Reading and Writing Workshop
Our goal is to help children become avid and skilled readers, writers, and thinkers. Reading instruction occurs throughout the day and is incorporated into all other areas of instruction. Students are involved in Shared, Guided, and Independent reading activities. We use the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project curriculum guides, the MUS core literature list for second grade, small group sets of books for Guided Reading, classroom library collections, and directed reading-thinking activities. We work to develop more fluent readers by promoting reading for meaning and increasing word attack skills.
Independent Reading is part of our daily routine. During this time students read books of their choice at their own developmental level. Students keep a reading record and conference with the teacher regarding selections. Daily reading practice at home supports developing readers and reinforces classroom learning.
Our Reading and Writing Workshop program includes activities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students do choral readings, memorize poetry, use Reader's Theater, and do short plays and dramatizations. Daily writing on self-selected topics is an integral part of the reading-writing process. Individual writing conferences help us to get to know the students and find out what is significant to them. Conferencing with students also allows us to assess developing skills and provide instruction in language, spelling, and writing mechanics in the context of their actual writing. During workshop writing time students estimate spellings using whatever visual and letter-sound knowledge they have. Students are also encouraged to use a spelling handbook of high frequency words and reference charts and materials in the room. Regular teacher-directed spelling and word study lessons help children move toward conventional spelling. Children publish books and reports and learn to use writing to communicate for a variety of purposes and audiences.
5 Part Workshop Framework:
Independent Reading is part of our daily routine. During this time students read books of their choice at their own developmental level. Students keep a reading record and conference with the teacher regarding selections. Daily reading practice at home supports developing readers and reinforces classroom learning.
Our Reading and Writing Workshop program includes activities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students do choral readings, memorize poetry, use Reader's Theater, and do short plays and dramatizations. Daily writing on self-selected topics is an integral part of the reading-writing process. Individual writing conferences help us to get to know the students and find out what is significant to them. Conferencing with students also allows us to assess developing skills and provide instruction in language, spelling, and writing mechanics in the context of their actual writing. During workshop writing time students estimate spellings using whatever visual and letter-sound knowledge they have. Students are also encouraged to use a spelling handbook of high frequency words and reference charts and materials in the room. Regular teacher-directed spelling and word study lessons help children move toward conventional spelling. Children publish books and reports and learn to use writing to communicate for a variety of purposes and audiences.
5 Part Workshop Framework:
- Each session begins with a minilesson. Kids sit with a long-term partner while in the minilesson.
- The minilesson ends with the kids being sent off to their own independent work.
- As students work, the teacher confers with them and leads small groups.
- Partway through independent work time, the teacher stands and delivers a mid-workshop teaching point.
- The workshop ends with a share.
Reading and Writing Bill of Rights
1. Above all, good teachers matter. Learners need teachers who demonstrate what it means to live richly literate lives, wearing a love of reading and writing on their sleeves.
2. Students need a balanced approach to English/language arts, one that includes a responsive approach to the teaching of both reading and writing. Researchers have studied examples of exemplary literacy instruction. In every case, when they found a classroom with high literacy engagement, they found balanced teaching in place.
3. Reading and writing need to be taught like other basic skills, with direct, explicit instruction— including spelling, conventions, and the skills and strategies of proficient reading and writing.
4. Readers need long stretches of time to read, and writers need extended opportunities to write.
5. Writers need to learn to use writing process: rehearsing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their writing. Readers need opportunities to consolidate skills so they can use skills and strategies with automaticity within fluid, engaged reading.
6. Writers deserve to write for real, to write the kinds of texts that they see in the world, and to write to put meaning onto the page. Readers need opportunities to read high-interest, accessible books of their own choosing.
7. Readers and writers need teachers to read aloud to them.
8. Students need opportunities to talk and sometimes to write in response to texts.
9.Readers need to read increasingly complex texts appropriate for their grade level and they need support reading nonfiction and building a knowledge base and academic vocabulary through information reading.
10. Learners need clear goals and frequent feedback tailored specifically to them. They need to hear ways their reading and writing is getting better and to know what their next steps might be.
1. Above all, good teachers matter. Learners need teachers who demonstrate what it means to live richly literate lives, wearing a love of reading and writing on their sleeves.
2. Students need a balanced approach to English/language arts, one that includes a responsive approach to the teaching of both reading and writing. Researchers have studied examples of exemplary literacy instruction. In every case, when they found a classroom with high literacy engagement, they found balanced teaching in place.
3. Reading and writing need to be taught like other basic skills, with direct, explicit instruction— including spelling, conventions, and the skills and strategies of proficient reading and writing.
4. Readers need long stretches of time to read, and writers need extended opportunities to write.
5. Writers need to learn to use writing process: rehearsing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their writing. Readers need opportunities to consolidate skills so they can use skills and strategies with automaticity within fluid, engaged reading.
6. Writers deserve to write for real, to write the kinds of texts that they see in the world, and to write to put meaning onto the page. Readers need opportunities to read high-interest, accessible books of their own choosing.
7. Readers and writers need teachers to read aloud to them.
8. Students need opportunities to talk and sometimes to write in response to texts.
9.Readers need to read increasingly complex texts appropriate for their grade level and they need support reading nonfiction and building a knowledge base and academic vocabulary through information reading.
10. Learners need clear goals and frequent feedback tailored specifically to them. They need to hear ways their reading and writing is getting better and to know what their next steps might be.