SClarke

Chapter 4  deals primarily with getting the Reading Workshop off and running the first month of the school year.  I like the way each procedure needed to make the program work is taught in detail.  A full day's lesson is devoted to each procedure, regardless of how simple it may seem to the adult reader.  For example, the procedure of finding the perfect reading nook.  An entertaining read aloud book is selected that is tied to the procedural lesson of the day, in this case finding the perfect reading nook.  The book is read aloud and students and teacher chart out how to pick the perfect reading nook.  Then, students are told to search the room and find a spot that meets the criterea listed.  Students try out the nook and if they are satisfied, they map it out on a classroom master.  This spot is theirs, and becomes part of the daily routine of Readers Workshop. 

Chapter 5 goes through how the teacher teaches important reading strategies and skills to students in Reading Workshop.  Reading strategies are what readers do before, during and after reading to make sense out of print (p. 66).  The 8 keyreading strategies the authors focus on in the text are: Looking ahead, Fix-up strategies, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizng, Making Inferences, Making it your own, and Looking back.  The strategies help to students with reading comprehension.  As I read through these strategies, I began to think of ways I could incorporate them into my guidance lessons.  I have been using some of the strategies, such as looking ahead, making connections and making it your own with my guidance picture books.  Some ideas I gained from for implementing the other strategies are:

1.  fix-up strategies- stop when I come to a word that may be unfamiliar to students, adjust my rate of reading when I go back to re-read a passage.

2.  questioning- using sticky notes to mark places where you have a question

3.  visualizing- model closing your eyes to visualize an image from the book and asking students to do the same

4. making inferences- demonstrate "reading between the lines"- read, stop, and think aloud.

Chapter 6 is about using mini-lessons to teach literary elements and literary techniques.  Literary elements focuses on characters, setting, plot and theme.  Literary techniques is how the author writes his work, using symbolism, style and figuarative language.  Mini-lessons on literary techniques call your student's attention to the authors use of language (p.90).  This makes the reader into a better writer, as well as reader.  Some literary elements highlighted are: relating charachters to the setting, Character development and change over time, theme, mood or tone, passage of time, story patterns, role of the author/illustrator, and role of illustrations.   In a guidance lesson, students must be able to determine the theme of the story for the lesson to be successful.  I like to determine if the students "get" the theme, but asking them what important lesson did the character(s) learn in the story, or "what is the moral of the story?".   I would like to implement the role of the author/illustrator and the role of illustrations in my future guidance lessons read alouds.