10 Tips to Brush-Up Your Workshops!

As we get ready to start a new school year, I thought I'd give a few workshop brush-up tips to get your workshops off the ground with success!

I've been doing a series on supporting your workshop through the balanced literacy components. If you haven't checked it out, you can find them below!

Post 1- Overveiw 

Post 2- Shared Reading & Interactive Read Alouds with Accountable Talk 

Post 3- Shared and Interactive Writing 

Now...onto to the Top Ten Tips! 

1. Know what workshop is and why you are doing it. 

Simply stated, workshop is a block of time that involves a mini-lesson, work time and a share time. The mini-lesson is usually no longer than 10-15 minutes, depending on the grade level. Work time is about thirty to forty-five minutes long and the share time is generally around five to seven minutes long. Challenge your students to work the whole time by setting goals and modeling the behaviors you want to see while they work for extended periods of time.

2. Keep your workshop routines simple and predictable. 

Student should know the cadence of your daily workshop and feel very comfortable with their learning time. When students feel safe and know what to expect, their brains are freed up to do more thinking!

3. Pull your kiddos close! 

Students are generally sitting on the floor right at your feet during your brief mini-lesson. They go off to work at their desk or a work spot around the room, and then they are called back to the front for share time.

4. Let the kids use the STUFF. 

Materials that students use during workshop should be labeled and accessible so that students can get what they need without bothering you. Don't keep the "good"  markers and the "good" paper in the closet all year. What is it there for?

5. Protect your 10 minute mini-lesson! 

Student-talk during your mini-lesson should be minimal if they even talk at all (with the exception of the active engagement portion). That is YOUR chance to deliver a tip for today’s learning that they should be practicing and not a chance for students to help with the learning. Your mini-lesson should be explicit and intentional.

6. Keep your read alouds OUTSIDE of the workshop. 

Read alouds are generally done OUTSIDE of the workshop. You don’t want to spend ten of your fifteen minutes on a story that could have been read that morning. Be intentional about the books you read aloud and use those as mentor texts that you refer to during a mini-lesson. Also, consider varying the book genres you use for read alouds! Hearing YOU read nonfiction texts might be the only time your students ever hear nonfiction being read out loud. Make them good ones!

7. Know the architecture of a mini-lesson. 

The mini-lesson has an actual architecture that is very important. Briefly, that includes a connection, stating the teaching point explicitly, giving a demonstration right there on the floor, having the students try the skill on the floor (active engagement) and a link to daily learning. More on the mini-lesson structure here.

8. Don't you dare skip the SHARE! 

The share time portion of the workshop can be used to do a variety of things! You can reinforce the teaching point or showcase really smart work that you saw during the work time. To keep this time short, during small group or conferring, select the student that you want to showcase and be ready to show the class what they did. Talk for the student and allow them to shine without going over the five to seven minutes!

9. Send your learners off and then...it's GAME TIME!

10. Use other parts of your day to support your workshops.

Mini-Lesson Makeover: Giving your Connection a POP!

Mini Lessons at this point in the run the risk of being a little....dull if we aren't careful! One thing I've been trying to do is raise the level of interest in my connection! Generally, most mini lessons start with the old...
"Yesterday readers, we..." or "We've been learning how to..." and we state the prior day's teaching point to review. And that is great. Normally. But I thought if I could actually make a "connection" in my connection, make the kiddos will stick with me a little longer??

Below I share some connections that I've been using lately...



* One time my family was driving out of town. We were going to see my friend. We’d never been there before but we looked online at the map to sort of get an idea where we were going. As we were driving, we were talking about all sorts of things. We weren’t really paying attention to the directions like we should have been. I started to look around and I just sort of knew something wasn’t right. The signs on the highway weren’t saying what I expected them to say. We had to finally admit that we were LOST. Sometimes the same thing can happen in our reading! You might be reading along and you sort of stop paying attention. Then you realize that you might be LOST in your book...

