Readers' workshop ideas and practices

Creating meaning in a readers' workshop

Sheryl V Taylor; Dennis W Nesheim

Principal Leadership; Oct 2001; 2, 2; Wilson Education Abstracts

Pg. 47

Ideas from the article and my connections:

-Emerging readers can go back and to their early literacy days and reflect on the experience because they didn’t learn to read during those times.  By examining that time period, they can identify their current feelings and attitudes about reading. 

-I love the idea that students who are older but still are emergent readers can read low level books that are just right for them to younger emergent readers.  They typically don’t read these books because they fear being mocked by their peers.  With this strategy, they can “save face” by using the excuse that they are being paired with younger students.  Essentially they are “helping” the younger students when if fact they are benefiting as well.   This is a strategy that I can use with my 3^rd and 4^th graders.  I can have them practice reading low level books so they can read them with my kindergarten students.

-Readers workshops are student focused which is rooted in the constructivist learning theory.  Students are given time to read books of their choice with a chance to share about what they have read. 

-Readers workshops have a structure to them.  Students must practice using reading strategies while reading their self-selected books.  Mini-lessons are also a major part of the readers’ workshop.  During the mini-lesson, the teacher addresses the needs of the student either alone or in a small group.  They also spend time setting goals. 

-Students can build community with other readers by interacting with text during book shares.  Connections can be made by using story maps, Venn diagrams, graphic organizers, and diaries.

The Seven Structures of Best Practice Teaching

By following the seven structures of best practice teaching, classroom learning will have a huge effect on student's overall learning and growth.  Here are some strategies that stand out to me.

-All best practices are student centered, replacing teacher to student learning.  The teacher must take a less predominant role which; thus, there needs to be a balance between student-centered activities and teacher directed lessons.  Set aside time for student centered learning and make teacher directed learning more meaningful.

-During reading by using text coding, marking up the text can be the most simple, practical, and widespread thinking tool that real-life readers use.  Symbols can be used to help student notice their responses quickly.  The insert system, INSET TEXT CODES, looks like this:

check mark = confirms what you thought

x = contradicts what you thought

? = raises a question

?? = confuses you

* = seems important

! = is new or interesting

-Classroom Workshop:  When focusing on literacy, the most important strategy is the reading-writing workshop.  Students choose their own topics that they want to write and read about.  Instead of the teacher telling about reading and writing, the students actually DO their own reading and writing.  Workshops are about providing choice. 

AR/Classroom application:   These practices are all strategies that can be implemented into the classroom to get results for an action research project.  I like the one-on-one conferencing with students where I listen and ask questions.  I could put this practice into place in the fall in my 3^rd grade classes.  They could choose their own books, write in academic journals, and reflect on and set goals for learning.  I could track each student’s growth and learning by using reflective assessment.  I could also survey them before and after to see how they found the practices of choosing books and directing their own learning.

Praxis

Will providing phonological awareness intervention to Kindergarten students improve literacy skills?

According to research found in in the article, Development of Phonological Awareness, phonological awareness is critical for learning to read in alphabetic languages like English. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize, discriminate, and manipulate the sounds in words.  This exact research led me to perform an action research project in my classroom that involved kindergarten students who had not reached proficiency in the area of phonological awareness.  I found this project to be of utmost importance due to the research I read in the article, The Importance of Phonemic Awareness in Learning to Read, which states that phonemic awareness is a critical skill for learning to read.  Phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for learning to read, and if the young reader fails to acquire it, they will struggle with reading throughout their years of educational learning.  Consequently, I set out to see if I could bring my kindergarten students up to benchmark before the year concluded.  I found this intervention plan to be effective and I will definitely continue the practice next fall. 

“Where attention goes, there energy goes!”

As I have journeyed through my life, I have outwardly observed my inner-self become more intentional about why and how I live my life.  I have created positive energy flow by finding the positive in my life.  I have been purposeful about living simply and have resisted the urge to surround myself with constant distractions.  These actions fall in line with the principle of intention. In order for me to stay committed to living simply, I have had to give my constant attention to the practice.  There are so many things in life that challenge the ability to live simply; yet, by being focused and committed I have been able to stay on course.  This ability to attend falls in line with the principle of attention. 

