Reading Workshop is a reading instructional model that fosters a love of reading within students by allowing them long periods of time to read and respond to text in authentic and meaningful ways. Students are encouraged to share about their daily interactions with text through writing and oral language opportunities. king and strategies they used during independent reading with the class.
The daily routine for Reading Workshop is explained below:
1. Mini-Lesson Each Reading Workshop session will begin with a mini-lesson. These are short, explicit lessons on a reading strategy.
2. Reading Time During this time, students will:
select a "just right" book to read independently.
practice the skill that they learned in the mini-lesson
respond to the text by writing notes, thoughts, and questions in their Literacy journals
meet with their peers to hold a book discussion
During this time, the teacher will:
confer with individual students to assess their progress and offer 1:1 instruction
meet with small groups of students for guided reading sessions
3. Reflection and Sharing This is a time for students to discuss their thinking and strategies they used during independent reading with the class.
Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop, similar to the Reading Workshop, is a writing instruction model that helps to foster a love of writing within students by allowing them time to write.
The purpose of Writing Workshop is to teach students that they are writers.
The daily routine for Writing Workshop is explained below:
1. Mini Lesson The mini-lesson is an explicit teaching and modeling of a writing skill. Many lessons are created after the teacher conferences with students and identifies a skill or teaching point that would benefit most of the class.
2. Writing Time During this time, students will:
work in their Writer's Journals to collect entries that may later become published pieces of writing
apply skills or strategies from the mini-lesson in their writing
confer with the teacher or with their peers
carefully select entries from their journals to "nurture" and take through the writing process (all entries in the Writer's Journals do not become published pieces of writing)
publish selected writing pieces
During this time, the teacher will:
confer with students about their writing
take notes to document students' progress and to plan future mini-lessons
listen to students read their entries aloud
help students decide what they want to say
provide feedback
re-teach skills taught during mini lessons
teach necessary new skills
reinforce a writer's strengths
3. Sharing and Reflection At the end of writing workshop, students are brought back together for a group share and reflection. When students share their writing piece, they may choose which part of an entry of which he or she is especially proud.