Reading Workshop is a wonderful part of the day and sometimes can be overwhelming with all that is included. I have created some posters for you to hang up as reminders for what to do and what to say in order to maximize your reading time.
Here is a recommended schedule of the reading workshop components. This sequence works very well and my students respond well to the sequence. I like to do journal writing after we read so students can write a response to what they read. We use sticky note codes while we are reading so we can remember our favorite part, a funny or surprising part, or a part that made them wonder. I really try to increase their connections by thinking while reading. This helps them remember the story and thus comprehend better.
Within reading workshop, is my favorite part of teaching first grade...guided reading!! This part of my day is amazing because I get to see their growth right in front of me. I love to encourage students to be better readers by giving them the tools in order to be successful readers. By doing so, you should teach your guided reading lessons in a meaningful sequence. Therefore, I have also created a schedule of activities to follow during your groups.
Along with the schedule, are some posters of things to talk about before, during, and after reading. This can be done during reading groups or during your Interactive Read Aloud (IRA). Here is the "Before" poster. Check out my TPT store for more information and to view the "During" and "After" posters.
Once you understand the schedule and the components of reading workshop, you can begin adding meaningful questions to enhance the comprehension of your readers. It's pointless to read a book if you can't understand what's going on. These posters will give you some actions to do with your students and questions to ask before, during, and after reading with your reading group or when doing an Interactive Read Aloud. These posters come in full size and also in quarter sheets like this one. You can print these out for parents as a resource to use at home. It's helpful for parents to have questions to ask during the reading process that are the same as those modeled in the classroom.
During the INTERACTIVE read aloud, students should be interacting with one another in order to stimulate text conversations. This helps to enhance their reading skills as well as those listening and speaking skills that are necessary in first grade. This poster will be a reminder of the interactive choices you can make during your IRA. It helps to change up the activities so your students don't get bored by doing the same activities over and over again.
There has been a huge push for students to think critically and to create their own ideas in order to have a better understanding of what they're learning. According to the revised Bloom's Taxonomy, students should be analyzing, creating, and evaluating. In order to increase higher levels of thinking while reading, you can practice these "Higher Order Thinking Skills" (HOTS) by asking deep comprehension questions. When students can find a simple answer in the text or remember that the characters name was Henry, they are answering lower level questions that doesn't require a lot of brain power. We want students to think deeply about the texts they are reading or listening to. Those low level knowledge questions like, "Who were the characters?" or "Where were they?" do not help students think deeply. It merely skims the surface of their comprehension of the text and also the world around them. We want students to make connections with the text by evaluating why the characters did a certain thing or acted a certain way. These questions will help your questioning techniques in order to increase reading comprehension.
When you assign nightly reading for your students to complete, you can use these cute coloring reading logs to make recording their books a little more fun. You can also use these reading logs in the classroom to keep track of books read during silent reading.
I have provided two different reading log designs for you to choose from with 16 different themes.
You can choose from: Option 1 - Students will read a book and color the picture or Option 2 - Students will read for x amount of minutes and then color a picture. I like option 2 because it can be differentiated.
The 16 themes included in this download are:
Polar Bears
Hearts
Valentine
St. Patrick's Day
Birds
Beach
Ocean
Farm Animals
Monsters
Halloween
Flies (Insects)
Fall
Space
Turkeys
Santa/Christmas
Winter
I hope these reading workshop resources will be helpful for you to use in your classroom. To download any of the posters, please visit my TPT store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Michelle-Mcelhinny
If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them. Do you follow the same format for reading workshop or do your do something different? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Sorry for such a long post! My brain has been on break for way too long and I absolutely needed to release some built up sharing. Thanks for listening/reading.
Enjoy the rest of your week!!
