At Newell Elementary and Stone Bridge Middle School, we are proud to use the Reading and Writing Workshops as instructional frameworks for our Language Arts classes. We aim to foster a lifelong love of reading and learning by creating print-rich and literature-rich environments for our students, as well as cultivating safe spaces where readers can learn and grow at their own pace.
Reading Workshop is a strategy-based instructional model of teaching reading. This means that rather than studying one “whole-class” book in particular, students learn explicit reading strategies which they can transfer to their own reading materials.
This model recognizes that within any group of students, instruction needs to be differentiated. That is, some students will be reading at grade level, while others are working toward grade level. Still others may be highly advanced readers, ready to tackle above-level material. By teaching strategies, rather than one “book,” students are able to build a tool-kit of strategies for use in whatever book matches his/her own level.
The strategies we teach are organized within specific units of study. During a fiction unit, one strategy may involve noticing how the setting of a story influences a character; another may involve developing an idea about a book’s theme, and looking for evidence to support it. Within a nonfiction unit, a strategy might involve understanding the ways nonfiction authors typically introduce unfamiliar vocabulary. Whether a student is reading a basic nonfiction book about the moon or a complex history of WWII, he/she will benefit from understanding how to learn unfamiliar vocabulary.
Another advantage of the Reading Workshop is that students may gravitate toward reading material which truly interests and engages them. That is, reading material is differentiated by interest as well as ability, often leading to an increased volume of reading. This increased volume is shown to strongly correlate with higher-level reading comprehension and vocabulary, as well as higher test scores.
Components of the Reading Workshop:
Time Component
10 minutes Read-aloud (often leads to mini-lesson)
10 minutes Mini-lesson
20-30 minutes Independent/Partner Reading, as well as Conferring, Small Group Instruction, and/or Assessment
5 minutes Share
Read Aloud: Reading Workshop typically begins with a Read-aloud. This enables the class to enjoy a shared experience around one text. This is often used as a time to model strategies employed by an experienced reader.
Mini-lesson: During the Mini-lesson, a teacher will teach a specific reading skill or strategy. In an elementary unit on Word solving, a teaching may demonstrate how to use letter-sounds to decode a word. In a middle school Historical Fiction unit, the teacher may show how an author is creating an “emotional atmosphere”—maybe an edgy nervousness on the brink of war—as well as establishing a “physical atmosphere.” The teacher may talk about/chart ways in which the author accomplishes this, then read a bit more, looking for clues to further determine how people are feeling in this time and place.
Independent Reading: Following the Mini-lesson, students will read independently, with partners, or within a club for the next 20-30 minutes. During this time, readers may apply the just-taught strategy, or perhaps another strategy in their “toolkits.”
While students are reading independently, the teacher is typically doing one of three tasks:
1. Conferring with individual students. This one-on-one time is at the heart of Reading Workshop. While conferring, the teacher is able to determine a student’s understanding of recently-taught strategies, as well as teach a new skill specific to that child’s needs. For one reader, that skill might involve using the structure and context of words to help “word-solve.” For another, it might involve identifying symbolism or extended metaphor within the text. Naturally, the lesson depends on the level of text the student is reading, as well as the particular student’s strengths and needs.
2. Facilitating a small group lesson: Some students may be "knocking on the door" of a reading level, and benefit from explicit instruction on how to handle the challenges that level will present. Others may be struggling with a similar skill—say, making predictions based on what they know about a character—and benefit from a small group lesson which re-teaches the skill from a different angle. Still others may benefit from small group work surrounding fluency or engagement. These small groups are both flexible and dynamic, continually changing to meet the evolving needs of students.
3. Assessing students' current reading levels, and ensuring they are consistently choosing books within their instructional range.
Share: Following the block of time allotted for Independent Reading, teachers will often have a “share.” During this time, students can share their successes or struggles with a particular strategy. These shares are often instructional in nature as well (for example, as students "share" how a particular text feature helped them, or ways in which they pursued a certain line of thought with respect to a character.)