
literacy development. The Daily
Five programme also reinforces multiple areas of literacy development, which
lends strength to the programme.
One
of the benefits of this book and the programme that it outlines is that there
is a great variety of choice for teachers within the programme. Teachers can choose to strictly follow
the Daily Five programme, as outline in the book, and by doing so will develop
a strong literacy programme in their classrooms. This is great for beginning teachers or teachers who are
unsure of how to develop effective literacy programmes for their students. There is also plenty of room for
flexibility within the guidelines put forth in the book. This is excellent as it provides
teachers with the opportunity to tailor the programme to their own teaching
philosophy and to the needs of their classroom. I think that this is a good resource as it provides and good
starting point for beginning teachers as well as ways in which seasoned
teachers can develop and improve.
One
downside to this resource is that you are ‘buying into’ a pre-designed
programme. I think that the Daily
Five programme offers a number of excellent benefits, and therefore I find that
this is a good resource. For
teachers who are not keen on the Daily Five programme, this resource is not as
useful unless it convinces them as to the benefits of using the Daily Five
programme. That being said, I
think that it is definitely possible for teachers to use this resource as a
guideline for creating their own programmes within their classrooms. In addition, it is definitely possible
to take various aspects of the programme from the book and tailor them to fit
an individual teacher’s classroom programme without implementing the whole
Daily Five programme. In this way,
I think that it is possible to use this resource not as the basis for
implementing the programme exactly as it appears but for informing teaching
decisions in the realm of literacy development.
I
think that the suggested strategies and tools in “The Daily Five” align well
with the theory outlined in this course.
I think that three of the fundamental ideas behind the Daily Five –
trust, choice, and community – really speak to a sense of respect for children
and their learning. I also think
that the aspect of choice (within guidelines) is essential to the programme and
aligns well with the course theory.
Students are able to choose books, tasks, and partners who work best for
their own learning styles and interests.
In this way, students are able to create their own, authentic learning
experiences that speak to their own interests and abilities. Students are given a high level of
responsibility in their own learning and are therefore shown respect as
students. In this way, students
are not only progressing in their literacy development, they are also gaining
valuable life skills that are applicable outside of literacy- and school-based
applications. By giving students a
wide variety of choice, students are able to develop their own interests and
passions. This increases student
interest and motivation and creates engaging, enjoyable learning
experiences.
The Daily Five
programme also accommodates a wide variety of learners and accepts different levels
of learners within the classroom. During
the Daily Five, also students are engaged in some aspect of the programme. Students are able to choose which
aspect of literacy development they need to work on. As all students are engaged in the same end-goal, no student
is left on the spot or feeling left out.
In addition, no student is singled out due to a difference in
learning. Students are also able
to work at their own literacy level and to challenge themselves
appropriately. In this way, no
student is left struggling with developing literacy at a level that is far
beyond their current development, nor is any student discouraged by being left
to work at tasks that are below their level of intellectual challenge. All students are able to develop their
literacy skills in a way that is unique and meaningful to their current
academic level. In this way,
student literacy is strengthened as no student is left to struggle or be bored.
By allowing each
student to work at their own level and challenge themselves, students are
encouraged to and are better able to respect their own learning levels and
styles. By providing students with
opportunities to work on the development of different skills and to challenge
themselves at different levels, students are able to identify for themselves
their strengths and weaknesses and to follow the appropriate steps to develop
these areas of their own learning.
This fosters a sense of independence, as students are able to determine
for themselves what activities to work on and what level to work at. This also encourages a dialogue between
student and teacher in order to ensure that students are using the independence
and responsibility that they have been provided with in the most effective
way.
When used as a
whole programme, there is a classroom commitment to the goals of the
programme. From what I have seen
in practicum, there is a sense of unity during the literacy block, particularly
in regard to the goal setting aspect of the programme. The children are constantly monitoring
their own progress and asking each other about their goals and progress. This encourages an open dialogue
between the students and promotes classroom unity. Despite the fact that the students are working on different
activities and at different levels, they recognise that their ultimate goals
are the same. They are also able
to help each other to achieve the goals that they set and to monitor how the
class as a whole is progressing.
In this way, the students, though focussing on their own personal
development, are able to also be a part of a classroom community that is united
in its goals. The Daily Five
programme is highly child-centred, and, while it is not perfect, it does seem
to be an excellent option for teachers, even for those who choose to include
only parts of it in their classrooms.
There is also a ‘sister’ book to this one
that provides even greater detail about each of the five individual parts of
the Daily Five programme:
Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2006). The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy
Independence in the
Elementary
Grades. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
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