TDavenport

These chapters talked about the importance of the reading workshop.  For a workshop to be successful, there must be appropriate behavior and reading going on at all times. This chapter suggested that the students read quietly for 30-50 minutes.  Soft talking and discussions of books were allowed.  The only problem with this situation in a first grade classroom is that it isn't always quiet, and interruptions are ALWAYS happening!  I was encouraged by the numerous examples of reading practices.  Book choices, budding reading, story chats, guided reading,  & flexible groups are some ways to have a succesful workshop.  Many of these are already implemented in my classroom.  I have been trying more this week to conference with my reading groups to see how their opinions of books compare to mine.  We used the "3 bears" evaulation of books. (papa bear- too hard, mama bear- too easy, baby bear- just right.)  My kids seemed to enjoy this.  I also use reading response journals each week. )pg120).  This helps me to assess comprehension and writing skills.  Assessments are very important for reading workshops.  Individual reading and group readings are crucial.

These chapters gave me more insight on how to incorporate reading workshops in my classroom.  As I stated before about the previous chapters, I do have reading workshops in my first grade classroom.  Although some of my ideas and lessons are similar to those in this book, I have learned about new and different approaches.  The mini-lessons involve more detailed work than some of what I do now.  I teach a 'mini-lesson", but have found that it is not always during my workshop time with the whole group.  I like the way that these next three chapters really break down the process of managing the workshop time.  Organization was an important topic in chapter 4, because it stated that mini lessons should be taught everyday from day one.  This would give the students lots of modeling and practice with journal responses.  I enjoyed reading through the sample lessons in chapter 5 (pgs77-83).  although I still feel that some of what is offered in this book is too hard for first grade, most of it can be adapted to the first grade level.  I would like to try some of the sample lessons to see how they go.  Hopefully I will be able to implement this program fully next year.  It seems to be very beneficial to the students and to the teacher as well.

I found the first three chapters of this book to be very informative.  My definition of a reading workshop was similar to the information given.  In the first chapter, I  found that my reasons for having reading workshop were somewhat the same:  providing students with a multitude of reading opportunities that would help them enrich their love of reading.  At the same time, providing students with mini-lessons before hand gives them the direct instruction that so many of them need in order to be a successful independent reader.  I enjoyed the breakdown of the elements of a reading workshop.  Strategic practices should be taught in order for a child to read independently. 

One area that i hope to improve in is the way students work independently during the guided reading sessions.  Although they each have a scheduled workshop to work in, some students find it hard to stay on task in that particular workshop, therefore, interrupting me when I am trying to work with others.  I hope that by reading and implementing some of the information provided in this book, I will be able to better arrange my workshops so that everyone is gaining something beneficial from our reading time.

I want to work on organizing my classroom library so the students can know what level to read from.  This will probably help with those that are sometime off task.    The Independent Reading Guide on page 36 is very good, however, I believe that as a first grade teacher, I will have to adapt it to meet the needs of my students.