What does it look like and sound like?
Reading and Writing workshop are essential components of our literacy work. Our students read and write every day, choosing topics and authors that inspire them. Through daily mini-lessons we teach students the skills and strategies they need in order to read and write effectively in a variety of genres. As you visit our classrooms you will see students actively engaged with their teachers, working collaboratively with their partners, and reading and writing with independence. You will hear students practicing emerging skills during small group lessons, generating new writing topics, reading to learn new information, working to revise their writing, and studying the work of published authors' in order to improve their own craft.
Each reading or writing lesson begins with the whole class gathered together on the rug for a mini-lesson, which is focused on a specific strategy or skill. The teacher guides students to practice that skill with the group before applying it in their independent work. Individual reading assessments throughout the year enable teachers to match every student with books at their own independent reading levels. As students work independently, the teacher meets with individuals or small groups to support students who are working on strengthening a particular component of their work. At the end of each lesson, the teacher reviews the strategy presented in the mini-lesson by highlighting some of the strategies students have used successfully.