READING WORKSHOP

Each Reading Workshop session will begin with a mini lesson that lasts approximately 10-15 minutes. During each mini lesson, I will introduce a specific concept. Most often this will focus on a reading strategy or skill.  The teacher will explicitly model or demonstrate the skill for the students. Students then get a chance to practice the skill or strategy on their own or with a partner. 
GUIDED READING

Guided reading is a major part of a balanced literacy program in our classroom.  During guided reading, students read as the teacher guides them through the story.  I pause to ask questions and prompt readers to use multiple reading strategies to decode words and comprehend the text.  Great discussions arise from our guided reading sessions as students learn to make connections to the text, predict what will happen and ask questions as they read, visualize events happening in the story, make inferences, and respond to stories in their reading response journals. It is also a time for the teacher to observe whether or not students are using the reading strategies taught during shared reading and teacher read-alouds. 

We will be using a Reading Response Notebook to help students keep track and respond to their reading. This is a great way for students to prepare for discussions and for me to see if they have understood our readings and strategies.

I encourage students to read for twenty minutes each night. This means the child can read independently, be read to or read to someone else. Please record the time, author and book title on the Reading Log. Our weekly assignment goal is a total of 120 minutes. ( That means they should be reading on the weekend too!)

The Reading Log is due every Monday morning. This is considered a homework assignment.

    Comprehension

We will focus on 4 major strategies:

Making Connections

Asking Questions

Visualizing

Making Predictions/Inferring