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It's no secret that building strong literacy skills from an early age pays huge dividends for students. However, implementing an effective literacy program in the classroom-one which meets the widely varying needs of all your students while building a genuine love of reading-is a significant challenge. One of the most popular and successful frameworks that has emerged to help educators meet this challenge is the Daily 5™, first introduced by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser in their 2006 book, The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades. This method offers students the following five choices of activities to work independently toward personal literacy goals:

Ready to try this rewarding, student-centered instructional method in your classroom? Or, maybe you've been using the Daily 5 for years and are simply looking to refine your approach. No matter where you are on your Daily 5 journey, we've assembled this guide with useful tips to help you fully understand the framework and put best practices to work. We'll start by taking a high-level look at what the framework is and isn't, and then move on to actionable tips to implement each of the five choices in your classroom:
The Daily 5: What It Is
The Daily 5 is a literacy framework that guides both student and teacher behaviors to create a classroom of engaged and independent readers and writers. It's not the "what" you teach but "how" that the Daily 5 aims to solve by creating a structure in which students participate in meaningful activities, while educators work uninterrupted with small groups and individuals.

Explicit teaching and practicing of classroom behaviors

Rather than continually putting out fires in your classroom, the Daily 5 offers literacy routines and procedures that are transparent, practiced, and upheld. With a prescribed method for introduction and suggested visual anchors for reinforcement, students gain a firm grasp of acceptable behaviors to guide their classroom decisions within your daily reading block.

Stamina building for sustained reading and writing

For students to become truly proficient in literacy, research shows that they need extended periods of authentic reading and writing. This structure is one way to deliver that focused independent practice by guiding educators through the process of helping students build stamina.

Creating a structure that nurtures independence requires trust from you, their teacher, to prepare students to accept the challenge of making thoughtful choices in the classroom. This may sound scary, and it certainly takes time, but when that trust and sense of community are established, you stand to gain a more satisfied and self-disciplined group of students.
...And What It Isn't

A teacher-driven model that relies on busywork and workbooks

Student choice is the ultimate linchpin to the success of the Daily 5. As the year goes on, your students will be thankful for the opportunity to choose their own literacy adventure within the Daily 5 structure. Additionally, it also gives young learners the opportunity to refocus their brains so that they are capable of maintaining attention during periods of direct instruction.

A huge financial and time investment

We've all been there as educators-brimming with ideas of exciting activities and new centers only to be met with piles of ungraded work and exhaustion a few months later. The Daily 5 supports practice, utilizing reusable resources such as anchor charts, manipulatives, technology, and classroom libraries as the keys to sustaining success.

The Daily 5 looks different in every classroom. Period. This framework is meant to support choice and flexibility so that the students in front of you guide your teaching based upon their experience, stamina, needs, and behaviors.
The Daily 5: Best Practice Tips
The "Read to Self" component is just what it sounds like: during this time your students are each equipped with books, seated alone, and reading independently. While this may seem pretty straightforward, creating a classroom full of independent readers with extended stamina requires slow and thoughtful execution. Three key strategies are outlined here:

Teach Students the 3 Ways to Read a Book

Boushey and Moser suggest teaching three different ways to read that encourage fluid practice from the very beginning. By reading the pictures, even the earliest learners begin to understand the elements of a story; by reading the words, the most conventional definition of reading is explored; and by retelling the story, students learn the importance of comprehending what they read.

Through introducing this strategy, you begin to create a classroom environment where all students feel that they can be successful. This is particularly helpful for younger students or English language learners, who may not yet be reading.

Encourage the "I-PICK" Good-Fit Books Method

Before students can start reading independently, they need to be equipped with the right books to suit their needs. Think about those students who spend all their time "choosing" a book in your classroom library only to find the right one just as you call time, and you'll quickly see the merit of this approach.

As a strategy developed by Boushey and Moser, "I-PICK" teaches students to consider purpose, interest, comprehension, and word knowledge when making their book selections. Model, think aloud, and confer with small groups regularly to help instill this practice with your young learners.

Provide Quality Reading Materials

If the Daily 5 is carried our correctly (and actually on a daily basis) the depth and breadth of your classroom reading materials may come into question. By adding educational technology programs, such as Reading Eggs for K-2 learners and Reading Eggspress for students in grades 2-6, you can provide an engaging, Web-based reading option for your students.

In these online solutions, students can browse over 2,000 fiction and nonfiction titles in a virtual library to select their good-fit book by genre or Lexile® level. Stories also include a short comprehension quiz, encouraging readers to apply their knowledge about all three ways they read a book.

Choice #2: Work on Writing
During this rotation, students should have extended time to practice and the freedom to explore different writing topics. "Work on Writing" can be used to continue the writing style or process that is being taught in a separate writing workshop outside of the Daily 5, but this should not always be the case. Sustained writing of any form a student chooses should remain the focus of this rotation. A few key strategies for success are detailed below:

For many students, thinking of a topic can be the hardest aspect of writing. Without creating specific expectations around this practice, you may see your students' focus quickly shift from writing to building a tower out of the writing center supplies. To avoid losing their concentration, encourage your students to create a repository of writing ideas-collected and organized into anchor charts and student writing notebooks for quick and easy access.

Underline Words That You Don't Know How to Spell, and Move On

Critical to success in "Work on Writing," this strategy is specifically meant to help your students maintain their writing flow without losing track of their thoughts or causing extended periods of frustration. It's a terrible moment as a teacher when you scan through writing samples from your class to see that your 1st graders were stumped after two lines because they struggled to spell "rollercoaster" or "chameleon."

Keep this from happening by teaching your students to not be afraid of using rich and explicit words that are above their spelling level. Model the writing process, thinking aloud in front of your students as you stumble upon a difficult word yourself. By underlining the word and quickly moving on, you show them that it's okay if some words aren't spelled perfectly in their nonpublished writing.

For many struggling learners, writing is hardly their favorite pastime. Reinvigorate the writing rotation by offering students the opportunity to use online technology to explore the writing process.

In Edmentum's learn-to-read program, Reading Eggs, students can enter the Story Factory to create their own composition tied to a weekly theme. A variety of graphics and relevant vocabulary assists students as they craft their own tale, save their finished work, print, or even submit their story to a weekly contest.
Choice #3: Read to Someone
Often a Daily 5 favorite, "Read to Someone" offers children the opportunity to pair up and share a book of their choosing. This rotation is sometimes referred to as partner reading, buddy reading, or read with a friend. No matter what you choose to call it, "Read to Someone" provides a meaningful time for developing readers to increase their comprehension, fluency, and accuracy. Explore a few ways to set up this round successfully:

Setting expectations for good reading partners in your classroom involves defining what it sounds and looks like. Because volume control can often feel like an uphill battle, we'll start there. Research shows that the loudest voice in the room is the one that often regulates the noise level. Keep your voice down when conferring with students to set the appropriate tone and expectations in your room.

Hand in hand with voice level, our primary learners often need direction as to what "Read to Someone" should look like. With "EEKK" (elbow to elbow, knee to knee), a model subscribed to by the Daily 5 creators (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser), students are taught to sit side by side to easily share their text and read aloud together.

