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Reading
Workshop I love teaching reading, but it seems that I'm never satisfied with what I'm doing! For years I relied on the Accelerated Reader program because I believed it was the best way to track reading progress. A few years ago I implemented a Reading Workshop format for my independent reading time. Unfortunately, I'm not able to fully use this method anymore because of my school district's guidelines for teaching reading. However, I feel that the approach is very valuable and worth sharing with other teachers. I learned about this approach from a variety of different professional books that deal with this topic. These books are awesome even if you don't use the Reading Workshop approach. I never realized how little I knew about reading instruction until I read these books. I don't even know which one to recommend first. They are all wonderful! Guiding Readers and Writers is probably the most comprehensive of the bunch. Reading with Meaning is directed at primary teachers, but I learned a lot from it, too.
I'm definitely not an expert, but I do have some ideas to share. My best advice is to start reading some of these wonderful books! You'll learn many specific techniques for teaching the reading strategies that good readers use. These are strategies that poor readers don't seem to grasp without explicit instruction. I still use Accelerated Reader as a part of my total reading program, but it's not the main component. Literature Circles are a big part, too. Printing or viewing the blackline masters at the bottom of this page would be helpful before reading the program descriptions below. What might a Reading Workshop look like? My Reading Workshop consisted of a 10-15 minute minilesson on a particular strategy, followed by independent reading time. Students read books or magazines of their choice. Each day I met with 5 different students and had an individual reading conference. I had them quietly read a part of their book to me and I talked with them about the strategy we were working on for the week. I recorded my impressions on a Reading Conference Record form I designed for this purpose. (I duplicated one page for each student and placed them in a 3-ring binder.) At the end of the reading block students had a 5-minute meeting with an Reading Buddy and they discussed what they'd read. Students were also expected to read at home and record their reading in their Home Reading Log folder. Their Home Reading Log folder consisted of the Reading Rubric (described below), a Reading Genre Bingo form to track their types of reading, and their weekly Home Reading Log recording forms. How might reading progress be evaluated? I used a Reading Rubric to evaluate progress with my independent reading program. This was not the only way I obtained grades in reading; it was just for evaluating the independent reading component. At the end of each 3-week period, we used the Reading Rubric Evaluation form to evaluate their progress. Since the rubric is designed to cover a 9-week period, we had to adjust the values at the 3-week and 6-week checkpoints. For example, if someone was working towards a score of 4 on reading variety, they need to read at least 5 different kinds of materials by the end of the grading period. At the 3-week checkpoint, 2 types would be acceptable. When we sat down to evaluate progress, we examined the Home Reading Log folder for evidence of different types and weekly amounts of reading. Where do Literature Circles fit into the program? You may wonder how I incorporated Literature Circles into this program. When we were involved in Literature Circles, these activities took the place of the independent reading time during the school day. It was still "self-selected" reading because students chose their book from a list of Literature Circle selections, but the reading time was used in a more flexible manner. Some groups were reading independently, some were reading together, and some were conducting Literature Circle meetings with me. I was not able to hold individual conferences, but after I met with each group I made notes in my conference log concerning the progress of each student. It took 2 or 3 weeks to complete a novel, and then we went back to independent reading time for a week or two. Was this program effective? I conducted an Action Research project during the first nine weeks of school to determine the effectiveness of this program. As often found in Action Research projects, I did not use a control group because I wanted all my students to benefit from the program. Instead, I administered two different reading pretests and posttests. I was excited to find that both tests showed growth in reading.
I realize that this research project was based on a small number of students (20) in an isolated classroom and did not involve a control group. Therefore, the results should not be considered conclusive in any way. However, I feel that this method definitely has merit! Note: After several months of use, I modified the Reading Rubric to make it easier for students to use and parents to understand. If you found the other one to be confusing, check out the Easy Reading Rubric which only has 2 areas for evaluation.
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