Lesson 1 Reading Workshop: What Do Readers Do

Lesson 1 Reading workshop: What do readers do/ What’s true for me about reading?

Connect: Today we are going to talk about what readers do. We are also going to discover and think about what is true for us as readers.

Teach: I want you to think about that in your head for a few seconds. We are going to start a chart and all year we can add as we learn new things that we do as readers. I want you to start naming some things that readers do. I am going to chart them on our anchor chart. Since this is the first day, the chart might look something like this.  Read the whole time  Sound out words  Use reading strategies  Look for chunks  Think as you read  Don’t get distracted/Pay attention to text

We were able to list a lot of reader characteristics. (This chart will grow all year long as they learn more tools that readers use.) I now want us to think about who you are as a reader. There are some things that are true for me about reading.

What’s true for me about reading By: Katie Strickland -Picture books teach me lessons about life and I love to read them over and over -I became a better writer by reading. -I love nonfiction. I read more nonfiction than any other genre in the summer. -I love books that allow me to create a world view. -I don’t enjoy reading mystery books. -I like reading when it is quiet. -I don’t like to read aloud. It is hard for me to focus.

Active engagement: I want you to open up your workshop notebooks to the first page. I want you to write “What’s true for me about reading”. Once you have done that I want you to either list or write it in paragraph form at least one thing that is true for you about reading. Give students a minute to come up with this. Have them turn and talk with their partner about what they wrote down.

Link: We have been talking today about what we know to be true about reading. What’s true for you? How does it help you as a reader? I want you to think about what is true for you about reading and continue to write it on the first page of

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore your thinking section in your reader’s notebook. Find a quiet spot in the room and work on this.

*After workshop have some share if they want *Today there will be no reading. The focus is building a community of readers.

*This lesson was taken from Notebook Connections by Aimee Buckner

Lesson 2: Rules for Reading Workshop

Connect: Yesterday we talked about who we are as readers. Today we are going to look at the rules for reading workshop

Teach: (before this lesson students need to know certain workshop procedures that you cover the first day of school: book bins, carpet behavior and turn and talk.)

Reading workshop is something that will go on in our classroom everyday. There are certain rules that we need to make sure that we follow. Chart the rules on an anchor chart. The students will help you create the rules. Your job as teacher is to drive the questions. What should be taking place after we leave the carpet? Read the whole time What kind of voice should we have? Quiet voices when independent reading. Mini-lesson is the first part of workshop Lets talk about how we should look during this time? (listening, sitting still by your turn and talk partner, eyes on teacher or on partner during partner discussions, NO Fake Reading, find a quiet reading spot after mini-lesson to read, talking is not allowed during the independent reading time unless my teacher allows it, during share time I am expected to share with my turn and talk partner.)

Our rules are in place, so that we can become better readers. If you understand these rules and think that you can follow them, I want you to sign our chart.

Active Engagement: Have them sign the chart that we created so they know what is expected.

Link: Today we have learned the rules for reading workshop. When you go back to your seat to read today, I want you to think about what our room should look like and sound like during independent reading.

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore Lesson 3: Reading Workshop - Just right books

Connect: Today I am going to teach you how to pick out a just right book using the five finger rule.

Teach: Has anyone ever read Goldilocks and the three bears? Have students tell you what they remember about the story from beg-middle-end.

After the class retells: Remember in the story how Goldilocks went through all of the porridge, chairs, and beds, until she found one just right. How do we know it was just right? (Discuss with class) Reading is the same way. We don’t want a book too hard or too easy, we need it just right and on our level. Today I am going to show you a way to make sure you are reading a just right book. Create the following anchor chart (normally charts are created with students. This one is not because it is new information. You are teaching them this.)

Choosing a just right book -Pick a book -Find a page -Start reading silently -Each time I don’t know a word hold up a finger -If you have 5 fingers up by the end of the page say goodbye. You can come back to it later in the year.

