So, with that in mind, I'm going to journal my journey into a new frontier. This new school year, I have the privilege of having my students for 2 1/2 hours. During this time, I am going to be able to implement a reading/writing workshop. I will also incorporate our social studies standards through our reading and writing. It is a little unnerving to feel like I am starting over, but I have been reading a lot of research and blogs from teachers who have tried it and implemented it.The workshop model makes total sense to me. It will allow students to work on strategies and skills using texts that interest them. There is opportunity for collaboration among students and it frees my time to differentiate for those who truly need extra help.
Instead of hearing me talk at them for 40-50 minutes, students will listen to a mini-lesson (only 10-15 minutes TOPS) that I present to them. After that, they go to work. Using text that they choose, I can conference with students to see where they are applying skills - not just from the daily mini-lesson, but also previous lessons. Small groups can be formed based on strategic needs. These are not the "reading groups" of old. These groups could and should change on a regular basis. A student will not necessarily be with the same students every time he is pulled into a strategy group. It will be needs based. In independent work, authentic conversations about texts or about their writing should occur among teacher-student and student-student.I have struggled to help students understand that there are a variety of genres in writing and that each genre has a specific type of structure. I am hopeful that a workshop method - that has students write in a specific structure daily and revisits those structures throughout the year - will help students better understand this concept.
So, reader, hold on to your hats because this promises to be an interesting ride. I plan to record the good, the bad and the ugly in an attempt to get better and provide the best for my students.
Happy reading-