It's not enough to practice fluent reading during "Read to Someone;" your students also should be concentrating on comprehending text. To check for understanding, set a standard practice for readers to restate aloud the "what" and "who" of what they just read or heard. Additional comprehension questions can be added for older students. Check out a few examples of how this strategy can be brought to life on our Pinterest board.
Choice #4: Listen to Reading
"Listen to Reading" can take many different forms, including online audiobooks and Web-based solutions. For emerging readers, time spent listening to fluent reading models is invaluable to building reading pronunciation and expression. Struggling readers also find this rotation beneficial, as it allows them to access texts that meet their listening comprehension level, even if that exceeds their reading level. Keep these strategies in mind when incorporating this rotation:

If you find yourself among one of those lucky few with a set of state-of-the-art devices for class, adding "Listen to Reading" to your daily rotation should be fairly straightforward. If a set of four to five "cross your fingers and hope they work today" computers is more in line with the current state of your classroom technology, rest assured that there's no reason to lose hope! Between audiobooks from your campus or city library and your school's computer lab, you can still give your students the opportunity to experience this rotation regularly.

Additionally, make the most of time spent at this station by ensuring that your students have the technology skills to log in quickly and treat equipment appropriately. Early on, it's also a good idea to appoint a student to be your "tech-support helper," so that you aren't pulled away from working with students to assist with technology issues.

Determine appropriate activities based on reading ability

Listening to reading is often so engaging for children, that most have no problem building stamina. You can keep this rotation exciting by providing your students with a wide variety of books to enjoy. Our online literacy solutions, Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress, can be hugely helpful with this. Within the programs' Online Library Catalog, students can select from over 2,000 different titles with full audio support.

For those no longer in need of "Listen to Reading," "Computer Time" is often substituted to focus on other reading skills in an engaging environment. In Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress, students can work through an individualized learning path of reading lessons. Each lesson contains pre-reading activities, a focus book, book quiz, and motivational rewards to keep students engaged and learning.

The "Word Work" component of the Daily 5 focuses on spelling and vocabulary by creating a print-rich environment and offering learning manipulatives for students to experiment and develop an interest in language. Students are able to select from a variety of materials to play with words, word patterns, word families, and so on to hone their knowledge and increase their writing skills. Consider several suggestions below to make your "Word Work" area a success:

With such things as sand, playdough, markers, and glitter glue, the variety of materials involved in "Word Work" is often tailored to meet the needs of your kinesthetic learners. The activities in this rotation also involve a fair bit of rule following and sometimes even a watchful eye to keep them running smoothly.

Gauging the maturity of your learners is a good place to start, followed closely by rolling out new materials one at a time. Model how each is used in the context of "Word Work," and ask students to help demonstrate proper application to build letters, words, and sentences. Making it clear that each new manipulative is a privilege in your classroom can help keep even your most active learners in line during this rotation.

Motivate learning with focused, yet fun, activities

"Word Work" can provide excellent practice of manipulating words and developing language skills, but when involving enticing materials, it can also quickly descend into anarchy. Incorporate a variety of "Word Work" activities that motivate students to stay on task.

Using Reading Eggs, students can practice phonics skills, content vocabulary, and sight words in a game-based environment. Leveled activities align content to individualized ability levels, while Golden Egg rewards entice students to stay motivated. Reading Eggspress similarly provides an English skills area for students to practice more complex spelling patterns while earning redeemable rewards.

Looking for additional tips to make use of the Daily 5 framework in your classroom? Interested in learning more about Edmentum's engaging online programs for early literacy? Explore Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress!

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The Daily 5 Literacy Framework: A Guide to Best Practices

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It's no secret that building strong literacy skills from an early age pays huge dividends for students. However, implementing an effective literacy program in the classroom-one which meets the widely varying needs of all your students while building a genuine love of reading-is a significant challenge.

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Motivating students is one of the major challenges teachers face on a daily basis. Conceptualized as students' energy and drive to engage, learn, work effectively, and achieve their potential at school, motivation and engagement play a large role in students' interest and enjoyment of school (Martin, 2006). Understandably, both also play huge roles in academic achievement (Martin, 2001; Martin & Marsh, 2003). Consequently, those students who are motivated by and engaged in learning tend to perform considerably higher academically and are better behaved than unmotivated and un-engaged peers (Fredricks, Bulumenfeld, & Paris, 2004).

While much motivation is intrinsic to the student, teachers also play a vital role in the motivation and engagement of their students. A significant portion of student engagement and achievement has been explained by teacher- and classroom-level variables (Hill & Rowe, 1996). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to briefly discuss the importance of motivation and engagement on student learning and behavior, the role teachers play in motivating and engaging students, and suggestions for doing so.

Student Engagement and Motivation: Impact on Learning and Behavior

Student engagement, described as the tendency to be behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively involved in academic activities, is a key construct in motivation research (Thijs & Verkuyten, 2009). Consequently, compared to less engaged peers, engaged students demonstrate more effort, experience more positive emotions and pay more attention in the classroom (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Further, engagement has also been associated with positive student outcomes, including higher grades and decreased dropouts (Connell, Spencer, & Aber, 1994).

Teachers' Impact on Student Engagement and Motivation

Teachers play a vital role in their students' engagement and motivation (Hill & Rowe, 1996). Although much is intrinsic to the student, research has found that teacher's play a vital role on their students' motivation and engagement. Specifically, Martin (2006) found that a teacher's enjoyment and confidence in teaching, pedagogical efficacy, and affective orientations in the classroom have a positive impact on student engagement and motivation.

According to Bandura (1997), confidence is akin to self-efficacy. Those teachers who are confident, or self-efficient have demonstrated: a) the ability to generate and test alternative courses of action when initial success is not met; b) enhanced functioning through elevated levels of effort and persistence; and c) enhanced ability to deal with a problem situation by influencing cognitive and emotional processes related to the situation (Martin, 2006). Conversely, according to Bandura (1997) teachers with low confidence tend to dwell on their deficiencies and view situations as more difficult than they really are. Inadvertently, teachers high in confidence (self-efficacy) are more likely to engage in pedagogy that is characterized by positive, proactive, and solution-focused orientations, resulting in increased student motivation and engagement.

Teachers' enjoyment of and confidence in teaching have been shown to positively impact their affective orientation towards their students (e.g., positive student-teacher relationships); resulting in increased student motivation and engagement. Teven and McCroskey (1997) found that students who believe their teacher is caring also believe they learn more. Further, positive relationships with teachers predict enhanced social, cognitive, and language development in younger children (Kontos & Wilcox-Herzog, 1997). According to Flink, Boggiano, and Barrett (1990) those teachers who support a student's autonomy tend to facilitate greater motivation, curiosity, and desire to be challenged. Finally, positive relationships with teachers are associated with emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement in the class (Connell & Wellborn, 1991).

Tips for Enhancing Student Engagement and Motivation

The following tips are provided in an effort to provide teachers with suggestions on how they might proactively begin the school year in an effort to improve and cultivate student motivation and engagement.

Recognize and enhance one's mental and physical stability. Teaching is a stressful job, and it is imperative that teachers take care of their mental and physical selves. Teachers should engage in activities that are relaxing and physically challenging. Having an outlet to alleviate stress will radiate within the classroom and positively enhance student-teacher relationships. When teachers feel good about themselves, they have more patience for and better interaction with students. Possible outlets for stress include: yoga, running, work-outs with weights, healthy eating, dance, biking, or meditation.

Ensure the classroom environment is welcoming to students from all cultures. To be engaged, students need to feel that they are in an environment where they are accepted and affirmed. Ensure the classroom is warm and inviting to all.

Enhance students' self-belief. Research shows that students engage when they act as their own learning agents working to achieve goals important to them. They must believe they can learn and know how to deal with failures and learn from those experiences. Incorporate problem-solving activities and provide discussions when failures occur. Allow students control over learning. This helps them develop confidence and commitment to learning.