0-1 too easy 2-3 ok 4 It will be a challenge 5 say goodbye

Active Engagement: Pass out a hand to each student and have them glue in notebook. Give them a copy of the anchor chart to glue in also. (Have these printed out before. That will save time in mini-lesson.) When they get done have them turn and talk to their partner and explain how they are going to choose a just right book using the five finger rule.

Link: Picking a just right book is a skill that all readers must grasp. Today I want you to practice using the five finger rule on your book and see if it is just right. Everyone must have a just right book today. (Make sure they know that you are going to go around and check and make their book is just right. All you are going to do while they read is go around and have them prove that they are reading a just right book.)

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore *** You can even have them sign the anchor chart that you created in the mini- lesson. This will help in keeping them accountable in their reading. They know what is expected.

Lesson 4: Reading Workshop - Stamina

Connect: Have you ever tried to run a race and gotten tired halfway around the track and couldn’t finish? Why do you think that happened? (You want them to say because you were out of shape, weren’t prepared, or didn’t practice) I couldn’t go out and run 5 miles without practicing everyday and getting in shape to run 5 miles. If I went out and said I am going to run 5 miles today without any practice or training, I probably would quit by the first mile. Does anyone know what stamina is? Today I am going to teach you how we are going to build our stamina.

Teach: Stamina is the power to endure an activity for a length of time. Endurance and strength are part of building stamina. In order to be an effective reader, we have to build our stamina. We are going to be reading everyday for 25-30 minutes. In order to be able to endure that activity for that long we have to build our stamina. How do you think we can do that? (Let them tell you) Practice! We have to practice. In reading we have to build our stamina because it keeps us from fake reading. We want to make sure we grow as readers.

Active Engagement: Tell your partner how long you think you can read today independently without getting distracted. After they turn and talk tell them I think we can do 15 minutes. Get them pumped about building their stamina. Send them out to try to read for 15 minutes straight —without getting distracted. Encourage them to read the whole time without fake reading.

Link: Now that you are ready to work on your stamina. I am going to send you off to read for 15 minutes. I want you to also keep in my mind the rules that we learned yesterday.

*Send them off to read-When you come back down to the carpet for share time- have them tell their partner what they felt during that time. Were they successful? Was it hard? Did they get distracted? Could they have lasted longer? Remind them that the rest of the year will be longer than 15 minutes but in order for us to work up to the 25-30 we need to take it a day at a time. With younger grades you might try adding five minutes each day….15,20, 25 until they build stamina.

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore Upper grades shouldn’t have to do this. You should be able to do one day of 15 minutes and then 25-30 minutes after that.

Lesson 5: Fake reading

Connect: Today I am going to teach you about fake reading and how readers can avoid doing this.

Teach: Fake reading is something that has been happening for years in schools. Last year one of my students told me that they had made it all the way to fifth grade without ever finishing a book. She thought she could make it another year. I told her how sorry I was that she had managed to fake read all throughout elementary. I told her I knew what that felt like because I read a ton when I was in elementary and middle school and lost the love in high school. It wasn’t until college that I regained that love for reading. I had fooled people just like she was doing and that was one of the saddest parts of my life because I had missed out on many great books. I told her I hoped that didn’t happen to her. This student had managed to fake read all the way through elementary and didn’t understand what she was missing out on. By the middle of September she had found a book that interested her. I sat down and talked with her about her book and she knew everything about it. I knew that she was truly reading because of our book conversation. When I left she finished the last chapter. As soon as I sat down, do you know what she did? She yelled. “I did it! I did it!” “I finished my first book.” We all clapped because we knew how she felt about reading. The rest of the year, I never had to worry about her fake reading. She found a book that interested her and read the whole thing.

Active Engagement: I want you all to look at the poster I am going to hang up in our classroom. It says “This is a no fake reading zone”. I want you to turn to your partner and tell them whether or not you are going to help make this classroom a no fake reading zone. It is going to take our whole community to build this. It can’t start with one person. We all have to be on board. Have them turn and talk.

Link: Now that we learned about fake reading and how it can tear us down as readers, I want you to go read the whole entire time today. Make sure you are thinking as you are reading.

Lesson 6: Reading Logs

Resources: Students will need the book they are currently reading in reading workshop along with a clipboard and pencil for this lesson.

