Reading Workshop
What is Reading Workshop?

The structure of Reading Workshop comes from the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia. Reading Workshop invites students to become more actively involved in their own learning and, in the process, to learn how to read various kinds of texts. Students learn to read by reading rather than simply hearing about reading or having stories read to them.

It is a laboratory in which individual students are busily engaged in reading that reflects real life; that is, they are reading in ways that match what readers do all their lives. They learn how to work together, set goals and evaluate their own accomplishments, engage in meaningful communication about what they read and take responsibility for their own learning. Students make choices and carry out assignments. They work at their own pace but are expected to accomplish a series of tasks.

During Reading Workshop students will be engaged in independent reading, guided reading and small group work with peers. Constructing meaning is the overall goal. The students are taught how to make personal and textual connections at the same time they are learning from and about reading.
Why Is Reading Workshop SO Great?
  • Readers have time to read just right books independently every day.
  • Readers select their own appropriate booksReaders take care of books.
  • Readers respect each other's reading time and reading lives.
  • Readers have daily opportunities to talk about their books in genuine ways.
  • Readers don't just read the words but also understand the story.
  • Reader's work in the independent reading workshop is replicable outside of the classroom.
Units of Study:
  • Readers Build Good Habits
  • Readers Use Print Strategies in Just-Right Books
  • Readers Use Pattern Books to Build Fluency and Comprehension
  • Readers Think and Talk About Their Books with a Focus on Retelling
  • Readers Grow Ideas with a Focus on Comprehension
  • Readers Use Strategies to Read Nonficition Books
  • Readers Think Across Books: Focus on Poetry, Author, and Character Centers
  • Reflections and Summer Planning
*Your child has read and reread books in class and for homework. During some of these units you may feel that the books your child is reading may be too easy. The idea behind this is that we are teaching strategies and concepts where your child may need to focus on reading comprehension and fluency rather than decoding.