The principle of intention is purposeful action in life that is generated from the mind, body, and/or spirit.  Likewise, the principle of attention gives the ability to direct or focus the energy that is generated mentally physically and/or spiritually. When personal energy is focused it affects others by causing their energy to be focused in the same ways.  A perfect example is found in the saying, “What you give out is what you get back.”  Upon reading both chapters on intention and attention, it is obvious to see how the two connect to one another.  One of my favorite bible quotes was used as an example of intention brought about by attention, “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.”  Years ago I helped plan and speak at a youth retreat with the treasure theme.  The focus was on living a Godly life in order to bring about good.  This has always been my focus/attention as I have traveled through the past 20 years.   I believe evil or negativity challenges us or distracts us from being grounded in who we are.  The author says, “Many leaders suffer from intermittent attention deficit disorder because the world around them conspires to distract their attention and to rob them of focus and because things come at leaders from all directions.”  These distractions are the forces of evil/negativity that work against what is good and positive.  By being surrounded by positive people, who have the similar intentions and focus, we can live a three dimensional life full of depth.  In turn, we will not only be affective but will affect others in authentic life-giving ways.

Blog 2 for week of June 1-7

(This is a copy of my blog from last week with additional infomation as a follow up on the bottom.  I added articles that I read throughout this past year that back up my adaptations that have taken place.  I added ways I have and will continue on in my adaptation cycle.)

ADAPTATIONS

According to the Wikipedia site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation, “the definition of an adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection.   All adaptations help organisms survive in their ecological niches.^[14] These adaptive traits may be structural, behavioral or physiological.”  Adaptations can be easily understood in biology; yet, there are other areas in life that the same conceptual understandings can be applied to better acknowledge the evolutionary process.  The cycle of a teacher (organism) as learner (evolving) brings about enlightenment that transcends the classroom into communities (ecological niches).   This enlightenment has been brought about by the exploration of theory, concepts, strategies, reflections, and collaboration.  The adaptive traits that have been impacted include structural (the foundation of enquiry and discovery), behavioral (what can be seen or manipulated in teaching and learning), and physiological (how learning is carried out in the living system).  

The first trait that has been impacted in my educational evolution is structural.  How I think about learning is being completely transformed.  Prior to my quest for higher education, I thought about teaching in a simple way.  I am the teacher, you are the learner, and I will impart my knowledge onto you.  You will learn facts and tell it back to me either through a worksheet or test.  My evolution started when I walked through the doors of higher education.  I started by reading and reflecting on the Principles of Learning and the Lasallian Mission.  I was opened up to the world of learning for myself rather than for an outside force; gone was performing tasks in order to get a grade.  Finally I was free to read, reflect, practice, and question.   I continue to find my own thirst for knowledge influencing my pace of discovery.   The next trait that has been evolving is behavioral.  How I see and manipulate my learning is undergoing a transformation.   Changing my language to more of a constructivist approach, writing a review of literature which promotes research, pondering praise vs. encouragement, and analyzing action research data are all the actions behind my transformation.   Learning cannot stop with just reflecting, the process must include the act of changing in order to evolve into something deeper.  Others must witness the change in behavior.  For example, moving from “Good Job” to “tell me about it” is a transformation that can be witnessed.   The last adaptive trait that is being impacted is physiological.  How a range of actions impact my learning in my classroom has been evolving.  By implementing best practices in reading, by integrating “high yield” instructional strategies, and by using the backward design approach to planning I have found my students growing and developing deeper connections.  Different from my past, now I am looking for ways to facilitate student learning by exploring concepts in order to build essential understanding.  I think about where the students are at and start there rather than using standards as the starting point.  Also, by having a newfound global understanding of units that we have been studying for years, I have transformed my reading groups from reciting facts to higher level thinking.  

Clearly, the cycle of adaptation in teaching is enlightening.  The cycle starts with discovering new theories of learning, moves to seeing and manipulating learning, and ends by impacting the learning cycle of others.  This evolutionary process is happing to me as I journey through higher education.  The process has and will continue to allow me to bring adaptations to my own teaching and learning.

Resources to keep the cycle of ADAPTATION alive and well:

Environment/Relationships:  Reading and reflecting on The Principles of Openness, Unique Gifts and Talents, Gratitude, and Intention have had been key influences in my adaptation cycle this past year. I started by trying to build trust and connections with our staff at staff meetings.  Staff members were put into community groups focusing on building trust and openness.  Meetings were transformed into Community Gatherings.  In my classroom I focused on finding gratitude within my days teaching and I was intentional with welcoming the kids. I worked tirelessly on my attitude towards the students I found more difficult to connect with.  Another area of high interest was the praise vs encouragement reading and discussions we had.  Lastly, reading What are Rituals? and reflecting/remembered from my own education has helped me identify the areas I found to be important to me.  Writing my own principles of learning is something I know will be carried on in my classroom because they are rooted in my past.

