Reading Workshop
Reading workshop is a general way of organizing the sustained silent reading time that students experience each day in each grade.
Adapted from: Fountas & Pinnell (1996) Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children.
Reading workshop is a general way of organizing the sustained silent reading time that students experience each day in each grade. It may also serve at times to organize direct reading instruction and may include opportunities for participation in Guided Reading instruction, literature circles, and journaling. The purpose of reading workshop is to promote fluency and to provide an occasion to promote the love of reading and to learn about texts in various ways. Reading workshop builds a community of readers as students receive support from their peers and interact with others to develop good literacy habits. Reading workshop is not intended to replace guided reading groups where specific needs are addressed in a flexible, small group setting. All students should have opportunities to meet in guided reading groups for explicit instruction. Teachers can meet with Guided Reading groups and/or conference with individual students during independent reading. These are complimentary components that need to be a part of the Balanced Literacy Program.
How is reading workshop structured?
Reading workshop consists of three parts:
- Mini-lesson (5-10 minutes)
- Independent reading (20-25 minutes)
Reading, responding to, conferring about, and discussing literature.
The teacher may also use this time to conference with and assess individual students. - Sharing (10-15 minutes)
Periodically, students will share or respond to their independent reading aloud.
When students are first introduced to reading workshop, the total time for the workshop may be about 20 -25 minutes, with the time gradually increasing as students become more familiar with procedures.
What happens during the mini-lesson portion of reading workshop?
Mini-lessons are short (five to ten minutes) focused lessons about how authors write books, specific strategies students can use to create meaning, and how to think critically about books. The teacher may read a book or a part of a book that illustrates the topic of the mini-lesson and encourage students to consider that topic as they read that day. Mini-lessons may be given to whole group, small group, or individual students.
Examples of mini-lesson topics:
• Strategies good readers use.
• How to read books (how to hold, open, turn pages, how to treat books, read illustrations).
• Choosing books.
• Using soft voices to read aloud.
• Pointing to the words while reading.
• Noticing interesting words.
• Noticing the dedication.
• What the author does to make the reader laugh or feel sad.
• How illustrations help the reader.
• Why the author wrote the book.
• How characters change.
• How characters are described.
• Comparing characters.
• Finding point of view.
• Defining the features of a particular genre.
• How the setting affects the story.
• What makes a good beginning to a story.
• What makes a good ending to a story.
• How to find the mood of a story.
Mini-lessons will be revisited in individual or small group conferences or during the independent reading time.
What happens during the independent reading portion?
Reading
By the end of the mini-lesson, the purpose for independent reading is set. Students may be trying strategies presented that day in the mini-lesson (pointing to the words, noticing illustrations, using soft voices) or applying strategies from past mini-lessons. Students select books from leveled bins, the class library, teacher-selected materials, or from individual "book bags" and read individually or with a partner.
A well-stocked classroom library including books of all genres is essential. Books at many reading levels need to be easily accessible. Labeled book bins work well in primary classrooms.
Responding
While students are reading, they may also be responding in journals or logs about what they have read. Students may write in their response journals, either showing how they applied strategies from the mini-lesson, or telling what they noticed about the story, author's style, or other literary features. The content of their writing may also reflect discussion from a literature circle.
Literature circles provide an occasion for students to share ideas about their books and exchange comments and points of view. Literature circles are a format for children to discuss the content of what they have read.
During this independent reading time, students may also be working on individual or small group reading response extensions as the year progresses. These activities may be designed by the student or chosen from a list that the teacher and students develop.
Examples of reading extension activities:
• Retelling the story through a Reader's Theater performance
• Conducting author research
• Writing a sequel
• Creating an advertisement
• Writing a letter
• Designing a game relating to the story
• Reading other books by author
• Reading other books on the same topic
Reading extension activities should be open-ended, in both choice of activities and content. Students may present extensions to the class during the sharing portion of reading workshop.
Conferring
During this independent reading time, teachers are taking running records, circulating around the room, writing anecdotal records, or conferring with individual students about their reading. Conferences provide the teacher with an opportunity to meet individually with a student to assess progress, to provide guidance as needed, and to assist in goal-setting. Through guiding questions, such as those listed below, the teacher helps the student verbalize reading strategies being used.
• Why did you choose that book?
• What is your story about?
• What are you working on with your reading?
• How is it going with what you're working on?
• What do you want me to notice today?
• How can I help you with that?
• What are you learning about yourself as a reader?
• What are you going to work on next?
As reading workshop starts, conferences are short (1-2 minutes) meetings between the teacher and a student to help students settle into reading. Later, longer conferences will be needed to discuss and help students reflect on their reading, and to monitor which books students are currently keeping in their "book bags". Teachers should establish a schedule to organize how they will meet with students each week that is flexible enough to accommodate problems and "teachable moments" as they arise.
It is important to limit the scope of the conference to one or two strategies or teaching points. Teachers should focus on the reader and the strategies being used, not the specific text during a conference. The goal is to guide students in developing strategies that will transfer to many different types of reading. It is helpful to keep notes about what was discussed in the conference as a part of ongoing assessment.
What happens during the sharing portion of reading workshop?
Sharing provides an opportunity for a few students to share briefly about how they applied a concept introduced during a mini-lesson, a discovery made during reading workshop, response journals entries, reading extensions, or book recommendations. Sharing needs to be brief and allow many students to participate. If more students feel a need to share than time allows, they can share with partners or in small groups. The amount of sharing time may need to be longer earlier in the year and may slowly decrease as students need more time during the independent reading time to read, write, and discuss.
How is students' progress monitored in reading workshop?
Teacher observation is the primary tool in monitoring students' progress in reading workshop. Running records and anecdotal records taken during conferences and observations provide the focus of future instruction for individual, small group, and whole class mini-lessons. Reading response or dialogue journals also provide a basis for assessment and planning.