Easy plan to follow to set up reading and writing workshop for 2-3 grade?

Question

This will be my second year teaching. Last year, I had to follow my team's plan for reading and writing which was not as much of a workshop as I prefer. I am finding that I am overhwhelmed with trying to consider all concepts in my planning and am now looking for a good model to follow that I can then adapt. I thought I'd see if any teachers out there had a good resource for a sample format for organizing and guiding indpendent readers and writers that I could take and adapt to meet the needs of my students. Thanks so much!

I should mention that I have a strong background in reading, infact I have an endorsement on my license allowing me to teach reading K-12 while my other license is only K-3. I already do guided reading and work through the writing process with my students but I am looking to see how other teachers in other districts structure their writing curriculum to allow for major concepts to be taught while students work through the process on projects at their own rate. Secondly, how often do you meet with writers and readers and in what formats (conferences, guided reading, literature circles ect.) Does that clarify at all? :/ I guess it is harder to articulate this online that I had anticipated! Thanks for your patience and willingness to help a fellow teacher!

We use all trade books. I'm glad but it does requrire lots of planning! :) Teaching was never meant to be easy I guess! At least I love what I do!

Also, I love the book Guiding Readers and Writers (We jokingly call it the Bible at school) but know that there has been a shift recently away from such strong teacher support--i.e. reducing or eliminating formal guided reading and working more in whole group, readers conferences ect. Any views?

I just want to eliminate spending all of my evenings and weekends at school--I need to make workshop more user friendly!

Answer 1

I teach 2nd and 3rd. I've taught them for 6 years now. Here's how I organize my class schedule to accomadate reading, writing, and language arts (including spelling).

I must start by saying that teaching guided reading groups will require a lot of time in the beginning to get your students used to working independently while you are working in small groups. You have to spend time showing them what you want them to do while you are busy. How to solve their problems when you are in a group. I tell my students that they wouldn't want someone else to interrupt their time in my group so they shouldn't interrupt others. We talk about what are acceptable reasons to interrupt. They have to know what to do if they are working and finish early or get stuck on a problem and don't knwo what else to do.

OK, our county requires 90min. reading blocks due to NCLB. Not sure where you are but I'd imagine you need plenty of time dedicated to reading only in your classroom...especially at those grades.

Our day starts at 8. I give my class til 8:15 to get settled, complete morning work, prep for the day, etc.

8:15-8:30: calendar/clock/word of the day/go over morning work or do math word problem of the day

8:30-8:45: word work (spelling lesson, fluency lesson, poetry lesson, phonics lesson, word sorts, etc.)

8:45-9:15: thirty minutes of whole group reading. We use the Houghton Mifflin Reading Series at our school so the kids all have a reading textbook and we read a story in the book completing the lesson together in the practice book/workbook. Since it's a textbook (not like we're reading tradebooks) there is a lesson plan format/schedule to keep to in the textbook. We follow that. Usually it's read the story and discuss it for comprehension, or complete a story map, discuss sequencing, talk about chacater development, etc. I also give the assignments for group work at this time.

9:15-10:15: for an hour we do guided reading. I divide my class into four reading groups. Usually it's based on reading levels. (However there have been days when I divide them based on a skill I want to work on in the small groups. Like if I know 5 kids need help on short vowels, I'll put them together that day even though they all read on different levels.)
There's a high, high average, low average, and low.
I give four assignments on the board. Each group is a color and after about 15 min. I rotate the colors and the kids change activities. Example:
Red: My reading group
Blue: Seatwork (usually a workbook page)
Green: Journaling activity
Yellow: computers/silent reading
Then during my reading group time we read leveled tradebooks. Students read aloud and we discuss vocabulary, story elements, predictions, etc. I see each group for about 15 min.

10:15-10:35: Language Arts: We'll do some kind of workbook page or lesson and activity on nouns, verbs, grammar skills, etc.

10:35-11:00: Writing. I like to do mini lessons here but you can do whatever writing program your school uses. You can do free writing and then work one to one with a few on writing conferences on their work. Students can work through the writing process (brainstorm, draft, edit, publish). You could als make this writing time longer but 20 min. is all that fits into my schedule.

After that we have special areas (art, music, pe) and lunch and then I do math and science/social studies in the afternoon.

That's a lot of info. I hope it's helpful. Since we use Houghton Mifflin Reading Series at our school it's different from schools that use tradebooks and plan around themes. If that is the case at your school....I think the format word still work but planning would take more work.

If you don't like the way your team or team leader runs her schedule, I'd reccommend going to talk to other teams or teachers in the school. Just becuase it's 1st grade, doesn't mean you can't adjust their scheudule to fit yours. Talk to your CRT or Instructional Coach or Reading Coach. They'll have ideas. Your principal would have suggestions too.

Best wishes for a successful year!!

Answer 2

Originally, I was an elementary ed major, so this comes from one of the classes I took. The teacher would take a book, say, Charlie and the Chocolate factory and have the kids take turn reading a passage from it. Then in their writing journals she would have them do something like retelling part of the story, or what life would be like if everything were chocolate or if the class was taught by Willy Wonka. She would do a new one each day with whatever she would pull out of the bookshelf. Then different kids would read theirs aloud. Most of the school dist. here has come to copy her classroom methods because she seems to join everyone together with how she teaches. If you want, email me and I will tell you more about what she did.

[e-mail]

Answer 3

Hi,
As parents, you're the most important first step in your children's journey into the wonderful world of reading. It is up to you to create the most supportive environment that turns your child on to reading - such as reading aloud to them often during the day and before bedtime, and placing age appropriate books for children around the house, so that the child will have access to plenty of books. Reading often to your child will help develop their interest in books and stories, and soon they will want to read stories on their own.

For a simple, step-by-step program that can help your child learn to read visit this site: http://readingprogram.toptips.org


Cheers.

Answer 4

Guiding Readers and Writers 3-6
by Fountas and Pinnell
great resource for what you want to do