Instruction (how I teach):  Reading Look Before you Leap about the constructivism theory of learning is helping me to transform my classroom by my words and actions. 

Discipline/Content Area, This will be a slow process but one I have already begun as shown above. The readings What is a Matter of Understanding and Concept Based Teaching and Learning both are providing me with background understanding in order to develop lessons using the Backward Design approach.  I have one exploratory learning design complete and I plan on finishing 4 more throughout the next 6 months.  I also spent the year reading about best practices in reading focusing on Phonemic Awareness.  I have also implemented sight word teaching in my daily routine.

Assessment:  Many ideas can be found in 25 Quick Formative Assessments several of which I have implemented this year.  I also have begun to explain to the students what it is I’m looking for when I do perform formative assessments.  These ideas came from the concept based teaching and learning along with backward design. 

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Blog 1 for the week of June 1-7

How have I changed and grown this year as a teacher?

Environment/relationships:  This past year I have been very aware of my relationships with my students.  I realized while I was blogging every week about my teaching, I spent most of my time writing about my feelings, relationships, and connections with the kids.  Now, I am so aware of how my actions affect my students. I consciously keep in mind what I say to my students, how I feel towards them, and what bothers me throughout the week.  I have found that I use much less praise and am choosing my words in an encouraging way.  I also realize that when I have inner reactions towards kids, they pick up on the energy I give off.  Thus, I am focusing on what things bother me.  I have found the things that I react to now were the exact ways I behaved as a child and the exact things I said as a child.  Now that I have been able to make my connections to the past, I have begun to change my thinking as soon as I feel myself reacting to the students; consequently, I have found myself being able to be positive and loving most of the time instead of some of the time.

Instruction (how you teach):  Once again, I am much more informed on how I teach my students.  Instead of my imparting my knowledge on them, I have begun to be more of a facilitator, letting the students direct where the learning will take us.  I start with what they know and where they are at and let the questioning and discussions come from them.  I also let them know what we are doing in class and why.  In the past I would give them an assessment and they wouldn’t know why.  Now I explain to them what I am looking for and that it is OK if they don’t know what it is or how to do it.  I assure them I want to know what they know so we can plan from there.  They have been really relaxed and I have observed them falling fearlessly into our learning together.  This is not what I was planning on but I actually had students tell me they weren’t going to read this summer because they want to have me again next year.  In 10 years I’ve never had anyone say that to me.  Obviously they are connecting to my new approach to the classroom and I’m glad they feel comfortable BUT oh my. I can see this approach really does affect the students in a positive way.

Discipline/content (what you teach):  I had a chance at the end of the year to change what I teach by taking a unit in the reading curriculum and creating a backward design.  I was amazed at how much more focused I was while learning with the students and keeping a focus on the essential understanding.   Instead of just telling them we were going to do a unit on “….”, I let them know we were going to explore and investigate “….” Their understandings were not only considered first in the planning but the starting point and then moving from there.  I also changed some of my reading strategies.  I researched, reflected on, and implemented early literacy skills needed to be a strong reader.  I most recently have read, reflected on and implemented some best practices in reading.  I appreciate being more informed in my teaching because when I sit in meetings, talk with parents, and lead small groups I am a much more confident and prepared advocate for students.

Assessment:  Since I started teaching I have always been a “data” junky, in part because I have to use multiple assessments to qualify students for Title 1.  I have spent hundreds of hours poring over screeners like AIMSweb and diagnostic assessments like MAPS and MCA’s.  Slowly, I am beginning to see that these types of assessments take much time away from the classroom and aren’t always a good reflection of the total child.  I am realizing that a lot of classroom time is devoted to “teaching to the test”.  Kids are being presented with short reading passages along with being asked fact based multiple choice questions.  I now see how superficial this kind of testing can be.  Now, I much prefer formative assessments.  I have started to recognize that these types of assessments provide so much more information for me as a teacher.  I can truly keep the student at the center of my designing because I am so much more informed about where they are at.  I love telling the students I am not grading anything.  I only want to know what they know.  They relax and they stop looking at their neighbor’s paper.  They can see I only want to know about them, keeping their best interests in mind.  I can clearly see that trust is being built between us.  I now can be an advocate for assessments that are useful and give life to my teaching.