Lori Sabo
April 17, 2015
Issue #352
It was my first day of college and I was sitting in my first class, Human Anatomy and Physiology. The teacher was introducing the syllabus, but my attention was on the stunningly handsome guy sitting across from me. After finding out we had a mutual acquaintance, Mark, I wrote to Mark to get information about the guy I had a mad crush on. He and I continued writing back and forth for a year (email hadn't been invented yet), and instead of falling in love with the crush, I fell in love with and married Mark in September, 1980.
Something similar happened in my professional life 21 years ago when I was being asked to teach a new basal series. I was dissatisfied because the one-story/40-worksheet-pages-per-week program was failing to meet the needs of the majority of my first graders. When I spotted Gail coming down the hallway on parent night (she was there to meet with her daughter's teacher, but taught at another school in the district) I said, “Gail, I’m not happy with this reading program. How are you doing with it?”
She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper and responded, “Oh, I don’t do it.”
“You don’t do it!?! What are you doing instead?”
“Come to my classroom tomorrow after school and I'll show you.”
It was there, sitting in one of her little first-grade chairs, that I first learned about Daily 5, another love affair that has lasted ever since.
If you learn more about Daily 5, you will surely fall in love with it, too. That’s the purpose of this week’s tip. Every video, article, and download this week is chosen to help you become intimately acquainted with this fabulous structure. With Daily 5, students are highly engaged, motivated, and invested in their own learning, and teachers gain the time they need to help all students, whether they are behind or exceeding standards, make significant gains. What’s not to love?
Live chats provide us with an opportunity to answer your questions. Are you a Daily CAFE member? Then mark your calendar and come Wednesday, April 22, 4:00 pm (Pacific Time). We will be there to share our thoughts on what you want to talk about.
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News from The Daily CAFE
Quick Start Guides
We've gathered some of our best articles, videos, and downloads in one place to help you smoothly and successfully launch each of the Daily 5.
Why Our Students Are So Beautifully Independent
We use the 10 Steps to Teaching and Learning Independence with five-year-olds, fifteen-year olds, and everyone in between. Recent revisions to Step 8 help our students attain success even faster.
Efficiently Check In and Smoothly Release
Learn how simple it can be to record student choices, raise accountability, and smoothly release students in these three informative articles.
CCPensieve Users, Rejoice!
You can now use the CCPensieve to record student choices at check in. Try it out!
See it in Action
Take a virtual field trip into two K-2 classrooms and a fourth-grade classroom to see relaxed and happy children engaged in various Daily 5 choices.
Daily 5 and RTI—A Perfect Marriage
Here's why the Daily 5 structure combines perfectly with RTI.
Powerful Support from Literacy Leaders
Administrators and Coaches who want to support teachers in their Daily 5 and CAFE journeys will want to familiarize themselves through book study and research.
Professional Development Opportunities
2015 Live WorkshopsWe are excited about our 2015 workshops. At each location, the first day will focus on Daily 5 and Math Daily 3. Day two is a new CAFE Intensive.
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2015 Online SeminarsPrefer short bursts of information combined with independent learning? Each session offers separate seminars on Daily 5, CAFE and Math Daily 3. May 3–May 30 (Full) Learn more about Daily 5 and CAFE workshops, online seminars, and online graduate courses. Up & Running with the Daily 5
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Our new how-to video, shot in third-grade and fifth-grade classrooms, is available through subscription for online streaming or as a DVD. Go to