*My best friend in college was a runner. Every morning she got up early to go for a run. I noticed that she always got dressed, put on her tennis shoes and instead of leaving right after that, she always took a few minutes to stretch and warm up. She told me that she needed her body to wake up so she would have a better run. Today I'll show you how reading can be the exact same way! ...

*One time I got an email from a friend. We had plans to meet up over the weekend but there was supposed to be a big snowstorm. I emailed her to say that I didn’t think I’d make it because of the snow. She understood but in her email, she mentioned that she didn’t think the snow would be that bad and she told me that she cancelled all of her other plans. I had some inferring to do. Using the evidence that she gave me in her email, I was able to realize that she was really disappointed. She didn’t come right out and say that she was disappointed but I could tell because she made sure to tell me that she cancelled her other plans. Readers can do the same thing. Sometimes you will have to infer how a character feels by thinking about how they feel based on the words they say...

The really cool thing is- now that I've started to make my connections a little more personal- the kiddos are hooked in so much more quickly. They also started catching on to how my real-life examples apply to reading. Halfway through my story about getting lost and needing to stop for directions, I had some kiddos say, "that's can happen when you are reading!"

Happy end of the year push!

Book Clubbin' Away

Book clubs are giving us life in our classroom. We are pushing...crawling to make it to Spring Break and it hasn't been easy. But.

*book clubs.*

Today, we were chatting away in the Jigsaw Jones book club. We were sharing snacks and lounging on the floor chatting about the characters in our books. Sharon mentions that Jigsaw has a character named Joey that she met. She shows her character sketch and sharing some of the notes she took about him. Olivia proceeds to pull out her chapter chunks and character sketches and the neatest thing happened: the character sketches looked really similar! It was so clear that they had been studying the same character. The traits that they had jotted down across two different texts made total sense.

Another cool thing: I mentioned in an earlier post that I wanted these sheets to be scaffolds so that when they get a reader's notebook, they can do these things naturally. Well, a student asked to take their club folder home for homework (yessss!) and he told me that he ran out of chapter chunk worksheets so he made his own. He was so proud! I was too.

I've been modeling book club skills using Horrible Harry. It's been great to really dig deep into these characters. When a character does something, it's fun to hear the kiddos remark things like, "she just tattled on Harry again. That's so 'Mary'" This makes the transfer to independent book clubs so much easier- especially since I can't meet with every group everyday. 

If you want to pick up the book club scaffold sheets, click the photo below!! 

Wanna donate to my kiddos? Visit our Donor's Choose Page HERE! 

Book Clubs- Week ONE!

SO fun. Seriously. Like I mentioned before, sometimes reading workshop can get stale. The kiddos robotically move from independent reading to partner reading and you can see the spirals in their eyeballs as they recite their partner prompts: “What did you read today?  What was the problem? What was the solution?” Blah. It was such a joy to hear them back in November- but we need a revival. We need something new and fresh. We need book clubs!  They have been super refreshing. I wanted them to feel like a real book club so I allow them to bring in snacks from home and a water bottle. They have been asking to form their own book clubs, which makes me feel like the most amazing teacher in America. So proud.

 We spent the last session chatting about getting prepped for book club success. You can read about that here. Now I’d love to share what I’ve been doing during the first week. I’ve included the scripting for my mini lessons. I usually type them out like that in my lessons so I thought I’d share! We are in a CHAPTER BOOK SERIES book club cycle this time.  For a lot of kiddos, this is the first time I’ve officially taught how to navigate through a chapter book.

Click here for thefully scripted lessons. (For Free).  Feel free to use them or tweak them!

The major teaching points for this 3 week cycle are:

Day 1-  Readers consider the order of books in a series.  How do we read them?

Day 2-  Chapter book readers use a different kind of book log.

Day 3- Partners decide if they will read the same titles or separate titles.

Day 4- Readers keep track of the characters that are introduced.

Day 5- Reading clubs reflect on their work as a group.

Day 6- Readers keep track of the story by using chapter chunks.

Day 7- Readers keep track of words and phrases that confuse them.

Day 8- Chapter book readers know when they’ve lost their way.

Day 9- Chapter book readers need to warm up when they read continuously.

