Reading Workshop

Reading Workshop is a powerful way for teachers to introduce new reading skills to children in a comfortable, social environment. As discussed in class, there are three major parts to the Workshop:

* The Minilesson (10 - 15 minutes)
The minilesson is meant to be a concentrated lesson focusing on one element of reading. These minilessons tend to fall into one of three categories: management, strategy, and what Joanna Hindley calls "literary gossip." Management are those lessons you will begin with at the very beginning of the year, establishing what your workshop will look like so you can engage in strategy and literacy gossip lessons without having to worry about structure. A look at the first six weeks of a first grade reading workshop can be found here (the link will download as a .doc file). Additional sources for minilesson ideas can be found at the Learning Pad.

* Independent Reading (students) & Conferencing (teacher) (30 - 40 minutes)
After the minilesson, the students are released to practice their skills. This looks differently in different rooms. In my own classroom, students spread throughout the room, sitting in chairs and on the carpets; the only rule was no sitting under the tables because I'm old and don't want to be crawling after anyone. Other teachers have their students reading at their tables, some have their students only reading in a particular area of the room. Depending on your own comfort level and your classroom setup, this portion of the workshop could look many different ways.

While children are reading, you are conferencing with students to gauge how well they are using their strategies, what books they are currently reading and which directions they need to move in to become even better readers. This is the most important element of the Reading Workshop - where the teaching happens. Conferencing can get sticky, but that time you spend with individual children and groups of children who have similar skill levels is invaluable. For another, more detailed view of conferencing, look at Bayview Education. They also have several forms available for download for record keeping.

* Sharing (10 - 15 minutes)
Sharing is an opportunity for students to collaboratively talk about their progress as readers, sharing their use of strategies and celebrating their successes. You can work this section several ways - sign up for kid's share, have a daily schedule, or choose students based on what you saw in conferences that day. It's very flexible. Sharing is also so important - it allows kiddos to hear about what works from other children, who may explain it in ways you didn't. Reteaching is always a beautiful thing.

Additional Internet resources for the Reading Workshop:

Karen McDavid's Reading Workshop Page: An excellent page with a lot of great information, including minilesson ideas, professional books suggestions and forms for record keeping. Contains a list of additional links that are worth checking out.

Jennifer Myers' Reading and Writing Workshop Page: Another excellent page containing video of minilessons, children's work, and background in establishing the Workshop structure.

Differentiation in a Reader's Workshop: This Scholastic article addresses the many ways that a teacher reaches the variety of different learners in their classroom. There are several downloads here that are worth space on your hard drive.

Hopefully, this entry on Reading Workshop is helpful, even though I realize it barely touches the surface. If you come across additional links that are useful, please comment.

As always, comment with questions.