Reader's Workshop!

In the past I have been a die-hard Daily 5 user, I even had given workshops on D5 for colleagues at my district and others.  Recently, though, I found that I was having a hard time making sure I was getting all my reading instruction in and ensuring that students were really reading enough every day.  I know the Sisters say that students should choose Read to Self every single day, but when it came down to enforcing that I found it really tricky since the students would then have limited time to get to the other centers.

Enter.....Reader's Workshop!

This summer I read Kathy Collin's Growing Readers and absolutely loved it.  In the beginning of the book she goes through different reading instruction scenarios that are common in different schools.  When she described the reading instruction happening during literacy centers model I laughed at how this resembled what I did.  Kids making words with magnetic letters, writing in notebooks, teacher conferencing....everybody looking busy and engaged, but is it really meaningful for students and are they really growing as readers?

With the implementation of the Common Core I also was wondering how I would really be challenging my readers every day and holding them accountable for the more rigorous standards.  I think the Reader's Workshop model will allow me to do this more effectively since all of the students will be working on reading during this block of time.  Good bye, Daily Five!