1. Refining Your Reading Workshop
Session 4

2. Agenda
Mini-Lessons
Sharing
Journals

3. “People who do not trust children to learn, or teachers to teach, will always expect a method (or program) to do the job.”
Frank Smith

4. Whole Group Instruction
Mini-Lessons

5. Mini-Lesson Refresher
5 – 15 minutes
Mini-lessons
- introduce a comprehension strategy, skill, or concept
- think aloud
- apply strategies to text
- students share/participate
- based on student NEED &
curriculum
Book Talks (optional)

6. 5 Types of Mini- Lessons
** Skills and Strategies that ALL students at your grade level should know or learn.
Procedures and Organization
Strategic Reading Behaviors
Comprehension Strategies
Literary Elements and Techniques
Vocabulary
**Kids who struggle with these skills then get more supported practice during small group instruction so they can practice these skills with text at their reading level. “training wheels”
Look through the handouts of ML from FP. Look over the ML checklist on the wiki.

7. Video Clip TDC – Mini-Lesson (Angel for Solomon Singer)
What did you notice about the level of thinking from the students?

8. Think Aloud as a model Make your thinking “visible” to kids.
Demonstrate the thoughts that might come to your mind while reading.
How would this help you?
See Think aloud notes in handout p

9. Give One – Get One
Share ideas of great mentor text ideas for the comprehension strategies.
Give one idea and get one idea from as many people as you can.
1 hour 20 min.

10. Website links… http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/strategies.html

11. Sharing
Optimal time for informal assessment.

12. Sharing Make share time purposeful
Not all students will get to share every day
Share time is a form of assessment
Sharing options
Whole class
Turn and talk
In small group

13. Video
Teaching for Deep Comprehension
Clip on Authors Study Share time

14. Sharing Discussion
Share ideas about how you structure share time in your workshop.
What ways could you take informal assessment information during the share time?

15. Independent Reading and Journals
“Our understanding is enhanced when we communicate with others about our thinking. It is a way for readers to construct knowledge, generate new ideas, clarify their own thinking…”
-Fountas and Pinnell
Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency p. 438

16. Learning to write about reading
“Writing makes thinking visible and more tangible, thus promoting conscious awareness and deeper comprehension.” - Dorn

17. Important Points Carnegie Report 2010
The evidence is clear: writing can be a vehicle for improving reading.
In particular, having students write about a text they are reading enhances how well they comprehend it. The same result occurs when students write about a text from different content areas, such as science and social studies.
Important Points
Carnegie Report 2010

18. Differentiation through Independent Reading and Journals
What should they be reading?
How often do they read?
What if they aren’t choosing the right books?
What do they write about?
How often do they write?

19. Purpose of the journal Writing about reading improves comprehension.
Moving beyond just “retelling” what is happening.
Use writing to develop ideas about the story or the characters.
Connect the story to their own lives and make predictions.

20. Gradual Release – From Demonstration to Informed Choice
Teaching these forms using interactive read aloud as a common text experience.
Writing for students – writing with students – supporting students with writing – writing independently
p. 26 – modeling and demonstrations

21. Good beginnings.. Teach students to “hold their thinking”
Informal notes, phrases on sticky notes or notebooks
Younger students take less formal approaches

22. What to expect……
Primary (K-2) – Begin with shared and interactive writing. Group compositions to independent drawings and letters or words.
Intermediate (3-5) – Some shared writing with overheads and charts. Graphic organizers begin to support. Increasing sophistication of independent writing.

23. Responding options Look at some samples
Mark ideas that are interesting and discuss with a friend.

24. Journal Discussion Strategy entries ideas Deeper comprehension entries
P. 37 – 38 (primary)
P. 45 – 56 (2+)
Deeper comprehension entries
P. 36, 44 (primary)
P. 39 – 43 (2nd – 3rd)
How often do they respond in their journal?
Strategy entry ideas – p. 37 – 38, 45 – 56
Deeper comprehension ideas – p. 36, 39 – 40,

25. Reflect and discuss…. Look through p. 36 – 58
Write a --- ! -- ? – VIP. Share with neighbor.

26. Sections in the notebooks - ideas
Reading Log – lists of books
My Thinking – student responses
Genres and Strategies – mini-lesson topics
Powerful Language – word study
Goal Setting
“Less is Best!”

27. Journal Discussion Strategy entries Deeper comprehension entries
How often do they respond in their journal?

28. J0urnals Get into grade level teams.
Share ideas for structuring your students’ reading response journals.
Keep in mind…less is more in terms of sections.
p are ideas for journal stems…..
3 hours 45 minutes.

29. Website http://www.wblrd.sk.ca/~bestpractice/response/index.html