AHembree

In chapter 7, the authors discuss how to initiate independent reading through an orderly classroom environment, sharing a teachers passion for reading, reading with others, story chats, and guided reading.  I agree with the authors because I have seen this in my own classroom.  The love for reading has grown exponentially since I have been conducting a "readers workshop" type environment.  The students love to read to me, but I am surprised at how they enjoy grouping up and taking turns reading and discussing books.   The chapter gets more interesting when the authors suggest different ways to conference and allow the children to respond to different texts.  I plan to use these type questions during my reading workshops.

In chapter 8, different forms and types of assessment are shown to aid in a productive analysis of student reading and work.  At this time, I do not use any forms because the students are just now learning to read; however, before the year is over I want them to be able to produce a true "log" that they will be doing in some first grade classes.

Overall, this book has helped put a true meaning to "The Reading Workshop".  I have really enjoyed my reading time this year because of the workshop aspect.  I plan to continue with this student-centered environment and bring in new ideas from this book.

Before I had read these three chapters, I tried some of the techniques listed in the past chapters.  I had some of my students buddy read and discuss our pre-decodable book.  This worked out well for both the students and myself.  It actually gave them practice before reading and sharing with me.  I plan to continue this with more of my students.  After reading the next few chapters, I learned more about mini lessons, and have actually thought of ways to implement them on a kindergarten level.  I plan to do my reading group a little differently from now on.  I am going to go with the book and model for a few weeks before I turn them loose on their own, but then, I want to see them talking to each other about the story, different grammar marks used, and different elements that they may discover.  I'll let you know how it works!  Until next time...  

In the first chapter, the authors discuss the meaning and initial set up of a reading workshop.  Practically, this is a time for students to aquire their own understanding of a book, make their own predictions, and share with a buddy.  The other chapters discuss how to manage your workshops and distinquishes between traditional reading groups and the newly found reading workshop.  I do a type of reading workshop that is more age appropriate for kindergarten.  Most of my students are barely reading and writing, so we are at the very early stages of a true readers workshop.  I am going to add more of the buddy reading and buddy discussions to my readers workshop.  I am going to also try to pull in harder books for my higher students.