Reading Workshop Rules & Last Chance for Giveaway!

It's Wednesday! But oh my, it feels like it should be Friday! Since it is Wednesday, I'm linking up with Workshop Wednesday sponsored by Ideas by Jivey. Today, I'm going to sharing some Reading Workshop ideas that I've been using during my character unit. Since I have to teach LOTS of different things in a short amount of time (reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and social studies - I know right?!) my teaching partner and I have found that it works best if we do our read aloud every day but only teach one new lesson every other day. This way, we keep up with our read aloud but students then get more time to do independent book club work during class and then the second day they model the strategy lesson we are teaching on their own. Fridays are usually our "open wall" days because yes our walls literally open up and *poof* two language arts classes are combined! On these days students get to interact in their book clubs during the independent work time of workshop. They LOVE the fact they are acting like a "real" book club and getting to read the same books as their friends (as long as they have a similar reading level).

Here's the teaching point from Tuesday that I projected on the SMARTboard:

We only read chapter two in Rules on Tuesday, so we did a simple lesson on noticing "pieces" of Catherine's character (hence the puzzle pieces). Today, in book clubs students did the same lesson with the same teaching point but they applied it to their novels.

Click the handout to grab a free copy! I know in workshop you're supposed to do it all in one day but with limited time we've found this to be a great way to get everything in! Plus, day two allows the teacher time for reading conferences etc. while students independently work at the lesson. Day one is always the day they need more help getting started or understanding. We usually try and have pages side by side so students can always look to Rules (or whatever novel we're reading) for help!

Another useful tip is to always have to teach point posted, we want our students to know what we are trying to teach them. We make this a point in both reading and writing workshop and our students come to expect it later on in the year. It's a good system to have even with our "I Cans" up on the board because students then hopefully start to understand why they are performing a certain task during workshop. It's also great because it helps with genre units or units like a character unit that is more detailed than a Common Core "I Can" statement.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Just a few hours last to claim $10 to Target and few favorite things.... You have a great chance at winning! 

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Good luck!