Reading Workshop is an important part of every day in our classroom. We start each workshop with a mini lesson. Some of our beginning of the year lessons are about choosing the “just right book”, using reading workshop efficiently, or what to do if the teacher is listening to other readers. Later the mini lessons focus on different ways to build comprehension. These lessons include making connections, learning how to make predictions, describing the character’s traits, looking for patterns in stories and developing visualizing skills. We also teach students to think about the author’s message, ask questions as they read and then teach them how these questions can be answered. We use the slow release model when teaching students new reading skills. The first day is used to model the reading, thinking and writing on the student paper. We might even do another day of this depending on the complexity of the task. But usually the next reading workshop the teacher will read the book, help rehearse answers with the class and then have students try to fill out the literature response. Adult feedback is given so students can see how they need to change or improve their responses. On the third day students read a book at their level themselves and complete this response. Many great books are read aloud to students in this model! These books are chosen to specifically model the concept being taught and build our student’s experiences with good literature. These reading lessons can challenge all levels of readers.
After the mini lesson small groups meet with the teacher to read books at their level and practice reading strategies. This coaching is essential to student’s progress and the amount of times that groups meet may depend on their expertise in this area. More advanced groups may be asked to read several books in a series and do a response specific to their learning or some kind of extension project.
We are working to improve the end of the lesson by having some time to debrief about the learning of the day. This might include having everyone reflect but only a few people share with the whole class or students may be asked to share their reflection with a buddy. This thinking about our thinking helps students be more conscious of their learning and growth so it is a great thing to take time for on a daily basis.