Day 10- Readers keep track of their characters as they change over time.

Day 11- Readers focus on dialogue. It can get tricky. Follow closely.

Day 12- Readers infer how a character feels and uses text evidence to support those inferences.

Day 13- Noticing patterns within a series. Is there a rhythm to your book series?

Day 14 We notice the big ideas of a series. What does the author tend to write about?

Day 15- Readers are moved to take action. What would you like to do?

Reflections on book club so far:

I love them. I wish I had about 15 minutes a day to meet with each club to help scaffold their conversations and book talks but I don’t. At best, I see two clubs a day. I felt bad until I realized that I really only saw two guided reading groups during regular workshop. The most interesting thing is that I am so used to spending all of my time with my lowest readers to work on decoding strategies- and I still am...but I’m finding that my HIGHER readers need me the most in club! Listen in on this conversation that I scripted between three Magic Tree House Readers and myself:

Me: So guys, I have to be honest, I’ve never read a Magic Tree House book so I’m really hoping to learn a lot from you guys. Tell me what’s going on!

Student 1: Well, they____ and _____ are fighting a dragon.

Me: Wow so your characters names’ are __ and A___ - do those characters show up in any of your books?

Students 2 and 3- yes. We sketched them on our Meet the Cast sheets and noticed the same traits. This character is adventurous.

Me: So are they just good friends then?

Student one: no- they are brother and sister.

Student 2: (crazy look on her face like, “huh?!”

Me: Student 2, you look surprised- what are you thinking?

Student 2:  I thought they were just friends. I didn’t think they were brother and sister. I never noticed that they were siblings.

Student 1: Well, on this page (feverishly turning pages) they are talking to their dad and they go to bed in the same house. I was just inferring.

Me: Wow! This sounds like an excellent conversation. I love how Student One shared thoughts and used text evidence. That shows you are really paying attention. And student two- I was impressed at your learning. I noticed how you noticed that you were a little confused on your face and you didn’t just ignore it. You took the time to wonder and question. That’s what a good reader would do.

I might be alone here, but I cringe when I see kids with big chapter books and I know I haven’t had a chance to really work with them on the skills that you need to truly understand them.  Conversations like the one about give me joy because I know they are digging deeper and not surface reading.

I've just added these documents to my TpT store if you are interested. These are meant to be scaffolds. I don’t want them going to the 4^th grade and asking for their character sketch sheet. I want them just instinctively start sketching and tracking characters and words that they don’t know in their reader’s notebook. Hopefully with enough exposure, they will make this second nature and dig deeper into their books!

Click the photo below to purchase!

Oh and Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Wanna donate to my kiddos? Visit our Donor's Choose Page HERE! 

Book Clubs- Prepping and Getting Started

{Book Clubs in a nutshell: A basket of books that go together in some way combined with kids reading, writing, and talking about their texts. Fits inside the reading workshop after mini lesson/independent reading and in lieu of partner reading. Lasts anywhere from 1-3 weeks.} -Adapted from Collins, Reading For Real. 

I decided that I would take the whole class on a journey though a chapter book in a series. I, of course have kids reading in chapter books anyway- but I have not had the chance to teach them how to navigate through one.The nice thing is that even my lowest readers can participate in this cycle because they are reading the likes of Henry and Mudge, Frog and Toad, Mr. Putter and Tabby, and Young Cam Jansen series books.

Series books. SO MUCH to consider! Using Kathy Collin's book, Growing Readers, I came up with a road map for this unit. I spent two weeks before this cycle beefing up and refreshing my students on how to work with partners, how to hold a conversation that goes back and forth, and how to share about books. We've covered all of that, but as workshops do- it got routine and stale. That usually means behavior problems- ammirite??

you know, #readingpartnerdrama

I also took those two weeks before I launched this to do sample readings from all of the series that I had selected. That would allow the students to be exposed to them before we just let them loose with it. This was also a great time to gather materials for club: baskets for the series books, sticky notes, work folders, etc... I selected the following series for this round of book clubs: (6-8 titles each)

Junie B. Jones

Henry and Mudge
Young Cam Jansen
Frog and Toad
Nate the Great
Magic Tree House
Jigsaw Jones

Day One: Meeting your book club and signing contracts.