Connect: Ok, today readers I want to talk to you about some maintenance issues that we need to know now so that we practice it all year long!

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore Teach: Today, all I want to teach you how to fill out our Reading Logs. These reading logs are going to be so important and it’s going to be really cool at the end of the year when you look back to your reading log from this time in August! You are going to find that you read tons of books! Ok, so I have this Reading Log from one of my students last year. Basically, she recorded every minute and page every time she picked up her book! Today after lunch we read 10 pages in Boy Overboard, so this is how I would record what we read. (Demonstrate on transparency or with a document camera how to appropriately fill out the reading log.)

Active Engagement: I want you to practice filling out your own chart. So I asked you to bring the books you have been reading down to the carpet. I want you to record what you read yesterday in your reading logs right now. (Give students a few minutes to do this.) Now turn and tell your partner how much you read yesterday. I bet some of you didn’t even realize how much you read yesterday!

Link: Ok, so today and for the rest of the year, anytime you pick up your reading workshop book you will need to record what time you started, and what page you began on. At the end of reading time you will need to record how much you read and how long you read. This is going to help me as your teacher. I will know how much you are reading and I will be able to see if the book you are reading is just right for you just by looking at your reading logs! So today as you get into your reading time I want you to start it off by filling out your reading logs.

Lesson 7: Metacognition

Connect: Put 10-15 random objects on a tray. Have a student carry the tray around the group circle while everyone “thinks and notices” the objects. Have the tray carrier leave to go to the hallway, and ask students about the tray. THEN ask about the tray carrier – what was he/she wearing? What color were her/his eyes? What did he/she say?

Teach: (have student come back in). Today readers, I want to teach you that when reading, sometimes we pay so much attention to the words (objects) that we miss the story (tray carrier). Sometimes we get so worried about the words, or sometimes we get sleepy and lose our way, or sometimes we just aren’t focused. Readers, remember READING IS THINKING!!! When we think about our reading we call this Metacognition! I want you to watch me as I read just a moment of a book. (Model reading a book, maybe the current read aloud you are reading, and model asking questions and connections, etc…and jotting on a sticky note).

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore Active Engagement: So, I want you to practice doing this right now. I gave you sticky notes and I just want you to jot down one thing you think about as I read Boy Overboard and in a moment I will let you share it with your partner. It could be a question, or maybe you were reminded of something that happened in your life that happened to our main character, Jamal. (Read a page or 2). Now I want you to turn and tell your partner one thing you jotted down on your sticky note. Anyone want to share what you wrote down? (Let students share their thinking).

Link: I want you to think about your reading today. Maybe you have a question or maybe you have a connection with what you are reading. Write it down on a post-it to share with your partner during our share time.

Share time: Ok, I saw a lot of you jotting some things on sticky notes. I want you to turn to your partner and share one thing you wrote down as you were reading today.

Lesson 8: Monitoring Comprehension

Make a 2-column chart that says “Why Meaning Breaks Down and What to do about it?”

Connect: So the other day my husband bought me this book and I tried so hard to read it but I just couldn’t get a grasp on it. Have you ever read something and you got kind of lost in it? Turn and talk with your partner about what causes you to lose focus when you read.

Teach: So today readers I want to teach you that sometimes as a reader we really can get confused and lose our way. Sometimes our inner voice gets lost and we can’t hear it. There are a lot of reasons we get confused. Here are just a few: o The camera inside your head shuts off. o Your mind begins to wander. o You can’t remember what’s been read. o Clarifying questions that you ask are not answered. o You encounter a character and have no recollection of when they were introduced. So today all I want us to do is become aware of when we get lost. We will do this by using sticky notes. Watch me as I read. (Model reading a book and mark a sticky note where you get lost or confused and jot down what you did to fix it.)

Active Engagement: Did anyone notice what I was doing? Turn and tell your partner what I did when I got lost. Now turn and tell your partner what I wrote down. (Ask students to share and add to the chart the different fix up strategies a reader can use). Ok, so some of you saw me go back and reread, some of

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore you saw me stop and ask a question, some of you saw me stop and make a connection! You’re right, these are all strategies we can use to help us get back on track.

