Skip to main content

A Beginning List on the Don't and Do's of Reading Workshop

As I visit classrooms during the Reading Workshop time, I witness practices that are counterproductive to supporting students' reading habits. I made up the following two lists to sort this out in my head and to use when I work with teachers.

What NOT to do during Reading Workshop:

  • interrupt independent reading to talk to students about an assignment.
  • sit at your desk to catch up on paperwork or to answer emails.
  • give kids 10 minutes of independent reading one day and 45 minutes on another day. Make it consistent so students can plan for their reading.
  • abruptly stop kids' reading without a warning. Instead, allow them to find a logical stopping place before transitioning into a new activity.
  • treat independent reading as a choice among many. Independent reading should be something everybody does on a daily basis.
  • always tie reading to a "project" and a grade.
  • use the independent reading time to go to the library. This should be reserved for another time.
What TO DO during Reading Workshop:
  • give kids a regular independent reading time they can count on.
  • confer with as many kids as possible without rushing through each conference: take your time. Remember that each conference is an opportunity to converse with and teach each student.
  • demonstrate your own enthusiasm for reading by talking about books and sharing your reading life with students.
  • declutter the Reading Workshop so the structure is clear, simple, and predictable.
  • make independent reading the bulk of the Reading Workshop.
  • get to know your students so that you can suggest books for them to read. 
Do you agree with my lists? Do you have anything to add or take away? Leave a comment below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Reading Strategies Book - Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension

The strategy lessons highlighted in Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension, in The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo are critical to students’ engagement and comprehension, as well as their ability to write literary essays, or even book reviews, summaries and reflective pieces about books. If students aren’t able to talk about books in a way that is invigorating and joyful, they will be less likely to develop an interest in growing ideas for writing about books. In her introduction to this chapter, Jennifer Serravallo, reminds us that when conversations go well, children are inspired by what they read and are motivated to keep reading. However, when conversations fall flat, then kids get bored and tune out. How do we avoid this situation and teach kids to  have  focused conversations about books?  The answer is easy: teach kids  strategies to help them develop effective conversa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are we listening?

A child sits alone with a ripped worksheet packet on his desk. He appears to be singing or subvocalizing something though no one hears him. Or, perhaps they're ignoring him. The teacher stands at the front of the room teaching on the SmartBoard. The children follow along in their worksheets. Except the child sitting alone. He is in his own world. No one engages him and he engages no one. My heart aches for this child. He is physically and emotionally removed from the class. I ask him why his paper is ripped. (It's not an accidental rip.) He says he did that on a different day. When he had been frustrated about the work. He tells me that he sometimes sits by himself because the work is too hard for him. He later tells me that he sits by himself because the teacher thinks he talks too much during the lesson.  He says he does that because he wants to find out about the "lives of the other children". My first impulse is to rescue him from the wrongheade...
10 comments
Read more

A Slice of Life Story: Wishin' and Hopin', A Christmas Story by Wally Lamb

I normally only write about teaching related issues on this blog.  But, I've decided to make some changes in the New Year.  One change I am making is to start posting book reviews, or posts prompted by books I'm reading, that are in some way connected to teaching, learning, schooling, or education in general.  I aim to broaden the scope of my blog so that I don't find myself frantically searching for a topic to post about every week; this has stopped me from posting on a regular basis.  The purpose of making this change isn't to proliferate my blog with trivial posts, but rather to allow myself a broader scope from which to ruminate about learning in the broadest sense of the word. Wally Lamb's Wishin' and Hopin', A Christmas Story  is a great read and not just at Christmas time.  Lamb was able to take a one-time fictitious event - the 1964 Christmas play production by the students at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School - and build a story around it tha...
10 comments
Read more