On-going Reflections & Workshop Components

Throughout the year, I am always reflecting. This year I realized that each change in order to seek refinement is not necessarily better than previous years. Instead, I found myself reflecting on what was working better, as well as aspects that I shifted away from that I needed to weave back in. For next year I will be moving in to a mentoring role as I take a leave of absence in order to fill in as a sabbatical replacement. This summer I will be working closely with the teacher who will be teaching language arts next year. Even though we are just getting started, I am already enjoying having a chance to work as a collaborative team.


Below are some components that I told her I have realized throughout the different years are most important, which we will discuss in more detail throughout the summer. These are considered some of our starting points for dialogue. 

Focus lesson:

Each day there should be a focus lesson in either reading or writing. Depending on your schedule, you may have a focus lesson for each every day, but this all depends on the amount of time that you will have for each class period. For reading, these focus lessons might focus on aspects such as: choosing books, purposes for reading, reading strategies (modelling/think alouds)... In writing the focus lessons will vary, but Nancie Atwell's resource (Lessons that Change Writers) is great because it provides a lot of support, including suggestions with examples of what she says to her students. In general, focus lessons will be on genres, looking at mentor texts, talking about the 6 Traits (on the Oregon scoring guide), focusing on a specific area, such as leads, transitions, conclusions... There will also be focus lessons where you are guiding students through writing activities with writer's notebooks and times when you are sharing your own writing with students.

Independent Reading:

During independent reading students choose a book to read, while the teacher walks around conferring with students. I recommend starting independent reading with a status of the class (from Nancie Atwell's In the Middle) to find out the title and page that each student is on. This helps give you a quick snapshot of how students are progressing. For example, you can see if they are sticking with the same book and progressing well vs. picking up a different book each day. You can also see if they are reading the same book but making very slow progress. This is also an ideal time to have book clubs at times. We can talk about setting up book clubs later, but they are a great opportunity to create a better sense of a community of readers and to see how different students interact with the same text.

Independent Writing:

Similar to independent reading, students will all be writing while the teacher goes around to confer. In the past, at times it is hard to get students used to the idea that they need to write the whole time. They are never simply "finished". This goes back to start of the year writing workshop launch, which we can talk about more together, but students should know the expectations for workshop time and know that though they have options, they should always be writing. I typically have one writing that is due that is the first priority, such as a personal narrative or an imaginative short story, but students know other options in case they finish that. You can also start independent writing with a status of the class to see which phase of writing students are starting with and the topic of their writing. This helps to see trends in their progress and growth over time.

Word Study:

I did not end up doing word study this year because of the time crunch, but I realized many students still need it, so I recommend finding a way to weave it back in this year. Again, we can talk about this when we meet.

Everyday Editing:

This is a way to focus on conventions of writing in context, but it also extends to other traits. This can be incorporated into writing focus lessons or something separate on its own. I can show you the Jeff Anderson resource texts for this from Stenhouse.

Read Aloud:

Read aloud was another area that I did not do consistently all year long for the first time this year because of some challenges with the amount of time and with switching between languages. I think that Nancie Atwell's idea of sharing a poem a day together would be a great way to have the balance of sharing a text. I can explain more about this as well as other read aloud options that I have tried.

Reading Response Letters:

Students can complete reading response letters weekly either with time provided in class or as homework. I have done both, and I can talk to you about advantages/disadvantages of both. This has seemed to be the best way to have consistent insights into students as readers. I can share with you the rubric that I used this year for their reading response, as well as talk about logistics. You can either respond to all of their letters or you can do a combination of teacher/peer responses. 

Writing Sharing/Celebrations:

This is an area that I consistently do not do as well as I would like to as schedules seem too packed, but we can talk about ideas to make sure that students are sharing and celebrating their writing on a more consistent basis. It is also fun to do class books, and when I have done this, students have enjoyed reading each other's writing during reading workshop.

What have you found to be some of the most essential components of your classrooms?