We’ve spent a lot of time talking with teachers, walking school hallways with administrators, and talking with teams about the heart behind our new book, Prepared Classroom. Each conversation is full of passion, honesty, and the shared goal of helping kids thrive.
But no matter where we go or with whom we talk, one question keeps coming up:
“Is this the next version of Daily 5?”
We love that question. It shows just how much Daily 5 meant, and still means, to teachers.
Daily 5 was never just a “program.” It was a structure that gave teachers the power to ask,
“If I’m meeting with small groups or conferring with individual students, what should the rest of my class be doing that’s meaningful, independent, and purposeful?”
We knew back then that busywork wouldn’t cut it. Kids deserved better. They deserved to become self-regulated learners, capable of meaningful work even when we weren’t right next to them. Daily 5 gave us the 10 Steps to Teaching and Learning Independence and paired them with authentic literacy practices. It worked—because it wasn’t about compliance. It was about trust, ownership, and teaching students how to learn.
And yes, many teachers saw success and carried that structure into math, science, social studies, and other content areas. But as time passed, some of the heart got lost. In some classrooms, Daily 5 turned into centers, stations, and long lists of “must-dos”—less about learning and more about logistics.
Meanwhile, the research kept growing. We learned more about reading instruction, about what works with all kinds of learners, about brain science, trauma-informed practices, and what really moves the needle for kids. And we realized . . . we needed a reset. A way to take the heart of Daily 5 and give it a wider purpose.
So we asked ourselves this:
“What really made Daily 5 work in the first place?”
And it wasn’t the five tasks. It was the how.
- How we taught independence
- How we built trust
- How we created consistent routines
- How we used brief, intentional lessons
- How we made space for authentic application
- How we conferred with students and paid attention to progress
- How we created classrooms that were prepared—for anything
That’s where Prepared Classroom was born.
This isn’t a replacement for Daily 5—it’s an expansion. It’s the natural next step. It gives teachers the tools to build independent and collaborative learners in every subject, all day long. It takes evidence-based practices and makes them accessible, actionable, and adaptable to every grade level and content area.
So no, you won’t find Read to Self or Word Work in Prepared Classroom. But you will find the same principles that made those tasks powerful in the first place. You’ll find what matters most: Relationships. Environment. Routines. Purposeful independence. Collaboration. Conferring. Brief focus lessons. Authentic work. And real progress.
In a time when teachers are pulled in a million directions, we didn’t want to give you another program. We wanted to give you clarity. We wanted to help you focus on what works.
And we wanted to remind you that a well-prepared classroom isn’t about doing more.
It’s about doing what matters most—on purpose.
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