Reading Workshop

 

 

A School Wide Literacy Focus supported by a balanced reading and writing program is emphasized at each grade level developing a mastery of critical concepts in literacy. Students are immersed in reading and writing for real purposes based on their interests and individual abilities. Learning is enhanced through Reading and Writing Workshop, a literacy program developed by The Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University in New York City.

RW: The MINILESSON

The Reading Workshop at AWALA begins with a 10 - 15 minute MINILESSON. The MINILESSON is teacher directed and focuses on an explicit reading strategy or skill. This is known as the teaching point.

During the MINILESSON, the teacher tells what is to be taught and connects instruction to the students' lives. The teacher models or demonstrates the skill to students and talks about the learning process. 

Then the teacher guides the students as they practice the skill or strategy with a partner. This part of the MINILESSON is called active engagement.                    

The final part of the MINILESSON is the link in which the teacher helps the students transfer the new skill to their reading. The teacher also charts the teaching point so that students can easily reference how to use the new skill or strategy.

Independent Reading & Conferring

The Reading Workshop at AWALA begins with a 10 - 15 minute MINILESSON. The MINILESSON is teacher directed and focuses on an explicit reading strategy or skill. This is known as the teaching point.

During the MINILESSON, the teacher tells what is to be taught and connects instruction to the students' lives. The teacher models or demonstrates the skill to students and talks about the learning process. 

Then the teacher guides the students as they practice the skill or strategy with a partner. This part of the MINILESSON is called active engagement.                    

The final part of the MINILESSON is the link in which the teacher helps the students transfer the new skill to their reading. The teacher also charts the teaching point so that students can easily reference how to use the new skill or strategy.

The RW: THE CLOSING

During this time, the class might participate in a variety of things.  For example, they might meet as a whole class and refer back to the MINI LESSON for further thinking and application, meet together to think about and respond to questions, meet with reading partners to discuss how their reading is progressing.