Differentiation Made Easy:
Teaching with a Workshop Approach
Teaching with a Workshop Approach
Websites
A Reader's Community: A Reader's Workshop Blog
For upper elementary teachers wanting to do a reader's workshop, this blog is a must visit. It gives you a peek inside what an upper elementary teacher can do for their lessons in a workshop format.
The Daily Cafe
A lot of my workshop ideas came from these two fabulous teachers, lovingly referred to as the two sisters. There is a wealth of information on this site, some of it is free and some areas you need to pay a membership fee. I feel the small fee is worth the price for the incredible amounts of video, downloads and advice you get from these gals. Either way, you should sign up for their FREE weekly email.
Beth Newingham's Classroom
This is a superstar 3rd grade teacher whom I have gotten many fantastic ideas from with how to set up my classroom and the management aspects of a workshop classroom. There are a lot of downloads and pictures to help you out on your way to setting up your workshop classroom.
Angela Bunyi's Classroom
An amazing fourth grade teacher who also successfully implements a workshop classroom. Many videos, pictures and downloadables. She along with Beth Newingham are Scholastic teacher advisors. Need I say more?!
Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshots
Here is a website for the lower elementary teachers, but much of it can still apply to whatever grade you teach really. She has a lot of pictures of how she organizes her classroom for the workshop atmosphere. For those wanting ideas on organization...which is critically important in a workshop classroom...this is a great resource!
Jennifer Myers Reader's and Writer's Workshop
When I was first researching about the workshop model of instructional delivery, I came across this little gem of a website. Jennifer Myers is a lower elementary teacher, but you get video of her teaching minilessons and conferencing with her students. It is nice to see a teacher in action so it is not so scary to try it out yourself.
Starting Writer's Workshop
Afraid of what to teach for those first few minilessons to catapult your writing year? This website has mapped out some crucial first minilessons to teach your students at the beginning of the year so you can dip your toes in the writer's workshop waters before diving in yourself with your own created minilessons!
WritingFix
Those folks who came up with the six traits of writing produced a jam-packed website with ideas all over the place. If you ever need a minilesson idea or book to use for a minilesson, this site is for you.
Anchor Charts
In any classroom, anchor charts are a way to anchor children's learning to the minilessons from whole group instruction. This site provides a lot of examples of different anchor charts for a reading, writing and math workshop classroom.
Downloads
| reading-bbdecodingposters.doc |
This is a set of posters for decoding strategies to teach your readers. Can be used for any grade level. You are supposed to hang the posters with the beanie baby that corresponds to the strategy, to give kids a visual reminder of how to utilize the decoding strategy effectively.
| reading-bbcomprehensionposters.pdf |
This is a set of posters for comprehension strategies to teach your readers. Once again, there is a beanie for each strategy that you use with the poster for a visual reminder of using the strategy when reading.
| response_journal_requirements.pdf |
This is a resource that students keep in their reading workshop binder so they know what their reading response letter should include in it. It is a general overview of requirements.
| response_journal_rubric.pdf |
This is the rubric I use to grade students' reading response letters to me. I had students turn in a letter every two weeks, but you can decide what works best for your group of students. I had about 5 students turn in a letter per day. So I could grade a few at a time.
| reading_conferencing_sheet.doc |
This is the reading conferencing sheet I use in my binder to document what was taught during my one-on-one interactions with students. It was adapted from the conferencing sheet by Boushey & Moser.
| writing_conferencing_sheet.doc |
This is the writing conferencing sheet I use in my binder to document what was taught during my one-on-one interactions with students. It was adapted from the conferencing sheet by Boushey & Moser.
