Don't try to implement these ideas on your own! Go buy the book! And be sure to check out the official site of "the sisters!"

In their book, The Daily 5, the sisters give the following research based reason for "Work on Writing":

Just like reading, the best way to become a better writer is by practicing writing each day.

Here's how we do "Work on Writing" in our classroom:

Implementing The Daily 5 meant a lot of changes for me, but everyone has their "non-negotiables." Mine was doing Picture Words for vocabulary (and the sentence writing that follows). This is one of my mini-lessons (well, it is a little longer than a mini-lesson...) each day before we start our choices.

For "Work on Writing," my students do not have a choice of what to write about. They need to write sentences for their Picture Words. I teach 3 words a day in a mini-lesson and they complete the sentences for those 3 words during whichever session they choose to do "Work on Writing."

They write these sentences in their Literacy Spiral and they are graded for a Language Arts grade. I do have a rubric I have created that I use to grade their sentences. Download: sentencerubric.pdf

Students who finish before the session is over might have time to look up the words in the dictionary. I do not have them write the definition, but I have them write "I found the word ___ on page ___ in the dictionary." They have to write out the page number using number words.

For students who struggle with sentence structure, I have tried a few other modified assignment ideas:

Low level: Sentence building with word strips. See this link for more information.

Lower level: Sentence building with picture cards. See this link for more information.

Lowest level: Students find the word in the story and copy the sentence (they must find the beginning/end of the sentence - sometimes a challenge!)

I also do formal writing instruction and journal time (similar to the "real" Work on Writing in the Daily 5 book) at a separate time of the day. We use Kathy Robinson's "Just Write All Year" writing program.

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Parents - you can also help our classroom by purchasing books for your child from Scholastic book orders. Many books are $2 or less! Every order placed earns bonus points which I use to purchase books and other classroom materials. Every monthly order totaling $20 or more earns us a coupon for $10 in free books for our classroom. If you order online, I get an additional free book pick, which I will use to select a book for your child!

Click the link below to place an order! Username and password are both "maiolo." FGCU students, feel free to order as well! This is a very inexpensive way to get books for your future classroom!

THANKS! Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me.