Survey students to obtain information about their likes and dislikes. Understanding what students like and dislike will provide suggested areas in which teachers can connect with the student (e.g., favorite books, movies, video games). Information collected from the survey can be utilized as a motivator for academic and behavioral engagement or as a means of building rapport with the student (e.g., a topic for conversing).

Allow students to work autonomously, enjoy learning relationships with peers, and feel they are competent to reach their goals. Allowing students to work autonomously and with others, developing their sense of competence, results in increased student motivation. This focuses on the cultivation of intrinsic motivation, which fosters self-determination that leads to engagement.

Create learning opportunities that are active, collaborative, and promote learning relationships.Â Active learning in groups, peer relationships, and social skills are key components to engagement and motivation.

Create educational experiences for students that are challenging and enriching and that extend their academic abilities. Easy learning activities and assignments are not as effective at engaging students as activities and assignments that challenge them. When students are reflecting, questioning, conjecturing, evaluating, and making connections between ideas, they are engaged. Teachers must create rich educational experiences that challenge students' ideas and stretch them as far as they can go (Zepke & Leach, 2010).

Recognize that teaching and teachers are central to student engagement. Keeping up with the educational research through involvement in professional development activities (reading journals, attending workshops or webinars, etc) is key for teachers to remain current in the field using effective, research-based strategies, and techniques.

Motivating students and encouraging engagement is not an easy feat for teachers. While much of the motivation is intrinsic to the student, teachers play a vital role and can be proactive in cultivating student engagement. Increased student engagement and motivation is key to academic and behavioral success.

About the Author

Tammy L. Stephens, Ph.D., is a former assessment consultant for Pearson. Prior to working at Pearson, Dr. Stephens worked as a special education teacher (working with students with emotional/behavioral disorders), an educational diagnostician, and an assistant professor at Texas Woman's University. Dr. Stephens has presented on issues related to assessment and intervention at the local, state, national, and international levels. She is also published in several books and educational journals.

References

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman & Co.

Connell, J., Spencer, M., & Aber, J. (1994). Educational risk and resilience in African-American youth: Context, self, action, and outcomes in school. Child Development, 65, 493-506.

Connell, J., & Wellborn, J. (1991). Competence, autonomy, and relatedness: A motivational analysis of self-system processes. In M. R. Gunnar, & L. A. Sroufe (Eds.), Self process in development: Minnesota Symposium of Child Psychology (Vol 29. pp. 244-254). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Fredericks, J., Blumenfeld, P., & Paris, A. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concepts, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59-109.

Hill, P., & Rowe, K. (1996). Multilevel modeling in school effectiveness research. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 7, 1-34.

Kontos, S., & Wilcox-Herzog, A. (1997). Influences on children's competence in early childhood classrooms. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12, 247-262.

Martin, A. (2006). The relationship between teachers' perceptions of student motivation and engagement and teachers' enjoyment of and confidence in teaching. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 34(1), 73-93.

Martin, A. (2001). The student motivation scale: A tool for measuring and enhancing motivation. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 11, 1-20.

Martin, A., & Marsh, H. (2003). Fear of failure: Friend or foe? Australian Psychologist, 38, 31-38.

Teven, J., & McCroskey, J. (1997). The relationship of perceived teacher caring with student learning and teacher evaluation. Communication Education, 46, 1-9.

Thijs, J., & Verkuyten, M. (2009). Students' anticipated situational engagement: The roles of teacher behavior, personal engagement, and gender. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 170(3), 268-286.

Zepke, N., & Leach, L. (2010). Improving student engagement: Ten proposals for action. Active Learning in Higher Education, 11(3), 167-177.

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Tammy L. Stephens, Ph.D., Guest Author, Review360 Pearson

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Encouraging Positive Student Engagement and Motivation: Tips for Teachers | Pearson Blog

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Motivating students is one of the major challenges teachers face on a daily basis. Conceptualized as students' energy and drive to engage, learn, work effectively, and achieve their potential at school, motivation and engagement play a large role in students' interest and enjoyment of school (Martin, 2006).

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Today's kids sit more than ever. Babies spend hours confined in car seats and carriers rather than crawling, toddling, or being carried. As they get older their days are often heavily scheduled between educational activities and organized events. Children have 25 percent less time for free play than they did a generation ago, and that's before factoring in distractions like TV or video games.

Left to their own devices, children move. They hold hands and whirl in a circle till they fall down laughing. They beg to take part in interesting tasks with adults. They want to face challenges and try again after making mistakes. They climb, dig, and run. When they're tired they like to be rocked or snuggled. Stifling these full body needs actually impairs their ability to learn.

We know that our little ones walk and talk on their own timetables. No rewards or punishments are necessary to "teach" them. Yet children are expected to read, write and spell starting at five and six years old as if they develop the same way at the same time. Academics are pushed on young children with the assumption this will make them better students. This approach is not only unnecessary, it may be contributing to problems such as learning disorders, attention deficits, and long term stress.

Studies contrasting reading instruction at age five compared to instruction at age seven find earlier lessons may damage reading development. By the time children reach the age of 11, students who were instructed earlier show poorer text comprehension and less positive attitudes toward reading than children whose instruction started later.

Literacy isn't easy. It requires children to decode shapes into sounds and words, to remember these words correctly in written and spoken form, and to understand their meaning. Allowing reading to develop naturally or teaching it later tends to create eager, lifelong readers. Why?

Children pushed to read early (not those who naturally pick it up) tend to rely on right brain processes because that area matures more quickly. These early readers are likely to guess at unknown words using clues such as appearance, context, beginning and ending letters. Their main tactic is memorizing sight words. These are valuable methods but not a balanced approach to reading. Such children may quickly tire after reading short passages or read smoothly but have difficulty deriving meaning from what they read. The procedure they use to decode words can make the content hard to comprehend. These reading problems can persist.

On the other hand, children benefit when they learn to read naturally or are taught later. That's because, as the left brain matures and the pathway between both hemispheres develops, it becomes easier for them to sound out words, to visualize meanings, and mentally tinker with abstractions. They memorize short sight words but sound out longer words, an approach that is less taxing. As they incorporate more words into their reading vocabulary they more easily picture and understand what they are reading.

In order for children to read, write and spell they must be developmentally ready. Some are ready at the age of four or five, some not for many years later. This readiness includes complex neurological pathways and kinesthetic awareness. It includes the proprioceptive sense developed through sensory receptors in the muscles, joints, and tendons: a form of maturation essential for a physical sense of self (even essential for learning how to modulate one's voice and to hold objects carefully).

Such readiness isn't created by workbooks or computer programs. It's the result of brain maturation as well as rich experiences found in bodily sensation and movement.

These experiences happen as children play and work, particularly in ways that cross the midline. They includes expansive movements such as climbing, jumping, digging, swimming, playing hopscotch and catch, riding bikes, sweeping, running. They also include fine movements such as chopping vegetables, drawing, building, playing rhyming and clapping games, using scissors, and playing in sand. And of course there's the essential growth that comes from snuggling, listening to stories, singing, trying new tastes, enjoying make believe. Children are drawn to such experiences. Without them, they won't have a strong foundation for learning.

