Reading Workshop
March/April 2023
Unit 4: Boosting Reading Power
Enduring Understanding/Goals
Enduring Understanding/Goals
We can use all the strategies, or superpowers, we have learned so far all the time, even when readimg independently.
We can help others use their superpowers to read successfully through reading together, acting parts out, and playing reading games.
We can read with partners and retell our books, helping each other to read with expression and to retell in ways that show our understanding and attention to detail.
Essential Questions
How can I use strategies to read lots of books by myself and with my partner?
How can my partner and I help each other use everything we know about reading the pictures and the words?
How can my partner and I use our talk to help us think about our books, and to ask and answer questions about them?
Bend 1 - Boosting Think Power Through Picture Power
Super Readers Study Pictures to See More and Understand More
Picture Power Helps Super Readers Think about Story Elements
Super Readers Activate Picture Power to Predict
Super Readers Change Their Thinking
Picture Power Helps Super Readers Envision the Story
Bend 2 - Boosting Slider Power
Super Readers Use Picture Power to Check Their Reading
Super Readers Turbo-Boost Their Slider Power to Read Longer Words
Super Readers Look Closely at Vowels
Super Readers Recognize Letter Pairs that Represent a Single Sound
Super Readers Notice More Digraphs
Super Readers Are Flexible
Super Readers Combine Their Powers
Bend 3 - Boosting Readers’ Power to Read Words in a Snap
Super Readers Use Slider Power to Strengthen Their Power to Read Words in a Snap
Super Readers Learn More about Letters and Sounds by Studying Words They Know in a Snap
Familiar Words Can Help Super Readers Read Other Words
Super Readers Self-Assess and Practice Words They Know in a Snap
Home Learning - Supporting Super Readers
January/February 2023
Unit 3 - Super Powers
Enduring Understanding/Goals
Enduring Understanding/Goals
Students will be able to understand:
Readers have superpowers to look and point, and then read everything,
Readers take on even the hardest words.
How to bring books to life.
Essential Questions
How can I use my superpowers to look and point, and then read everything?
How can I take on even the hardest words?
How do I bring books to life?
Bend 1 - Using Super Powers to Actually Read Words: Slider Power and More
Readers Have Super Powers to Look, Point, and Read
Super Readers Decide Which Power to Use
Super Readers Look through Words from Beginning to End
Readers Think While They Read
Super Readers Fix It!
Super Readers Team Up to Give Reminders and Use Powers Together
Bend 2 - Rereading to Bring Books to Life
Super Readers Reread
Super Readers Read and Reread with Punctuation in Mind
Readers Reread to Turn Words into Words They Know in a Snap
Readers Reread to Understand the Meaning of Words
Rereading to Learn What Makes a Character Special
Readers Reread to Make Their Voices Match the Characters’ Feelings
Readers Reread to Better Understand Their Books
Bend 3 - Tapping into Every Power
Readers Rap to Practice Word-Part Power
Readers Use Little Words to Read Bigger Words
Readers Use Word Parts to Support Decoding
Super Readers Use All Their Powers
Super Readers Say and Show Who They Are
We are practicing being Super Readers!
We sit quietly with books.
We choose lots of books at a time.
We discuss books with partners.
We pay close attention to the words we are reading.
We use our pointer finger to point to words as we read.
We look at the pictures to help us make meaning.
November/December 2022
Unit 2 - Sharing Reading
Bend 1: Ready to Read
We are taking on a new challenge: reading not only the pictures, but the words. Many students will not yet have enough control of *graphophonics to read conventionally, so they will be approximating reading as they point at each word and say the word while reading pattern books in order to develop one-to-one matching and an understanding of word boundaries—important pre-reading skills.
*Graphophonic cues involve the letter-sound or sound-symbol relationships of language. Readers identifying unknown words by relating speech sounds to letters or letter patterns are using graphophonic cues. This process is often called decoding.
We use our index fingers as “pointers.”
We count and name the letters in the words we see.
We notice the first letters in words.
We use our pointers to read classroom signs, charts, and songs.
We know that each word is one word that we can tap and say.
We point to a word, and say the word.
We read books with pages that contain familiar snap words.
We notice repeating patterns in books.
We notice the letters and sounds the words.
Bend 2: Better Together
We can reading independently or with a partner, sharing a book. The listening partner follows the book closely, helping to check the reading, coaching the reader when things don’t make sense or when the reader’s pointing doesn’t match.
Partners remind each other of the snap words we’ve learned.
Partners find and practice reading snap words in books.
Partners talk about books and set goals together.
Bend 3: Giving the Gift of Reading
We learned that is is exciting to share our reading with everyone. We can read to our reading partners, our friends, our family and our stuffed animals too!
September/October 2022
English Language Arts (ELA)
Our literacy curriculum is based on Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP.) The TCRWP functions both as a think tank and a community of practice.
Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
The mission of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project is to help young people become avid and skilled readers, writers, and inquirers. They accomplish this goal through research, curriculum development, and through working shoulder-to-shoulder with students, teachers, and school leaders. The organization has developed state-of-the-art tools and methods for teaching reading and writing, for using performance assessments and learning progressions to accelerate progress, and for literacy-rich content-area instruction. The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project is regarded as a continual source of professional renewal and education.
