Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Setting the Tone

The workshop training had five participants, so it was a small group, working out well for discussions. To start the training, I decided to use a team builder that one of my professors at Boise State University used for a writing course. I started out with a ball of yarn and talked about myself as a reader and writer - sharing glimpses into my journey, areas in which I am confident, areas in which I want to grow. Then I tossed the ball of yarn to a colleague while still holding on to my piece. After each person shares, the yarn has made a web, which can be linked to the classroom community and sense of supporting each other that is vital in classrooms. Participants pull back on the yarn until it is taut to show that there needs to be a strong undergirding of support, both teacher to student and student to student.

I enjoyed starting the training with this activity. Though I knew each of the participants and already knew some of what they said, I also learned a lot. I bet they learned something new about me as well. Hearing them talk energized me as well as provided insights into what they might need to feel successful during the training.

Next we switched over to a discussion about current issues in literacy education, prompted by quotes excerpted from Richard Allington's third edition of What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. This opened up a lot of comments, prompted reflection, and gave us a chance to consider the big picture before zooming in to workshop teaching. While Allington does not specifically advocate for workshop teaching, I transitioned into a overview of workshop teaching by explaining that while reading the book, I noticed how many of his suggestions are apparent in workshop teaching, such as time to read, choice, focusing on building teacher capacity, and differentiated instruction. It helped create a stronger sense of the why behind workshop teaching.

I created a presentation about workshop teaching that had brief statements related to workshop philosophy. An adapted version of the presentation is below (the words are all the same, but I swapped out pictures of students because of permissions). I noticed that it sometimes takes a while to load up the full slide. If you click pause on the player until the present slide is fully loaded and then click play, it seems to run through all slides fully loaded.



The combination of a quick introduction of ourselves as readers and writers, followed by Allington's quotes that prompt thinking about the purpose of education, and an overview of workshop teaching seemed to work out well. At that point, I had participants pause to do a written reflection and have a chance to gather their thoughts before transitioning into thinking about themselves as writers.