These activities stimulate the child's brain to develop new neural pathways. Such activities also build confidence, smooth sensory processing, and create a bank of direct experience that helps the child visualize abstract concepts. Well-intended adults may think a good use of a rainy afternoon is a long car ride to an educational exhibit. A young child is likely to derive more developmental value (and fun) from stomping in puddles and digging in mud followed by play time in the tub.

There are many other factors contributing to reading readiness. Perhaps most important is a supportive family life where play, reading, and conversation are an enjoyable part of each day. But it helps to remember that young children want to participate in the purposeful work of making meals, fixing what's broken, and planting the garden. They also need free time without the built-in entertainment of specialized toys, television, or video games. Their development is cued to movement. These bodily experiences prepare children for the magic found when shapes become words, words become stories, and they become readers.

Portions of the post excerpted from Free Range Learning.

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Reading Readiness Has To Do With The Body

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Today's kids sit more than ever. Babies spend hours confined in car seats and carriers rather than crawling, toddling, or being carried. As they get older their days are often heavily scheduled between educational activities and organized events.

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10 Reading Readiness Skills for Kindergarten Kids | Education.com

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Is your child ready for kindergarten reading? Here are the 10 skills he needs in order to succeed.

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for teachers and parents/teaching strategies

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WatchKnowLearn - Free K-12 educational videos

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Free K-12 educational videos ... organized. Tens of thousands of excellent, educational videos in a huge, intuitive directory. Organized, reviewed, rated, and described by teachers. Ideal as a supplement to a curriculum or for independent study. Designed for teachers, students, parents, homeschoolers, educators ... and all life-long learners!

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With a library of hundreds of free learning games and activities, we are the ultimate CCSS resource for preschool and kindergarten parents and teachers.

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Reading aloud is an important skill, but it can be all too easy for us to allow this activity to become mundane and detached by repeatedly conducting "popcorn reading" or simply reading aloud to the class and asking students questions. Deb, a 9th grade english teacher, asked the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE! for recommendations on reading strategies to promote student engagement.

Read on to learn six strategies for interactive reading that are recommended for teachers, by teachers. We've also compiled corresponding videos for each strategy -if one strikes your fancy, check out the video to see it in action!

1. Reciprocal Teaching
Ingrid B. recommends using Reciprocal Teaching to promote student engagement. This strategy breaks students into groups and assigns roles, such as Summarizer, Questioner, Clarifier and Predictor, to encourage them to engage with the text and each other.

2. Think Pair Share / Turn and Talk
Think Pair Share, also referred to as Turn and Talk, to allows all students in the class an opportunity to discuss their thoughts. This strategy even engages those who are shy about speaking in front of large groups. "I do a lot of KAGAN strategies... Think Pair Share is a good way to have the kids develop their own thoughts before discussing it with partners. I teach second grade, and although I still have my class choral read all together aloud with me, I will also have partners read a section, think about a question or prompt on their own and then discuss with their partner. I'll also have them write a response in a journal or sticky note before sharing with the partner. I then have students share their responses with the class for a deeper discussion." -Christina S.

3. Interactive Reading Journals
Encourage both reading and writing with Interactive Reading Journals. Students use prose, lists, diagrams, etc. to express their ideas, questions and feelings about what they read. "My students do an interactive reading journal... On one side, during their first reading, they write questions, one per page. (You can give them sentence stems or verbs to make their questions higher-order.) On a second reading (often a partner read,) they pass their journals around and answer each others' questions. I participate with my own journal as well. My students are ELLs, and I usually sit by a few of the lower ones and transcribe their questions, so others can read them." -Adriane G.

4. Close Reading
Jane S. suggests Close Reading in which a specific passage is analyzed and questioned in great detail. This strategy encourages higher-level thinking.

5. Socratic Seminars
Students ask open-ended questions during Socratic Seminars. These are formal discussions that encourage students to listen to their peers, think critically and share their own thoughts and opinions. "Socratic groups are engaging. Kids prepare at home by close reading and questioning. Then they participate in the lit study in class..." -Camie L.

6. Reader's Theater

Develop students' reading fluency with Reader's Theater. Students use scripts to read the text orally. "Have them do parts of it as reader's theater. They have to think to change the text into a script as well as vocalize properly." -Cheryl M.

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Best of Teacher HELPLINE!: 6 Interactive Reading Strategies to Boost Student Engagement - WeAreTeachers

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Reading aloud is an important skill, but it can be all too easy for us to allow this activity to become mundane and detached by repeatedly conducting "popcorn reading" or simply reading aloud to the class and asking students questions. ...

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Early Childhood Education: Implementing Developmentally Appropriate Practices into Literacy Instruction

A top priority for early childhood educators is to teach children to read. Using developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) while incorporating foundational concepts into lessons help teachers differentiate instruction, engage students in the learning process, and increase achievement of all children. While students are treated as unique individuals, all practices should be appropriate to the child's age and developmental stage and build on previously taught concepts. The purpose of this article is to explore teachers' experiences as they implement DAP into their literacy instruction. It also examines obstacles they face as they implement their practices.

Early childhood education has become very popular in the last several years and is being highly acknowledged and recognized by educational institutions and important government figures (Pelo, 2008). A significant amount of money has been put into early education lately because of the positive affects the programs are having on students' future success in school (U.S Department of Education and Health and Human Services, 2011). In early childhood classrooms, the focus should be on DAP that incorporates the physical, social, emotional, and cultural development of the whole child with diverse populations in relation to literacy instruction (Eggen & Kauchak, 2007).

Literacy is the core and foundation level of teaching. This allows children to build on basic skills which start in early childhood classrooms. Teachers must effectively plan literacy instruction, reflect on developmental stages of children, the interests of those children, and allow them to engage in the learning and problem solving process (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Early childhood professionals that employ a literacy-engaging atmosphere where DAP is used prove to have thriving and successful students (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). When DAP is employed in classroom environments, lessons are more successful, highly effective, and all students benefit throughout each learning domain in relation to literacy instruction (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009).

Implementing developmentally appropriate practices into classroom literacy instruction means meeting the students at the developmental stage they are currently and enabling them to reach goals that are set for them. DAP reduces learning gaps, increases achievement for all children, and allows students to share and engage in the learning process while they solve their own problems as they learn new information (Compple & Bredekamp, 2009). Developmentally appropriate practices are proven in research to help children succeed.

A teacher that implements DAP into his teaching employs a busy classroom where students are self-engaged, interacting physically with objects and people, mentally processing, and constructing knowledge that builds on previous learning (Beaty, 2009). A DAP classroom has direct-hands-on interaction, is full of materials, activities, and interactions that lead to different kinds of knowledge that young children should acquire during the early years (Beaty 2009). As educators we choose teaching strategies that best fit our students by using our knowledge of children, child development, and learners and how they learn, how to plan curriculum, understanding what the goals are, and learning styles.

Purpose of the Study

Current literature in the area of DAP is theory-driven as it gives recommendations for implementation and theories about what a classroom should look like (Van Tassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2005). This study closes that gap and investigates teachers' experiences and obstacles they face as they implement DAP into their literacy instruction, and gives examples of developmentally appropriate literacy teaching strategies these teachers use that work in their classrooms.

The process for collecting the data for this study entailed interviewing six early childhood teachers, who have at least two years' experience teaching young children, have the ability to use and knowledge of DAP, and were able to provide a comprehensive description of their experiences with DAP. All six teachers possess an early childhood degree from an accredited university and are highly-qualified to teach in an early childhood environment. The face-to-face interview consisted of nine open-ended questions, but other materials such as logs, journals, diaries, or lesson plans were also collected. Each teacher brought to the study a different perspective of what kind of educational preparation and background they had with DAP.