Link: Today in your independent reading I am going to give each of you two or three sticky notes. I want you to mark when you notice yourself straying, so you can use a fix up strategy that we jotted down to help you. I want you to jot down what you used to help you get back on track. I will come around to talk to you about what strategy you were using.

Lesson 9: Monitoring Comprehension

Resources: sticky notes, clipboard, pencil (at the carpet for all students). How many Days to America? By Eve Bunting

Connect: So today I want to share with you a story about a family that is forced to flee their home because solders are driving them out of their country. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to just pick up and leave my friends. I’m wondering if any of you have ever had a similar experience—had to leave your homeland or have known someone who has. Turn to each other and talk about this.

Teach: Nothing is more important that the reader’s thinking during reading. Many of you have head the term READING COMPREHENSION. Reading Comprehension is about understanding the text. In order to comprehend, readers pay attention and think about the words and ideas as they read. They carry an inner conversation with the text. It happens to me. I have a voice in my head that speaks to me as I read. The voice says different things like, “Wow, I never knew that before”, or when I’m confused I might hear something like, “Huh?—I don’t get that part”. Or when I reread I suddenly understand, I often hear, “Oh, now I get it!” As I read this story I am going to have an inner conversation with you. I will read, stop for a moment and think out loud about the voice in my head. I’ll even jot down some of that thinking on post-its. Have you ever seen fresh animal tracks in the snow or wet mud? Active readers leave tracks of their thinking just like that! They jot down quick notes to hold and remember their thoughts. And these thinking tracks show us that the reader has been there even after the reading is over. When we really pay attention to the inner conversation and leave tracks of our thinking, we understand and learn much more from our reading.

Model this: Let me read a little. I’m going to think out loud, showing you this inner conversation. Notice what I am doing. I read the first sentence on the first page, showing the picture after I read. “It was nice in our village. Till the night in October when the soldiers came.”

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore These two sentences really contrast. One minute all is well, and then the next minute the soldiers are in town. Already, my inner voice is speaking. I’m wondering why the soldiers came. I’m also wondering if this is war. Sometimes my inner voice asks a question about what I am reading. I also think soldiers must have been really terrifying.

So I’m going to jot this down “Why did the soldiers come? Terrifying. Is this about war?”

I’m going to keep reading. “My mother hid my little sister and me under the bed. When I peered out I could see my mother’s feet in their black slippers and the great, muddy boots of the soldiers.”

Look - the mom knew those soldiers were dangerous. That’s why she hid the children. This is a really brave mom. I’m going to jot down some more of what I’m thinking. On sticky note I will write: “The mom knew soldiers were dangerous. Hid children to protect them. He is a brave man.”

Let’s read the next page: “When they were gone my father said: We must leave right now. Why? I asked. Because we don’t think the way they think, my son. Hurry! He wouldn’t let us take anything but a change of clothes. My mother cried, leave all my things? My chair where I sat to nurse our children. The bedcover that my mother made, every stitch by hand? ‘Nothing,’ my father said. Just money to buy our way to America.”

Now my inner conversation is saying a lot. This reminds me of the hard life my grandmother lived. She moved all over with my granddad and they didn’t have a lot of money. I’ll jot this down. “Reminds me of my grandmother’s hard life.”-TS connection.

Let’s look back at my tracks. Notice that I didn’t write everything I was thinking- just the important things, like my questions, my ideas about the characters, and my connections.

Active Engagement: Turn to each other and talk about what we have read so far. What do you wonder? How would you feel? Does this remind you of anything?

Ok, I’m going to keep reading. I will read slowly so you can have time to jot down your own tracks on your own sticky note. Why am I asking you to jot this down? So you don’t forget! Let’s try. (Let students share at the end of some of the pages).

Link: Ok, today in your reading I want you to leave tracks of your thinking. I want you to put a star next to your favorite one so that you can share it with your partner.

by Katie Strickland and Lane Moore