#4496. Reader's Workshop

Reading/Writing, level: Middle
Posted Tue Jan 18 08:54:54 PST 2011 by Suzanne Moran (Suzanne Moran).
Reader's Workshop
SRSB, Canada
Materials Required: Just Right Novels
Activity Time: Forty or Sixty Minutes
Concepts Taught: Using Comprehension Stratgies and Reader Response

A Reader's Workshop for Junior High or Middle School students. The purpose of reading & writing workshop is to promote literacy in the classroom. We set the purpose for students by focusing on text and promoting the enjoyment and love of reading through meaningful interactions with the printed word. Students begin to understand and make meaning of what they by writing responses while reading.

Teachers in reader's workshop  use conversation as a bridge for reading and/or writing. Reading is the foundation of the bridge (anchors), writing the suspension cables and conversation the deck- or what gets us places.

Teachers set the purpose for reading through carefully planned out mini-lessons. In the end, what matters is that students talk about reading. Students must use their own language to come to an understanding of literature, then they may begin to craft (Fletcher/Portalupi) their own writing.

Day One- The following link takes you to the actual site where I include links to all pages and graphic organizers. Links are also included for explanations of "how to" complete reflections and responses, directions for group work, general links to ideas and concepts and most importantly how to use the Big Six Comprehension Strategies. I hope you will find this useful. Send email from the page, if you have questions.

This schedule is on line at:

http://www.smoran.ednet.ns.ca/Reader'sworkshop/readerschedule.htm

General class Organization/expectations.
Discuss how to organize their Portfolios.
Take them on a Visual Tour of Your Classroom. Explain where to find everything they need and how to use the charts in your classroom.
Complete "Getting to know you as readers letters

Mini lesson explaining I'm Stuck-Fix-IT strategy
Teacher Read Aloud 10 Min.

Min-lesson: sign out-in sheets.
Choose a Novel- explain Just Right novel- divide number of pages by 20 and that is how many you read per night.
The above may take up the whole class. If not begin below.

Homework - Read Novel Chpt. 2/3. Describe your character [s] so far in the Response section of your Portfolio. Compare and contrast your Character to the one in the read aloud today.

Day Two through Day three
Mini-Lesson: How to fill in a Book Logs. Place at the beginning of the Reading Log.

Complete InformalReadingInventories and put in portfolio Reading Log section.

Do a TPS- think-pair-share of the informal inventories with a partner in the class.

Homework: Finish reading inventories if there wasn't enough time in class.

Character Quote- Begin for main character.
Independent Class Reading- ICR and students are also using sticky notes to mark sections they wish to write about.

Teacher/student conference/observation. Can be oral or simply going around taking notes.
Homework Finish Character quote and read novel. Read Chapter 5/6. Remind students to write responses as they read.

Min-lesson: sign out-in sheets.

Overview of Assessment and Evaluation of this workshop.

Homework read next Chapters Write Reflections and Connections in the Response section of your Portfolio using the double entry method.

Strategy Mini-Lesson -Elements of Novels-Group discussion activity-10 Min.

Begin plot chart for their novel - keep in Strategy section of portfolio.

They will only be able to complete some of this chart.

Individual/group conference--remainder of period while they work on chart or read novels quietly.

 Homework Complete a charactermap. You may need this list of character traits to hand out. Students should be reading Chapter 7/8 depending on length of novel. Hand in character map tomorrow as they enter class.