Through the analysis of the data, four overlapping themes surfaced:

1. Teachers perception of DAP is positive,

2. Collaboration is irrelevant,

3. Relevant professional development is important and pertinent to helping teachers implement DAP, and

4. All classroom teachers have barriers they face when implementing or using DAP in their teaching practices.

Perception of DAP was consistent and positive throughout this study, and was seen as pertinent to each participant. They each feel DAP fosters greater learning and retention of the information being taught. The teachers each reported that they believed in and have a personal philosophy of helping children succeed. They each reported that they try their best to incorporate DAP into their personal teaching practices on a daily and consistent basis.

As the teachers were interviewed, the benefits of implementing DAP were very prominent. Early childhood teachers realize how young children develop and learn and know what students need to develop skills on their own time (Morrow, 2009).

Each teacher in the study reported having some sort of professional development and that it is very important to how well one teaches in the classroom. They were each understanding about budgets and limitations to what kind and how much professional development they received each year. All participants when asked said they did want more professional development for their teaching practices and wants it to be meaningful to what they are doing in their classrooms. As each teacher voiced what he believed to constitute as relevant professional development, the best DAP teaching strategies believed to help children in the classroom with literacy development surfaced.

There are many DAP teaching strategies that teachers use to reach children. Teachers often try several teaching strategies to reach all types of learners in their classroom. Collaboration, professional development, and continuing education help teachers to learn new ways to incorporate DAP so that students succeed, want to succeed, and feel that success.

The fourth theme that arose from the data was barriers that teachers face when they try to implement DAP into their literacy instruction. Interview results indicated that every teacher faces barriers in the classroom. Barriers can range from administration, government mandates, education, professional development, and budgeting constraints. Additionally, testing, time, and supportive staff and administration, along with large class sizes and different learning levels, make incorporating DAP into literacy instruction a challenge for teachers.

It was found during the collection of the data in this study that a classroom atmosphere must be inviting, nurturing, and engaging. Children must be evaluated, and the teacher must use a variety of instructional practices such as modeling, encouraging words, differentiation, small groups, and demonstration for children to understand and master new skills. Professional development is important, and barriers must be overcome.

Each participant in this study discussed teaching strategies that best fit their teaching practices. For young children to develop literacy skills they need time to engage, practice, and participate in meaningful activities where they can interact and respond with peers on reading and writing efforts. The next section gives developmentally appropriate teaching strategies teachers can incorporate into their teaching practices (Rockwell, Hoge, & Searcy, 1999).

Developmentally Appropriate Literacy Instruction
Direct Instruction
A teacher stands in front of 20 four-year olds and explicitly shows them how to hold a book correctly. She points at the picture on the cover and they brainstorm on what the book may be about. She shows the title of the book and points to each word as she reads them showing one to one correspondence. Then she opens the book and proceeds to read it. This model of instruction is called direct instruction. Direct instruction (sometimes referred to as explicit instruction) can be used in a small group, large group, or in a one-on-one situation (Beaty, 2009). Direct instruction is used to teach many lessons in an early childhood classroom, and can be incorporated into centers, small groups, free play, guided reading, and large group activity where the teacher is providing the instruction and the students are engaged in their learning.
Centers
In another early childhood classroom a teacher sets the environment up into individual themed areas children can choose from. When visitors come to the classroom they see small motor skills, gross motor skills, blocks, computers, arts and crafts, and sand and water areas that are engaging, differentiated, and meaningful to children. DAP can include thematic instruction as literacy content is presented (Morrow, 2004). Centers in an early childhood classroom are meaningful and beneficial in many ways and are most often presented through a theme so that they are meaningful to the students. Centers are used for self-initiated and self-directed activities that students can choose and learn at their own pace. Not only do students become deeply involved in their own learning, centers also allow students to become part of a classroom community where they can progress at their own rate and choose activities that are purposeful to them individually (Beaty, 2009). Centers encourage social interaction, stimulate language, and help teachers to enrich the everyday curriculum (Pate, 2009).

Children are able to explore, work with others, interact, engage in language and literacy development, and be active in centers. These areas will increase their vocabulary, practice effective expression, use language to describe, compare, and relate, create stories, resolve conflict, and begin learning the usefulness of daily experiences of literacy activities (Rockwell et al., 1999). Centers provide a rich and abundant source of literacy development opportunities.
Free Play
Imagine entering a classroom where children are dressed as doctors, towers are being built, red and blue paint is being used for the picture of an American flag, children are walking on a balance beam in the middle of the room, and play dough cookies are being made and baked. The individual areas children can choose from allow them to converse, pretend, and explore their physical environment which benefits all areas of literacy instruction (Beaty, 2009). This teaching strategy is called free play which sparks curiosity, allowing children to practice not only fine and gross motor skills, but also oral language, and even achieve mastery in many areas. Through this type of self-exploratory play, objects and materials become real world manipulatives where they can develop their own sense of the world and their learning styles.
Small Group Instruction
In another classroom a teacher sits on the floor with a small group of children in front of her. They are discussing a story. The teacher models how to read print from left to right, they discuss what is happening on each page, and problem solve how the story may or may not end and why. This is called small group instruction and it allows for open-ended learning opportunities that are relevant and meaningful to each group (Kostelnik, Soderman, & Whiren, 2007). Small group instruction is effective because teaching is focused on what each student in the group needs (Iaquinta, 2006).
Guided Reading
In this last classroom example there is a horseshoe-shaped table with four students and one teacher sitting around it. They are fluently reading a passage together in unison. They are using expression and connotation. After they are finished the students engage in a grand conversation about the story. This practice is called guided reading which increases students' comprehension, fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness, and provides opportunities for students to engage in critical and analytical reading patterns (Fisher, 2008). Re-teaching, enrichment, teacher observations, self-monitoring, and helping children become more confident readers are all goals in a guided reading group (Morrow, 2009).

Conclusion

All practices in an early childhood classroom should be appropriate to the child's age and developmental stage. In 2001, approximately 12 million children between birth and age six were receiving educational services by someone other than their parent (McDonald, 2009). This statistic shows how powerful early childhood education, and the implementation of DAP in the early years, is significant.

Research indicates a positive correlation between a highly qualified early childhood classroom that uses DAP and later school success (Birdwell, 2009) and educators' teaching strategies have a direct effect on student achievement (Van-Tassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2005). The focus of this study was to give teachers a voice and allow them to describe their experiences in implementing DAP.

Every day, teachers encounter problems, obstacles, and constructs that hinder them from incorporating teaching strategies into the classroom setting (Goldstein, 2008). Administrative support and allowing teachers to not only teach mandates, but allow them to teach the way they know is best for young children through the use of DAP and teaching strategies allows teachers to teach children and differentiate instruction to best fit each child. It will also allow teachers to communicate their thoughts and needs about what types of professional development would benefit their classroom practices and students. Aspiring teacher candidates, administrators, and teachers will all benefit from this study by administrators better understanding how they can be supportive, teachers can share, and support one another through obstacles they are facing, and teacher candidates will better understand what they will face as they enter the teaching profession.

Using Centers in Your Classroom
If a class is studying fall for example, literacy activities throughout the day are embedded into centers so that students will gain information about the season. The following is a teacher plan for literacy instruction using the theme fall.

