reader's workshop

For literacy, I love this school district site: www.wrsd.net/literacy 

On this site, I find scripted mini-lessons for those really important lessons and a year-long calendar of readers workshop minilessons which contains the meat of a teaching objective.  Go to the left-hand side of the page and hover over Elementary Curriculum, then look at both the focus lessons, which are scripted, and the unit trajectories, or curriculum maps. 

 I'm planning on having a reading unit on responding to literature in the coming month or so.  Now, I'm trying to decide what unit to follow.  I've tried a few units now including a Teacher's College reading unit and parts from our Pegasus curriculum.  

For my beginning readers, around levels A and B, I try to start out with the following teaching points or content objectives in the first few sessions:

  point to all the words
  get your mouth ready
  use the pictures
  does it make sense?

Because I have struggling readers at this level in 1st and 2nd grade, I try to infuse shared reading into our guided reading sessions by making strategy chants or songs.

As a teacher of English Language Learners, I have found the use of chants or songs that use and define academic vocabulary to be the best means of teaching language and content.  Perhaps because so often, especially among K-3 students, the kids LOVE to sing the songs again and again. 

Last year, I had a favorite writing chant, which I used every day, and now thanks to my bilingual coach I have a great reading chant to share with you all!  (She gave me permission to post it.)  She even typed up a great series of lessons to teach the chant, vocabulary and content.  I'll post these soon too under lesson plans!

A list of comprehension strategies perfect for Readers Workshop mini-lesson focus ideas.

This article appeared in the Sunday 08/30/09 NY Times.

This article is mostly about one teacher's application of writing workshop a la Nancy Atwell's In The Middle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/30reading.html?_r=2&em

I was fortunate enough to hear Nancy Atwell speak in like 1991 at a Capital Region Reading Association Conference at the Desmond Americana. She had really long hair then and she was all Portlandy and cool. I loved her descriptions of her students' writing development during her writing workshop.

 Many of you in the Seattle area may be familiar with the Daily Five, written by the Kent sister teaching duo.  Since my school and much of my district is moving to Writers' Workshop, the Readers' Workshop model is also gaining in popularity.  Several of us are now implementing the Daily Five as our reading workshop.  I love the Daily Five because it involves really teaching kids the routines, and I have some challenges with bringing all my kids on board.   

Ida B., by Katherine Hannigan, tells the bittersweet tale of Ida B. a precocious, free willed fourth grader whose life is almost perfect.  Ida B. spends her days playing on her family's farm in the apple orchard and babbling brook.  That is, almost perfect until it's turned upside down when the home schooled, only child's mom gets cancer and Ida B. gets sent back to school. 

Ida B., feeling betrayed by her parents and the world for the bad times that came upon her, hardens her heart against her parents, new teacher, new neighbors, new classmates, and even the trees and brook who were once her good friends.