My district decided to continue using our Storytown series. This meant a lot of meetings during the summer and on Mondays (we don't have school on Mondays) to align it to CCSS. There are a lot of gaps that we have to fill in, so I use my workshop time to do it.
While students are completing activities at other centers, I am working with small groups of 4-6 students. I used their DIBELS, STAR, and Triumph data to group them.
When I first started using workshop, I tried to teach the skills while also teaching the reading story for the week. It took us two days of reading and answering questions to get through the story and we didn't have much time for anything else. So, in order to save a little time, I revamped the center activities. Students either listen to or read the weekly story and answer questions before they come to the teacher led center.
Sometimes we have workshop at the rug, using the Promethean board.
Other times we have workshop at the teacher table.
This is a sample of some of the things we use during workshop time.
When they come to me, we do a few different activities, depending on the skill for the week. One thing we do every day is review vocabulary. Then, we review the questions from the story that they answered in the reading center. After that, we read a small part of a leveled reader or passage from readworks.org or Triumph Learning. I use this passage to teach their weekly skills. I have found it easier because students are doing this activity on their level. They feel more confident in their ability to answer and ASK questions, and they are more engaged in learning. I am able to focus more on my students' individual needs, and therefore am reaching more students.
I hope this series helped you understand more about my workshop model for teaching. I don't use the traditiional model, but feel it is very important for you to do what is best for YOUR kids!
Check out my TPT store for my Reading Workshop lesson planner freebie.
Reading Workshop Sample Lesson Plans
No comments:
Post a Comment