Monday Center: Library Center
The teacher would plan on having all types of fall books available for students, including picture books, informational books, rhyming books, concept books, fairytales, and fantasy. Students have the opportunity to choose books to read or to listen to. Some great books for young children for the fall include: Katie McKy's Pumpkin Town! Or, Nothing Is Better and Worse Than Pumpkins (2008, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Amy and Richard Hutching's Picking Apples and Pumpkins (1994, Scholastic), and Betsy Maestro's Why Do Leaves Change Color? (1994, HarperCollins). This center teaches concept of print, brainstorming, retelling, phonological and phonemic awareness, and prediction (Dodge, Colker & Heroman, 2002). Children in the library center will explore different types of stories and books, learn to listen for understanding, recognize written words are symbols, begin matching words with printed text and then recognize printed words, sight words, and high frequency words (Dodge et., al 2002).

Tuesday Center: Writing Center
The teacher brainstorms with students on fall words, putting these words followed by a picture in the literacy center. There will be fall stickers, stencils, cut outs, cards, and paper for students to make books with and to practice writing. The fall words will eventually be added to the large book of other themed words that are kept in the literacy center. Students can look through the themed book, they can write letters or stories, and use fall stamps and draw pictures to decorate their work. This center is teaching concepts of print, brainstorming, and self-initiation. A writing center provides many different opportunities for children to write in a variety of ways. A well-stocked center will have many different types of materials including: construction paper, different size markers, pencils, crayons, blank paper, staples, and tape (Rockwell et., al 1999).

Wednesday Center: Block Center
Students build a block tower as high as they can. As they build the tower, they must draw a card with a word on it and place a high frequency, sight, or fall word on the block and read them as they build. This center is teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, sounding out, and blending. In the block center, students can also make signs about their towers and expand their vocabulary by talking about their buildings to teachers and peers (Rockwell et al., 1999).

Thursday Center: Sand and Water Center
Students search in the sand for all objects that are fall related. For example, there may be leaves, walnuts, small pumpkins, acorns, or pictures of children in Halloween costumes. Students can take these objects and put them in alphabetical order, write a story in the order they found the objects, and make lists. Students will also look for letters that will make words that they previously brainstormed earlier in the week and make a list of them. As the sand and water table is set up, the teacher would choose items that will excite children's curiosity and further their exploration through conversation (Dodge et al., 2002).

Friday Center: Miscellaneous Center
In a miscellaneous center, objects, subjects, and ideas can be changed frequently. Many times there will be play dough or silly putty to play with, or children may make ice cream to go along with a theme. This week students could take newspapers and magazines and find fall words and pictures, cut them out, write them down, or use silly putty to copy and transfer the word onto the paper. They will then find a partner and read the words they found.

REFERENCES

Beaty, J. (2009). Preschool appropriate practices. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.

Birdwell, J. (2009, July 23). Upcoming summit focuses on economic benefits of early childhood development. Oklahoma Gazette, para. 6. Retrieved from http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/article-4137-upcoming-summit-focuses-on-economic-benefits-of-early-childhood-development.html

Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs: Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Dodge, D., Colker, L., & Heroman, C. (2002) Creative curriculum for preschool. Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies.

Eggen, P., & Kauchak, D. (2007). Education psychology: Windows on classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Fisher, A. (2008). Teaching comprehension and critical literacy: Investigating guided reading in three primary classrooms. Literacy, (42), 52-58.

Goldstein, L. (2008). Teaching the standards is developmentally appropriate practice: Strategies for incorporating the sociopolitical dimension of DAP in early childhood teaching. Early Childhood Education Journal, (36), 253-260.

Iaquinta, A. (2006). Guided reading: A research-based response to the challenges of early reading instruction. Early Childhood Education Journal, (33), 34-39.

Kostelnik, M., Soderman, A., & Whiren, A. (2007). Developmentally appropriate curriculum: Best practices in early childhood education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

McDonald, D. (2009). Elevating the field. NAEYC Public Policy Report. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Morrow, L. (2004). Developmentally appropriate practice in early literacy instruction. The Reading Teacher, 58(1), 88-89.

Morrow, L. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early literacy instruction. Distinguished Educator, 89(2), 86-89.

Pate, M. (2009). Language and social development in a multilingual classroom. Young Children, 64(4), 12-19.

Pelo, A. (2008). Rethinking early childhood education. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.

Rockwell, R., Hoge, D., Searcy, B. (1999). Linking language: Simple language and literacy activities throughout the curriculum. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House.

U.S Department of Education and Health and Human Services (2011). The federal budget: Fiscal year 2011. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov

Van Tassel-Baska, J., & Stambaugh, T. (2005). Challenges and possibilities for serving gifted learners in the regular classroom. Theory Into Practice, (44), 211-217.

Tisha Shipley is an assistant professor in the College of Education at Ashford University. She received a doctorate of education in Curriculum and Instruction from Northcentral University and a master's degree in Elementary Education/Administration and a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. She has taught multiple grade levels at Moore Public Schools, including pre-K children and gifted 3rd-6th graders, and served as a cheer sponsor and a principal. Most recently, Shipley served as director of preschool programs at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. Shipley presents at early childhood conferences and helps teachers in their classroom. She has also started a teacher website to help teachers, parents, aspiring teacher candidates, and administrators at www.busyclassroom.weebly.com. ASCD's Whole Child Initiative has a new Twitter handle! Follow @WholeChildASCD for updates, news, articles, connections, and more.

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Early Childhood Education: Implementing Developmentally Appropriate Practices into Literacy Instruction - Whole Child Education

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A top priority for early childhood educators is to teach children to read. Using developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) while incorporating foundational concepts into lessons help teachers differentiate instruction, engage students in the learning process, and increase achievement of all children.

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Daily FIve

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Daily 5

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Education Week - Peter DeWitt's Finding Common Ground

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"Daily 5 takes the students from where they are in relation to their ability to be independent, and teaches them to become intrinsically motivated as they build stamina." Gail Boushey

Sharing best practices is one of the most important components of any inservice or professional development session. Teachers are the experts in their field and sharing best practices allows them to bring their most creative and innovative teaching ideas to a venue where they can share with colleagues. Sometimes, teachers learn their most useful ideas from their colleagues.

Five years ago I taught an inservice in the Averill Park Central School District where I am a principal. Robin and Kim, two teachers from another elementary school in the district wanted to focus on the Daily 5. I had never heard of it but within 24 hours after they shared the program it spread like wildfire and our teachers have since become better practitioners. Over the years I have seen teachers from across the district do some very creative things with their students.

As a school administrator, I want proof that the programs teachers use are worthwhile. I want to be convinced that the students understand what they are supposed to be doing. In these present times of data driven instruction and accountability, we don't have time to waste on programs that don't give us the most bang for our buck. In the end, we are here to make sure that our students are learning and the Daily 5 provides those experiences.

Interview with...The Sisters
"CAFE is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding Vocabulary, and the system includes goal-setting with students in individual conferences, posting of goals on a whole-class board, developing small group instruction based on clusters of students with similar goals, and targeting whole-class instruction based on emerging student needs and fine tuning one on one conferring." Daily Five Website

At the time of the inservice, I was concerned that the Daily 5 was a passing fad. Perhaps the students were being bombarded with busy work as the teacher worked with a small group of students. I was incorrect in that assumption. Time after time, as I talked with students during the Daily 5 I found that they understood exactly what they were supposed to be doing. The teachers and students were doing it with integrity. Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, also known as the Sisters, are the authors and creators of The Daily 5®, and The Literacy CAFE®.

