Room B5 is in finally in full swing! And I have gotten my reading workshop underway!
I start off Reader’s Workshop with my mini-lesson. Some of my lessons come from Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Reading, which my district provided. Other lessons come from the book, The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo. I highly recommend this book! It is filled with one page lesson ideas for all levels of readers (she also has one for writing too).
After my mini-lesson in reading, I have students reading books from my classroom library, school library, and home. Something I have started this year is Epic on the Chromebooks. My students really love it! So students have a choice to read a book or Epic.
While my kiddos are reading silently, I pull my guided groups. I have been doing it for three weeks now and the students are falling into the routine very well. Later, I will open the options for them to do reading centers and activities too. But I wanted to establish the norms of what is expected when I am meeting with a group. My school has a foundation that raises money every year. At the end of last year, they purchased Scholastic’s Guided Reading Short Reads for fiction and nonfiction. They are sold in Fontas and Pinnell levels. Each level has ten sets of stories with six cards for each story. This is what I am using right now for guided reading.
The most amazing thing happened this past Thursday with my high group of readers. They were reading an excerpt from BFG (level U). After they read, I asked them to compare the way the girl described the giant in the excerpt to the picture. One student said that a different giant had grabbed the girl from her bed. The other students argued (in a respectful way) that it was the same giant. I sat back for about 6 minutes while one student grabbed the actual text and began reading to the student. Then the others took turns helping find the exact part that explained it. Finally, they all agreed it was the same giant. I was amazed as I watched them. Three weeks in and they were doing what we want learners to do! I wish I had it on video!
Next week, I will be meeting with student’s book club groups. I just created a form to use before the meeting and after. I want to model how to meet and discuss the book they read so it is more authentic. I am hoping as the year continues, I will not have to be present at the book club meeting so it will be completely student driven.
Another thing I am doing this year for reading is Flashlight Friday. On Fridays, after Reading Buddies (where my class reads with Kindergarten students) we have a 20 minute window before recess – so that has become our silently reading time with flashlights. I bought enough mini-flashlights off of Amazon for all my kids. They will crawl under desks and read their books while the room is dark. I have found I need a flashlight too because I can’t see what I need to do.
Finally, this year I had my first Book Tasting! It was so fun! My kids had hot chocolate and bagels while they were served books to look at for the year. Thanks to some parent volunteers, it went off like a charm!
So here is what is going on in my class! Hope you have a great week and drop by next week for a new teacher tip!
Karen
