Daily 5 has become a big part of the way literacy is taught at our school. The students enjoy the time spent in Daily 5. It is an opportunity to freely express their love of literacy, while also engaging in meaningful strategies that help them to become better at reading and writing.

In using Daily 5 each day, students have shown growth in their spelling, interest in vocabulary, fluency and enjoyment of learning. They look forward to spending time creating or sharing their reading.

One of the ways that Daily 5 has impacted Year Three’s literacy is the desire to post things on our blog. During work on writing, there has become a desire from the students to share their writing to a broader audience, Some of the students haven’t felt confident to write a blog post by themselves so have paired up with a friend to write a blog post.

The conversations about writing have led to the choice of topic, the structure of the writing and the vocabulary used, During their nominated time to Work on Writing in Daily 5, a student has nominated to write with someone. This has become so popular, that we have had to discuss how to Write with Someone. We created the following Anchor Chart.

Writing to Someone operates much the same way as Read to Someone. They must choose a partner and a spot where they can focus. They discuss, in a quiet voice, the topic that are going to write about. Often the topic comes out of their Work on Writing. The students use an iPad to write together. This means that they have access to tools so as spell check and online dictionaries. They conference about each part of their writing and discuss what needs to be included.

This sort of writing has led to discussing who will be reading their writing. In discussing that there is a much larger audience than our classroom, the quality of writing has improved. It has meant that the students who have found writing a bit tricky have a buddy to help them out.

It is always encouraging to see students initiate learning for themselves. Some of the best ideas for learning, grow from the needs and creativity of students.

 

What do you like about writing with Someone? What would you change? What would you improve in Writing to Someone?