Educators understand that students can learn only when they are given engaging work. Gail and Joan are both former teachers and their energy and passion for literacy is infectious and it carries over into their work. They help teachers make sure that students are building the stamina to work independently at the same time they are growing as learners.

PD: Where does the Daily 5 fall between management system and direct instruction?
JM: The Daily 5 is really a management system, a system to teach our students to learn to be independent. When you think about direct instruction, we believe this is what sets the Daily 5 apart from other workshop models. Daily 5 begins with direct instruction, teaching students to become independent, intrinsically motivated students. Some students arrive at school with the ability to be independent, who have experience engaging with books and are able to focus for extended periods of time. Others arrive without those skills.

When a child comes to school we teach them to become better readers, writers, mathematicians and thinkers. Likewise, Daily 5 is all about taking those students who come to school without the skills to be independent and teaching them to build their stamina for independent work. All that is done through direct instruction.

GB: Direct instruction is definitely a big piece of Daily 5 as with all good explicit explanation, teachers share the knowledge of why students are doing what they are doing, that reading is the very best way to become a better reader. The best part of all of this is that Daily 5 is not scripted. It is about teaching children, not curriculum. Daily 5 takes the students from where they are in relation to their ability to be independent, and teaches them to become intrinsically motivated as they build stamina.

PD:How can teachers manage the Daily 5 at a time when they may have larger class sizes?
GB: We are in the state of Washington which is #48 in class sizes. Washington does not have a class size cap. It depends on the school district and whether they subsidize class sizes or not. Some class sizes range from 20 -25 if they are subsidized. If they are not subsidized, they may be 25-32. In middle school they go much higher.

Being that we are from Washington we thought that every class was that large and we really had to figure that out. As much as class size is important, some teachers do not have the ability to change their circumstances. They really need to figure out what will work best for them given the class sizes they have.

JM: We developed Daily 5 many years ago merely for the fact that we knew the very best way to teach children was one-on-one or in a very small group. Yet the bottom line is, if we want to work with individuals and small groups, it doesn't matter if you have 5 students or 35 students, it all hinges on the age old question, 'What do I do with the rest of the students?' That's what Daily 5 is all about!

PD:Are there age appropriate standards for students who work independently?
GB: We have 6 behaviors that we think are must have behaviors for working independently, regardless of their age. For those who know Daily 5, if students choose "Read to self" they have to make sure they are prepared for Independent behavior 1. If they have control over that behavior, they can focus on the following:

Read the whole time

Stay in one spot

Get started right away

Build your own stamina (...and your bathroom stamina!)

Read, write and work quietly

Those behaviors are standard in all Daily 5 choices. Once children know these behaviors they automatically transfer them to everything from walking in the hall to Math.

JM: There isn't a direct guideline that states what third grade students should be able to do for how long. It really all depends on the individual needs of each student in any grade level. However, we do provide guidelines for teachers to understand when students are ready to move on to the next Daily 5 Choice.

GB: We try to set the standard that once our primary students have 10-12 minutes of stamina they are ready to move on to the next Daily 5 choice. Intermediate students, we wait until they have 12-14 minutes of stamina before introducing the next Daily 5 choice. Kindergarten, once they have 7-8 minutes of stamina, we know it is time to introduce the next Daily 5 choice.

PD: How does the Daily 5 fit with the Common Core State Standards?
JM: The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) really go hand in hand with our Literacy CAFE. The Daily 5 is all about the structure teachers put in place so children are engaged in meaningful literacy activities, allowing teachers to work with individuals and small groups. What they teach in those individual conferences and small group lessons comes from our CAFE Menu, which is aligned to the CCSS.

GB: When we were developing The Daily 5, we wanted to work on the behavior component first so we could get our students at a point where they were independent, not relying on us to keep them busy with busy work. It was after we taught them to be independent that we wanted to focus on what we were teaching, that is where The Literacy CAFE came from and is how we focus on those standards. Teachers will be able to teach the CCSS within the Daily 5 Framework and the Café will help them with ways in which to do that.

In the End
The Daily 5 is a system that teaches students to be independent. It offers an incredible amount of choice for students, which is directly linked to high accountability for children. The Daily 5 helps teachers and students set expectations for themselves and therefore allows teachers to differentiate their instruction so that students who excel can be challenged and students who struggle can be given the assistance they need. Within those parameters, students become more independent and improve in literacy. However, the skills they learn transfer into the other subjects they learn in the classroom.

Over the years I have watched teachers react to the Daily 5 in the same way that children and adults reacted to Harry Potter. There are book clubs, #d5chat on Twitter and teachers and principals who can't wait for the next Daily 5 resource to be released from the sisters. One of the best things that happen around the Daily 5 is that it gets students, teachers and administrators excited about reading.

I will end with some great questions that Matt Renwick, an elementary principal in Wisconsin sent me to ponder when observing a Daily 5 classroom. They were derived from the article "What I've Learned About Effective Reading Instruction From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers" by Dr. Richard Allington.

Teaching

Talk

Tasks

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The Daily 5: An Interview with the Two Sisters

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"Daily 5 takes the students from where they are in relation to their ability to be independent, and teaches them to become intrinsically motivated as they build stamina." Gail Boushey Sharing best practices is one of the most important components of any inservice or professional development session.

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1. Make It Meaningful

In aiming for full engagement, it is essential that students perceive activities as being meaningful. Research has shown that if students do not consider a learning activity worthy of their time and effort, they might not engage in a satisfactory way, or may even disengage entirely in response (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). To ensure that activities are personally meaningful, we can, for example, connect them with students' previous knowledge and experiences, highlighting the value of an assigned activity in personally relevant ways. Also, adult or expert modeling can help to demonstrate why an individual activity is worth pursuing, and when and how it is used in real life.

2. Foster a Sense of Competence

The notion of competence may be understood as a student's ongoing personal evaluation of whether he or she can succeed in a learning activity or challenge. (Can I do this?) Researchers have found that effectively performing an activity can positively impact subsequent engagement (Schunk & Mullen, 2012). To strengthen students' sense of competence in learning activities, the assigned activities could:

Be only slightly beyond students' current levels of proficiency

Make students demonstrate understanding throughout the activity

Show peer coping models (i.e. students who struggle but eventually succeed at the activity) and peer mastery models (i.e. students who try and succeed at the activity)

Include feedback that helps students to make progress

3. Provide Autonomy Support

We may understand autonomy support as nurturing the students' sense of control over their behaviors and goals. When teachers relinquish control (without losing power) to the students, rather than promoting compliance with directives and commands, student engagement levels are likely to increase as a result (Reeve, Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004). Autonomy support can be implemented by:

Welcoming students' opinions and ideas into the flow of the activity

Using informational, non-controlling language with students

Giving students the time they need to understand and absorb an activity by themselves

4. Embrace Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is another powerful facilitator of engagement in learning activities. When students work effectively with others, their engagement may be amplified as a result (Wentzel, 2009), mostly due to experiencing a sense of connection to others during the activities (Deci & Ryan, 2000). To make group work more productive, strategies can be implemented to ensure that students know how to communicate and behave in that setting. Teacher modeling is one effective method (i.e. the teacher shows how collaboration is done), while avoiding homogeneous groups and grouping by ability, fostering individual accountability by assigning different roles, and evaluating both the student and the group performance also support collaborative learning.

