Reader's Workshop

Reading Workshop looks like this:

• Mini-Lesson
• Reading Time
• Reader's Chair

Mini-Lesson

During a Mini-Lesson the teacher may share a story with the class and model a variety of comprehension strategies and reading strategies. The teacher does numerous "Think Aloud" lessons to model her thinking to the students. This is also the time that students may receive a whole group lesson in grammar, comprehension, or another important lesson that the whole class may be in need of that day. We may also read poetry.

Reading Time
Students are divided into small groups according to their reading level. Each small group works with the teacher during guided reading time based on the groups needs and their instructional level. They work on fluency, automaticity, comprehension, and phonological awareness. Students progress through the levels as they are ready and are monitored closely. Students are actively engaged in independent reading while the teacher is working with guided reading groups. Independent reading work requires students to respond to what they have read in their response journals by writing a summary, drawing a picture, or using a graphic organizer to recall what they have read about.

Reader's Chair

Students gather together to discuss what they have read and how they have responded to what they have read about. Students take turns sharing in the Reader's Chair. This is a time to celebrate the reader.

What is fluency?
Fluency is smooth, accurate, effortless reading. Fluent readers use appropriate speed and expression; their reading sounds like talking. Nonfluent readers have trouble with word recognition and phrasing; they read choppily.

What is automaticity?
Automaticity is automatic, effortless word recognition.

What is phonological awareness?
Phonological Awareness is the understanding that spoken language is made up of units of sound (including words and syllables) and the ability to distinguish and manipulate these sound units.

What is comprehension?
Comprehension is understanding what we read. We work on specific comprehension strategies. For more information about the specific comprehension strategies we learn, please go to the Comprehension Page.

Why Read?

Question: Why can't I skip reading 30 minutes a day?
Answer: Let's figure it out mathematically.

Student A reads 30 minutes five nights every week: Student B reads only 4 minutes a night... or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

Student A reads 30 minutes x 5 times a week = 150 minutes/week.
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes/week.

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.

Student A reads 600 minutes/month.
Student B reads 80 minutes/month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year.

Student A reads 5400 minutes/school year.
Student B reads 720 minutes/school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of fourteen whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of sixth grade, if Student A and Student B maintain the same reading habits...

Student A will have read the equivalent of 75 whole school days. One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder...

Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school in and in life?
Why read 30 minutes a day?

If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is five years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food!

Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week and the child's hungry mind loses 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.

A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition.

No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.

Therefore, .... 30 minutes daily: 900 hours, 30 minutes weekly: 130 hours, less than 30 mintues weekly: 60 hours
[Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, America Reads Challenge. (1999) "Start Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader." Washington, D.C.]
Mrs. Ingram's website: http://myschoolonline.com/page/0,1871,12466-170227-16-42586,00.html
& Mrs. Vine's website: http://www.geocities.com/ms_vines_second_grade/WhyRead.html