An Introduction to Reading Workshop with Growing Kindergarten Readers
My biggest hope in the beginning of Kindergarten is for all the children to begin to build a sense of their own reading identity. If you can read your name, you are a reader! Children begin to read environmental print at home and at school and around their world such as street signs, the names of favorite restaurants, stores and toys.
“Yes, I am a reader!” They will say emphatically by the time the first unit wraps up. Most children at this time of year, pretend read, although we do not refer to it as pretend. Reading researchers consider these first attempts to “read” a book as reading. Usually children pretend read a familiar book that they have practically memorized. A few children may already be reading conventional books.
They will have authors they love, they will have books they call their favorites, and they will have friends they gather with to look at the newest addition to our classroom library or to muse over the illustrations in a book. The children will see, experience, and understand how books are filled with information and stories that they can read.
Our reading workshop began with the first unit of study - We Are Readers!
We will focus on the following predictable procedures:
• Readers focus on what they are reading.
• Book handling skills and how readers take care of books: “A book is a friend."
• How to “read” well and talk well with a partner during Private reading (independent) and Partner reading, specially how and where to sit and using “library voices.”
The following reading skills and strategies will be taught during this unit of study:
•Choosing books you like
•Using pictures and picture walks to tell what the story is about
•Correct book handling
•Sharing ideas about books with a partner
•Rereading books
Ready to Read (and Write About) the World!
We can read signs, labels , and directions in our school.
We can look at the words and think, ‘What might this say?’”
We can notice letters we recognize.
N is for Nurse.
S is for Stairs.
F is for Fire Hose.
S is for Stop.
P is for Push.
L is for Library.
Shared Reading
Shared Reading is that time in the day when we have eyes on one text, reading in sync with one other. Shared reading revolves around big books, songs, or enlarged texts written on the SmartBoard , while we point under words as the class reads in sync.
Each Monday the class is introduced to our weekly poem/song.
Our first Shared Reading was the ABC song.
We began by modeling how to point under each word as we read the text. Children take turns reading the text all week , either independently or together with the whole class.
On Fridays each child receives a printed copy of only the text, which they illustrate and keep in a Shared Reading folder.
These are the poems/songs we have read so far.
Reading Workshop
Unit 1- We Are Readers !
Essential Question
How can I learn to read books “as best I can,” both by myself and with friends, during the whole reading time?
Bend I: Reading to Learn About the World
We are developing identities as readers.
We are beginning to notice print in the world around us and think about what it might say.
Bend II: Reading Favorite Storybooks
We can read the world.
Readers walk through the world in a special way. They don’t just see things. They read things. They read names, signs, directions, and songs. They do this by looking at the words and thinking, ‘What might that say?’”
We Are Readers !
We can look.
We can think.
We can read.
We can learn.
We can read books to learn about the world.
There are different kinds of books. Some books fiction books which tell a made-up story with characters (The Three Billy Goats Gruff). Other books are non-fiction or information books which teach us something (The Beetle Alphabet Book).
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Fiction
The Beetle Alphabet Book
Non-Fiction /
Information
We can read independently and with a partner.
Private Reading
Reading partners sit back-to-back.
Read quietly all by themselves.
Post-it a favorite part to share later.
Partner Reading
Reading partners now sit side-by-side.
Take turns reading, with the book in the middle.
Share a favorite part using library voices.
Readers Read with a Partner
We reread to learn more.
We find cool parts that make us say, "Wow!"
We mark our Wow! page with a post-it.
We share why it was a Wow! page.
We point and share all we know about our Wow! page.
We can read books from cover to cover.
When readers read books, they read the cover first, then they read the first page, the next, and the next, all the way to the end.
We can reread to learn more.
When you reread, you need to remember what you already read as well as point out new things that you see.
We can reread to notice words.
As you read books again and again, you see new things each time you reread. You also start to notice the words more. You can study the words in the book using the pictures to figure out what the words might say.
We can look at the picture, remember, and read.
When you have heard a story many times, you can almost read it all by yourself. You look at the picture, remember how the story goes, and then read it to yourself, page by page. First, we read the title, look over the page, and recall the story. We read the book by saying the words we think could be written on the page. They will be approximations of the actual words, and with repeated readings will become closer to the text.
We can make the words and pictures match.
When you read an old favorite storybook you need to pay attention to what is on that page. You make your words match the book’s pictures and words. So, you need to study the page carefully.
We can use the characters’ exact words.
When you are reading an old favorite storybooks aloud, you can make the story sound great by putting in the exact words the characters say. The exact words make the characters come to life.
We can read more and more exact words.
When you read a book over and over again you try to use some of the exact words from the book. Some of the words, especially words that repeat, become words that you know by heart. They become words that you can say exactly like the book says them.
"Who's that trip trapping over my bridge?"
The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone
“Now stop!” Max said and sent the wild things off to bed without their supper. And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.
Where The Wild things Are by Maurice Sendak
We can point to and read some words in my storybook.
Find and read those familiar words in the first several pages of an old favorite, using the first letters.
"Once upon a time..."
"Little pig, little pig, let me come ."
"No, no! Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin."
We Are Storybook Readers!
We look at the pictures, remember, read!
We make the words and pictures match.
We talk like the characters.
We use words to join the pages together.
We read more and more exact words.
We find, point to, and read some of the exact words.