5. Establish Positive Teacher-Student Relationships

High-quality teacher-student relationships are another critical factor in determining student engagement, especially in the case of difficult students and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Fredricks, 2014). When students form close and caring relationships with their teachers, they are fulfilling their developmental need for a connection with others and a sense of belonging in society (Scales, 1991). Teacher-student relationships can be facilitated by:

Caring about students' social and emotional needs

Displaying positive attitudes and enthusiasm

Increasing one-on-one time with students

Treating students fairly

Avoiding deception or promise-breaking

6. Promote Mastery Orientations

Finally, students' perspective of learning activities also determines their level of engagement. When students pursue an activity because they want to learn and understand (i.e. mastery orientations), rather than merely obtain a good grade, look smart, please their parents, or outperform peers (i.e. performance orientations), their engagement is more likely to be full and thorough (Anderman & Patrick, 2012). To encourage this mastery orientation mindset, consider various approaches, such as framing success in terms of learning (e.g. criterion-referenced) rather than performing (e.g. obtaining a good grade). You can also place the emphasis on individual progress by reducing social comparison (e.g. making grades private) and recognizing student improvement and effort.

Research

Anderman, E. M., & Patrick, H. (2012). Achievement goal theory, conceptualization of ability/intelligence, and classroom climate. In S. Christenson, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Student Engagement (pp. 173-191). New York, NY: Springer.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.

Fredricks, J. A. (2014). Eight Myths of Student Disengagement: Creating Classrooms of Deep Learning. Los Angeles: Corwin.

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.

Reeve, J., Jang, H., Carrell, D., Jeon, S., & Barch, J. (2004). Enhancing students' engagement by increasing teachers' autonomy support. Motivation and Emotion, 28(2), 147-169.

Scales, P. C. (1991). Creating a developmental framework: The positive possibilities of young adolescents. In A portrait of young adolescents in the 1990s: Implications for promoting healthy growth and development. ERIC.

Schunk, D. H., & Mullen, C. A. (2012). Self-Efficacy as an engaged learner. In S. Christenson, A. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 219-235). Boston, MA: Springer US.

Wentzel, K. R. (2009). Peers and academic functioning at school. In K. Rubin, W. Bukowski, & B. Laursen (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups. Social, emotional, and personality development in context (pp. 531-547). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

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Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities

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In aiming for full engagement, it is essential that students perceive activities as being meaningful. Research has shown that if students do not consider a learning activity worthy of their time and effort, they might not engage in a satisfactory way, or may even disengage entirely in response (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004).

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It is probably not surprising that one of the most consistent findings in educational research demonstrates that the more time students spend engaged during instruction, the more they learn (Gettinger & Ball, 2007). Schlechty (2002) defined the five levels of student engagement so we can learn to gauge student interest and increase the effectiveness of our structured literacy instruction.

Five Levels of Student Engagement

Authentic Engagement-students are immersed in work that has a clear meaning and immediate value to them (reading a book on a topic of personal interest)

Ritual Compliance-the work has little or no immediate meaning to students, but there are extrinsic outcomes of value that keep them engaged (earning grades necessary for college acceptance)

Passive Compliance-students see little or no meaning in the assigned work but expend effort merely to avoid negative consequences (not having to stay in during recess to complete work)

Retreatism-students are disengaged from assigned work and make no attempt to comply, but are not disruptive to the learning of others

Rebellion-students refuse to do the assigned task, act disruptive, and attempt to substitute alternative activities

Measuring Engagement in the Classroom

The level of student engagement can vary from student-to-student, and lesson-to-lesson so it can be difficult to get a general feel for how engaged a class is as a whole. To that end, Schlechty (2002) also outlined three categories that can be used to measure the level of engagement for an entire classroom.
The Engaged Classroom
In the engaged classroom, you will observe that all students are authentically engaged at least some of the time or that most students are authentically engaged most of the time. Passive compliance and retreatism are rarely observed and rebellion is non-existent.
The Compliant Classroom
The compliant classroom is the picture of traditional education. This type of classroom is orderly and most students will appear to be working so it would be easy to infer that learning is taking place. However, while there is little evidence of rebellion, retreatism is a very real danger as it is very common in the compliant classroom.
The Off-Task Classroom
Retreatism and rebellion are easily observed in the off-task classroom. This type of classroom is each-student-for-them-self so you will see some degree of authentic and ritual engagement, along with passive compliance as well. Teachers in the off-task classroom spend most of their time dealing with rebelling students rather than teaching lessons that engage.

Seven Student Engagement Strategies

Student engagement is a byproduct of effective instruction that has major payoffs. When students are engaged during explicit phonics instruction they learn and retain more information. Student engagement during reading instruction also increases the likelihood that your students will become passionate about reading. So, how can you increase the amount of time that students in your class are engaged during reading instruction? Here are some suggestions:

1. Use the 10:2 method. For every 10 minutes of instruction allow the students 2 minutes to process and respond to the instruction or reading material. This can be done in various ways: have them write about what they have learned or read, have them ask or write down questions they have about what they have read or learned, or have students discuss the lesson or reading material with a partner.

2. Incorporate movement into your lessons. Require students to respond to a question about a reading passage or lesson by moving to a certain spot in the room, writing on whiteboards, or standing (or sitting) when they are done thinking about the question, etc.

3. Pick up the pace. One misconception is that we must go slow for students to really understand and engage in a lesson or story. There is a lot of evidence that shows that when teaching and reading are done at a brisk pace, students have more opportunities to engage, respond, and move on to the next concept or idea (Carnine & Fink, 1978; Williams, 1993; Ernsbarger et al., 2001).

4. Provide frequent and effective feedback.Correct students as they learn new decoding skills or reading strategies. Be sure students know how to use each strategy correctly so they experience success and mastery.

5. Allow students 5-7 seconds of 'think time' when asking a question about a story or reading passage. At the end of the time draw a random name to answer the question.

6. At the end of a lesson have students use the 3-2-1 method of summarizing by having students record three things they learned, two interesting things, and one question they have about what was taught or read. Allow time to share their findings with a peer.

7. Periodically pause mid-sentence when teaching and require students to fill in the blanks.

Learn more about teaching reading strategies ›

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Conclusion

At the end of one of my recent day-long trainings, a teacher approached me and said, "This was a great training. I know, because I didn't get my knitting needles out one time." Whether we are teaching young people or adults, it is important to keep in mind that student engagement is more than just listening. If we are constantly monitoring the level of student engagement in our classroom we can consciously work to increase the amount of time that students are involved in learning and expect greater success in our teaching.

Related Articles
Five Ways to Activate Student Attention, Anticipation, & Interest During a Lesson The 4 C's of Effective Instruction That Boost Student Engagement What is phonics instruction? >Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #2 - Phonics Instruction is Boring
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*Carnine. D., & Fink, W. T. (1978). Increasing the rate of presentation and use of signals in elementary classroom teachers. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 11, 35-46.

*Ernsbarger, S. C., Tincani. M. J., Harrison,T. J., Frazier-Trotman, S., Simmons-Reed, E., & Heward. W. L. (2001, May). Slow teacher/fast teacher: Effects on participation rate, accuracy, and off-task behavior by pre-K students during small-group language lessons. Paper presented at the 27th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis. New Orleans. LA

*Gettinger, M., & Ball, C. (2007). Best practices in increasing academic engaged time. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 1043-1075). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

*Schlechty, P. (2002) Working on the Work. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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How to Measure and Increase Student Engagement During Reading Instruction

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Reading is fundamental to all learning and is crucial for your students' future success. Researchers have found that the more students are engaged during instruction, the more they learn. So, can you be sure your students are engaged during reading instruction?