#readers workshop

[lovinglunaxxtothemoonandback]

Hi there friends!

I made a wishlist for items my students and I need/would really like to have! There are a lot of items on this list but a few we especially need. You'll notice a lot of non fiction books on there. While I've been teaching for years, this is my first time in my own classroom and my library is scarily non-existent. I've have been hitting up garage sales, flea markets and the nearby goodwill store to stock up. Slowly but surely, I'm building up a library. However, most teachers will understand this, non fiction books are hard to come by. Reader's workshop focuses a lot on independent reading and a good library is a must. While I only added non fiction books, any fiction books are also super appreciated as well! We're also really in need of rugs in our room, made up completely by tile ;)

There are a lot of items on this list..obviously I won't be able to purchase all of them so I'm hoping for some charitable folks who might want to donate to these students.

Thanks again for your time and sorry for clogging up your feed with this. I would sincerely appreciate any and all donations/shares

Thank you friends!

[teachernerdfighter]

Nerds of a Feather

Nerds of a Feather

One week to go before school begins! Today I spent a wonderful afternoon discussing Reading Workshop with colleagues. Some of us are trying it for the first time. Others shared their experiences and resources. This was not official professional development but every bit as valuable — maybe more so, since it came from a common interest and a genuine desire to improve our teaching in ways that feel…

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[adamhurder]

Reader's Workshop Resources

Websites

The Reading Lady's Mosaic of Thought Site - links to dozens of graphic organizers, assessments, lessons, PowerPoint presentations, photos, and more.

Beth Newingham's Blog on Scholastic - an expert Grade 3 teacher with nearly limitless information on Literacy instruction & assessment specific to the reader's workshop model.

ReadersWorkshop.org - a basic step-by-step of how to set up reader's workshop in your classroom.

Professional Books

(in the order that I read them just to give an idea of the progression...)

Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop by Ellin Keene & Susan Zimmermann

Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis

Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie MIller

Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor

Conferring: the Keystone of Reader's Workshop by Patrick Allen

Day to Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop: Making Informed Instructional Decisions in Grades 3-6 by Franki Sibberson & Karen Szymusiak

Classroom Images

One of my favorite accomplishments as a teacher is something rather simple: the moment I realized that sorting my classroom library by reading levels was ineffective. Below is a picture of the books resorted by genre for the reader's workshop format. (What did I do with all the books that were below grade level? They were donated to the grade levels where they belonged.)

The discussions that my students had about using reading strategies were incredible. Here are some of the artifacts generated by this work:

Student questions sorted by question-type

Usage of strategies in fiction genres

Usage of strategies in non-fiction genres

A concept web comparing & contrasting strategies used in fiction and non-fiction texts

[marajadejk]

Why don't you like reading?

I need to vent a little to focus on finishing these stupid lesson plans. And that's what they are this week, they are stupid. I'm not a fan of the workshop model, I'm really not. I think it's too fluffy and warm to be of substantial impact on my kids. Mini lessons work sometimes, but not all the times. Allowing kids time to practice independently is really important, and the workshop model does that, but it's impossible for me to accurately give constructive feedback to 26 kiddos during this model.

Sometimes they need whole group instruction and practice, and sometimes they just need the chance to play. I've used play based learning before to great success, and that sense of creative discovery is really important to kindergarteners. Why? Because regardless of gender, language, class or culture, the kids learn because it's important and accessible to them. They explore the world around them and love doing it. You really see the "ah-ha" moments. Not so much with a workshop.

I teach in a high needs inner-city area. During parent teacher conferences a lot of parents openly admitted that they either didn't practice reading with the kids or that they used technology to practice instead. There are so many needs with some of these kids, more technology and hands off parenting is the last thing they need. Sigh.

It's really hard to expect these kids to work independently and read if they don't get it at home because they don't have any sense of its importance. It's really hard for me to praise the kids who are working when I have to put out fires of the high needs kids who aren't, and won't, because they simply don't know HOW to, even after intervention after intervention after intervention. They have no sense of urgency to read because they don't want to do it. No one does at home. It's not how I usually teach, either, so that's another challenge for me. I'm not seeing the growth I should by now, and the principal made a  comment about it the other day. Double sigh. I really doubt that following the model is going to fix anything. It hasn't so far. And honestly, addressing these kids as "readers" at the beginning of each lesson is not going to fix that.

That being said, back to lesson planning to make this work...

[teachingtoday]

Conference Toolkit Help?

I am in the process of creating a Conferring Toolkit, per my department head's suggestion/direction/she'smybosssoi'lldowhatevershetellsmeto.  A conferring toolkit is not something one creates overnight, it is a constantly growing thing.  Let me break it down:

In a Readers Workshop students confer with the teacher.  Sometimes these conferences are for the teacher to assess fluency, monitor independent reading strategies, or reteach something that the student is struggling with. 

Basically, it's a 5-10 minute lesson with an individual student (or a small group).  It's important to have certain things on hand: sample lessons, graphic organizers, short texts, common read-alouds, fluency sheets, texts at appropriate levels for all students, checklists for strategies, and about a thousand other things.

As I said, this is an ongoing, ever-changing part of my classroom.  I'm starting with simple lessons that will address common, predictable problems (summarizing, making inferences, making connections, etc...).  If anybody has any unique or particularly helpful graphic organizers, short texts (or can point me in the direction of books w/short texts), or ideas for working with struggling readers and/or advanced readers, these would all be greatly appreciated. 

The Tumblr Education Community is always so helpful when it comes to things like this and I'm so thankful.

[teachingtoday]

Most of my time is spent...

Looking for texts.

Reader's Workshop relies heavily on common texts, or read-alouds.  These are short texts used in the mini-lesson for modeling the day's skill or strategy.  They need to be short in order to have a enough time to read the text aloud, model the skill, and give the students a chance for independent practice.  In a block period, there is ample time but I teach a 40-minute period and my time is incredibly precious (in the classroom, at home, my time is worthless). 

As a result, I need short texts for modeling.  Right now I am planning a test prep lesson for tomorrow (we are in Standardized Testing Crunch Time at the moment).  My students make weak connections to their reading so I want to focus on making text-to-self connections tomorrow.  Planning the lesson is easy, but finding the right piece of text is a bitch.  It needs to be short enough for my class, but engaging and meaty enough for my kids to latch on to (although the texts on their tests are very boring so maybe I shouldn't be using my own criteria).  I have spent an hour just looking for the right text, to no avail. 

Maybe I will just use a piece from The Outsiders...but of course I do not have the book with me and I will have to spend my morning searching for the right excerpt.