Reading Workshop
What does Reading Workshop look like?
Reading Workshop consists of three main components: a mini-lesson, independent practice, and a wrap-up. Children are actively involved in becoming strong readers through a variety of activities during our workshop time. Early on, decoding strategies (ways to figure out words) will be taught. As children continue to read, they will learn comprehension strategies (ways to understand the text) such as: using schema, making connections, questioning, inferring, predicting, and visualizing.
Mini-lesson
* decoding and word attack strategies
* comprehension strategies
Independent Practice
*partner reading
*listening to reading
*word work
Reading Workshop consists of three main components: a mini-lesson, independent practice, and a wrap-up. Children are actively involved in becoming strong readers through a variety of activities during our workshop time. Early on, decoding strategies (ways to figure out words) will be taught. As children continue to read, they will learn comprehension strategies (ways to understand the text) such as: using schema, making connections, questioning, inferring, predicting, and visualizing.
Mini-lesson
- A whole-group lesson based on the needs of the students. The focus may be a reading skill, strategy, or routine.
- The teaching point is stated and modeled. Students are then actively engaged with the whole-class to practice the skill, strategy, or routine.
- Key mini-lesson topics:
* decoding and word attack strategies
* comprehension strategies
Independent Practice
- Students practice their reading skills by:
*partner reading
*listening to reading
*word work
- During independent practice time our literacy paraprofessional and I conduct brief instructional conferences with individual students, have guided reading instruction with small groups and/or individual assessments. The instructional conference and small group times provide information about what students are finding success with and what continues to challenge them and instruction is adjusted as needed.
- Students have many books at their independent reading level, "just-right" books, in their chair pockets to help them build their reading muscles. They also have some more challenging books that they may have selected and books at their instructional level from their reading groups.
- The wrap-up is a mini-lesson reinforcement, the sharing of an observation made during conferences, or an add-on. The wrap-up can also be used to preview a coming lesson.
- This is also a time for a few students to share a strategy they used in their reading.
- Most importantly, during our wrap-up, students reflect on how independent they were and how well they stayed focused on their work.