Lovin' Daily 5

I am loving reading and learning about the daily 5. I can't wait to try it out in my classroom next year! I have to admit that I am very controlling in my centers.  For the past few years, I had 8 centers set up around my room and would change them every 6 days.  The students would go to two centers a day.  I know you are thinking, well that's only enough centers for the kids to go to for four days.  The other two days, the students would catch up with centers that they either missed or didn't get to finish.  I had a chart that told the students exactly which two centers they were going to each day.  I like to be able to know where every student is at every moment.  You could say I am a little controlling about it. Well, the freedom of students picking which daily 5 to do is a little terrifying for me.  I do think that choice is very important in implementing the daily 5 so I do not want to tell the students which ones to go to and in which order.  I do think I am going to tell them that they have to do read to self every day.  They are only going to be able to do 3 dailies a day. So my next thought is, how am I going to keep them accountable for the dailies they do each day and do I record their choices every day? That's a lot I feel, but I do want to know which ones they are choosing.  Do I make them choose at the beginning of the day or as they are doing it during our guided reading time (which is when I am going to be doing the daily 5)?

I have started my lesson plans for the daily 5 and I have comfortably planned 4 of the dailies.  The only one I am not exactly comfortable with yet is reading to someone.  I feel that is going to make my classroom loud.  So I think I am going to leave that one to last to teach so that I know my students better and we can practice and model a lot. And I haven't figured out how it is going to be successful in my classroom because I will not be checking in with my students between each daily.  Since I am doing it during my guided reading time, I am going to use some sort of noise (chime or bell) to signal changing of groups and when students should be going to the next daily. So many unknowns right now!

I am finding that I am starting to answer some of my own questions about getting started and organizing the daily 5, but I would love more input. I don't know if anyone is actually reading this, but if you are and do the daily 5 in your classroom, any tips would be greatly appreciated! I am a little nervous about doing this next year, but I really want to do it.  The daily 5 sounds so beneficial to the students.