Mini-Lesson Scripting:  

Connection: Readers, we've been working on making sure our partnerships are strong so that we have really amazing conversations and connections when we move into book clubs! 

Teaching Point: Today, you will be meeting with your book club for the first time. [I chose to put my students in certain books clubs based on reading level and comprehension skills. Other book club cycles might allow them to pick their own club.] Workshop will look the same as far as my mini-lesson and your independent reading. What will change is instead of going to your partner to read and think together, you'll meet with your club. I'll show you TONS of ways to track your understanding while reading your chapter books over the next few days. Today, you will be simply going to your book club basket and browsing through your series. You will also talk about the things that you think might make your club run smoothly. You'll agree on some norms and you'll sign your club contracts. 

Active Engagement: Turn to your neighbor and discuss your hopes and thoughts about book club. What do you hope to get out of it? How are you planning to grow as a reader? 

Link: I'm so exited about these clubs. As I listened in I heard students setting goals for their reading and thinking work- and I heard something really cool: "I hope to have fun with books!" That was my favorite one because we must always remember to fall in love with our books. You'll go off to read alone with your just right books. When the timer goes off, you will find your new book club and follow the directions on your club contract sheet. You may also get your snack to enjoy at that time, but not before. Off you go! 

Reflections: 

I think assigning the clubs was helpful. Less drama. The transition was really smooth. They were really excited to start and their contracts were filled with good ideas. I worry about my two lower reading groups- which are of course, my behavior issues groups. I generally give almost ALL of my time to them so behavior isn't a problem- but I so badly want to meet with my higher readers more during this unit. I need to figure out how that will work. There is so much thinking work that I want to do with my high decoder-low comprehension kiddos. I am also concerned with my speed-readers. I can hear them already claiming to be done but not taking the time to track characters and new words and phrases. Lots to consider- but I feel like we're off to a great start! 

“Ah Ha’s,” and What I’ve Come to Believe

Hey Friends. This post pertains to my thoughts on literacy instruction.

So…I’ve become a “workshop teacher” to the core. I mean… last year, I had just moved schools, and like a lot of us do when we are in a new school, I frantically prodded my teammates’ brains and listened to hallway conversations to see what they were doing and then I went with the "buzz" that was going around our district…which was the Literacy Work Stations Model. I also said I did a reader’s workshop but…if I’m being honest…it was a hot mess. I knew “workshop” was one of those cool words that I should say to sound awesome.

At that time, the schedule roughly looked like this:

8:00-8:40          Morning Work/Review/Community Circle

8:40-9:30          Literacy Work Stations

9:30-10:15        Phonics/Word Study

10:15-10:45      Recess

10:50-11:20      Lunch

11:20-12:10     Author Study/Writing

12:20-1:08       Specials

1:08-2:08         Math

2:08-2:45         Science/Social Studies Integrated with Language Arts

Ok. I tried. I had some good things going…but still needed work.  

After some intense guidance from my literacy coach (and resident hero) Candace, I spent all summer with my nose in professional literature.

The goal was simple: Figure out what I really believe about what is best for kids, and how they learn.


I didn’t want to go with the “buzz” anymore. I wanted to be grounded in something that works. 
Back to the summer reading list:

Daily 5- check.

Reading With Meaning- check.  

Making the Most of Small Group Instruction- check.  

Phonics They Use- check.

7 Keys to Comprehension- Can I get an AMEN? –check.

And a few others were skimmed. I quickly realized that these greats in the educational field were starting to say similar things.

Enter Workshop Specialists:

Lucy and Kathy. I shouldn’t call Lucy-Lucy, but Kathy I can call Kathy because I’ve met her (name dropping) and she even taught a lesson in my room when my literacy coach got her to do our PD at school- boo-yeah!!!

