Procedures in the Reading and Writing Workshop Classroom

On each day of the week, we'll focus our 1st 5 minutes on the following themes except Fridays when we spend a whole period on Test-Prep techniques and strategies.

Mondays: Author's Chair Day- Students share their 30 seconds to a minute reading of the book selected from their reading during the weekend. The readling passage needs to relate to the skill taught from the previous week.

Tuesdays: Reader's Reponse Day- Students select their best response they have written and share with the class ( 30 seconds to a minute). Name the skill of your focus.

Wednesdays: Character Talk Day - Students discuss the main character of the book they are reading. Must include direct quotation from the book when discussing the character.

Thursdays: My Favorite Quotation Day- Copy your favorite line from your book in your notebook. Explain why you chose this sentence and how it gives audience the insight into the book you are reading.

Fridays: Test-Prep Day- Word Study, Quiz on the skills taught during the past week, reading comprehension quiz

Step 1: Become familiar with library rules.
Library Rules

  1. Library is open for the first 10 minutes of independent work time.
  2. Check out 1 book at a time.
  3. Keep book for 2 weeks
  4. You are responsible for lost, destroyed, or stolen books. You must replace them.
  5. See library monitors to sign out or return books

Step 2: Make a good book choice.
Strategies for Making Good Book Choices

  1. Look at the covers—which ones grab your attention?
  2. Look for titles that interest you.
  3. Pick a book by an author you know and love
  4. Pick a book in a genre you like.
  5. Read the back of the book.
  6. Read the first two pages to see if makes sense and grabs your attention.
  7. Read the first two pages to see if the words feel comfortable.
  8. Ask, “Does this seem interesting to me?”
  9. Get a recommendation from a friend.
  10. Look at book reviews.
  11. See if it’s won any awards or prizes.
  12. Check if it answers any questions that you have—something you have always wanted to learn more about.

Step 3: Classroom Procedures

  1. Check out a book.
  2. Start independent reading.
  3. Take notes – make sure you annotate using post-it (use as many as you want)
  4. Share with partner (notes, what you have read, written)
  5. Transfer – write a reflection (one paragraph) on what you have read.

Become a Proficient Reader
Keeping Focused as a Reader

  1. Make a goal—for example, read one chapter.
  2. Write a sticky note (post-it) when you feel yourself drifting.
  3. Have a break--book or magazine that you can switch to when you feel you’re losing focus.
  4. Use your bookmark to create a goal for your reading
  5. Try to picture the book in your head like a movie.
  6. Put yourself in the characters’ shoes to get lost in the book.

Rules for Writing Workshop

  1. Save everything: it’s all a part of the history of the piece of writing, and you never know when or where you might want to use it.
  2. Date and label everything you write to help you keep track of what you’ve done (e.g., notes, draft #1, brainstorming).
  3. When a piece of writing is finished, clip everything together including the drafts, notes and lists, editing checksheet, and peer conference form, and file it in your permanent writing folder.
  4. Record every piece of writing you finish on the form in your permanent writing folder. Collect data about yourself as a writer, look for patterns and take satisfaction in your accomplishments over time.
  5. Write on one side of the paper only and always skip lines or type double-spaced. Both will make revision, polishing, and editing easier and more productive for you.
  6. Draft your prose writing in sentences and paragraphs. Draft your poems and lines and stanzas. Don’t go back into mess of text and try to create order. Format as you go.
  7. Get into the habit of punctuating and spelling as conventionally as you can while you’re composing: this is what writers do.
  8. Understand that writing is thinking. Do nothing to distract me or other writers. Don’t put you words into our brains as we’re struggling to find our own.
  9. When you confer with me, use as soft a voice as I use when I talk to you: whisper
  10. When you need to confer with peers, use a conference area and record responses on a peer-conference form so the writer has a reminder of what happened.
  11. Maintain your proofreading list and refer to it when you self-edit.
  12. Self-edit in a color difference from the print of your text and complete and editing checksheet to show what you know about convention of writing.
  13. Write as well and as much as you can.

Rules for Reading Workshop

  1. You must read a book. Magazine, newspaper, and comic books don’t have the chunks of text you need to develop fluency, and they won’t help you discover who you are as a reader of literature.
  2. Don’t read a book you don’t like. Don’t waste time with a book you don’t love when there are so many great ones out there waiting for you.
  3. If you don’t like your book, find another one. Browse, ask me or a friend for a recommendation, or check the “Favorite Books” list or display.
  4. Record every book you finish or abandon on the form in you reading folder. Collect data about yourself as a reader, look for patterns, and take satisfaction in your accomplishments over time.
  5. Understand that reading is thinking. Do nothing to distract me or other readers. Don’t put your words into our brains as we’re trying to escape into the worlds created by the authors of our books.
  6. Read (and write in your reading journal) the whole time.
  7. Read as well and as much as you can.