Coach Candace, Kathy Collins, and Me :)

More formally,I mean Lucy Caulkins and Kathy Collins…I just love their practices...and really most people from that little hub of New York awesomeness (Teacher's College Readers and Writers Project @ Columbia University)

These are my school bibles. I draw from the aforementioned texts in my room ALL the time- but man, I felt the deepest connection with these ladies. What have I taken from these great ladies? Now this is just me …synthesizing my learning. (We are studying non-fiction right now- so this skill is fresh.)

1.    Students need lots of time to read. You get better at reading by reading just right books. A lot.

2.    Students need to see themselves as honest- to- goodness readers and writers.

3.    Students need scaffolding through one- on- one conferring.

4.    Balanced literacy should ultimately support the work of your students as independent readers and writers (more on that below).

5.    Students should be able to THINK and TALK deeply about books.

6.    Inquiry based learning…yes please. Students should be able to study mentor authors and writers and wonder why they did what they did-in order to improve their craft.

7.    Learning should be ORGANIC. Applicable. Real Life. When was the last time you did a diorama of your favorite scene in YOUR last book club discussion? Ah, but when was the last time you had a book discussion about a really meaningful passage with a friend that lasted a lifetime?

8.    Most of all, my students can grow. GROW. I can meet them where they are and take them to the next level.

Again, this is just me using my synthesizing comprehension strategy- not me preaching to anyone!! =)

*Quickly, I mentioned the balanced literacy thing. Over the summer, I kept reading how important it was to have all of the balanced literacy componets in the schedule. Fine. I did that. But then I was reading Growing Readers by Kathy, and she had a little paragraph that mentioned how the components of balanced literacy should all work in service of our reader’s and writer’s workshop.

This was PARAMOUNT for me. I had all the components in place, but they were all isolated- and not being planned by me with the notion that these things should all be working towards the goals of the workshops!

It was my biggest “AH-HA” of the school year. I realized that not only did I need to include all the components of balanced literacy in my day, but I should plan them with the intention of teaching something that will improve their work as independent readers and writers.  Confused? Classic example:

I was in the middle of a Non-Fiction unit in my Reader’s Workshop. I noticed that my students’ word-solving strategies were slipping. I didn’t want to halt the non-fiction awesomeness that was happening to do a mini-lesson on word solving again….so Kathy helped me realize that I can take care of those types of things during other parts of my day. In this example, I decided that the next day, I would incorporate word-solving strategies in my Shared Reading. It took a load off and helped me to focus on the unit that we were studying.

My overview of Balanced Literacy: Making the "Heart" of Your Literacy Instruction Beat!

(click to enlarge)

After my "ah ha" moment, I had to change that schedule ...so now the schedule is looking like this:

8:00-8:15       Announcements/Breakfast/Stamina Reading of Just Right Books

8:15-8:20       Community Circle

8:25-9:20       Writer’s Workshop (conferring, small groups, independent writing)

9:20-9:40       Word Study

9:40-9:55       Shared Writing OR Interactive Writing 

9:55-10:15     Shared Reading OR Interactive Reading with Accountable Talk

10:15-10:45    Recess

10:50-11:20    Lunch

11:20-12:20    Reader’s Workshop (conferring, small groups, independent reading)

12:20-1:08     Specials

1:08-1:50        Thematic Studies (Science and Social Studies)

1:50-2:50       Envision Math

How do I get all the components in? Notice that I don’t do everything-everyday.

Side note: All of my forthcoming units that I’ll be posting will have each component of balanced literacy included! =)

SO.

Do I think I’m a know- it- all with all the best practices and most effective methods?  Am I speaking to haughtily about what I’ve learned?  In all honesty, and in an effort to "keeps it real" that’s not really the point.

The point is: I’ve found something that I BELIEVE in. I’ve seen it work.  I’ve seen the LOVE of reading and writing grow in my first-graders’ lives. I’ve seen my kids experiment safely with quotation marks, comeback lines, and non-fiction writing fearlessly because they’ve studied an author who does the same thing. I’ve seen my students stay focused on one task for 30 minutes straight. I’ve heard them whine and moan when I say, “Time to put workshop materials away!”

 ...and I like that.