The Launch: The First 20 Days

1. The Launch:The First 20 Days South Plainfield School District July 25, 2013

2. Establishing a Routine • This procedure takes about a month to get going, but once implemented it works very well. • Two important goals to independent reading/writing: • help your students think of themselves • as readers/writers • establish a routine for independent • reading/writing

3. Essentials of Reading & Writing Workshop Reading Workshop • Teacher Model • Shared Reading • Minilessons (researched based reading strategies) • Guided Reading and Literature Circles • Time to read independently and time to share • Choice • Reflection and Evaluation • Environment and materials Writing Workshop • Teacher Model • Shared Writing • Minilessons • Teacher and peer conferences • Time to write independently and share • Literature based • Choice • Records and self assessment • Environment and materials

4. Day 1 – Selecting Books • Share with your class how your classroom library is organized. • Show students how to check out books. • Discuss reasons to choose books. Make an anchor chart to hang up on the wall of different reasons we choose books such as: • we like the author, the cover, read the back, read other books in the series, like the genre, it’s a new book, heard about it, need to read it for school work.

5. Day 2 -3: Choosing Books • Getting your students to pick the right books is very important, students should read “just right” books, while sometimes easy and challenging books are ok to read also. • Make a chart with 3 columns labeled easy, just right, and challenging fill in with characteristics about those types of books. For example: font sizes of each, pictures, difficult words, and confusing, are some things my students bring up.

6. Day 4 -“Reading is Thinking” • Make a poster that says “Reading is Thinking” • Explain to the class that today we will have quite a bit of time for reading and that reading is thinking and you can do your best thinking when it is quiet. • After the students have silently read, finish the poster by adding what the students were thinking about while they were reading- I wonder what will happen next, this reminds me of, I was scared, happy, sad, surprised when…

7. Anchor Charts

8. Day 4: Thinking and Talking about your reading • Share with your class things that you are thinking about while you are reading. Use a specific example of a book and what you thought about while reading that book. • Tell the class how they will be thinking as they are reading and different things they might be thinking about, write these on the “Reading is Thinking” poster. • Have the students mark two places with sticky notes that made them think about something while reading.

9. Day 5: Group Discussions“How to Buzz with each other” • Discuss with your class how they can talk with each other cooperatively. • Make a poster (with your guidance) of some simple guidelines about sharing with others. • After a group discussion about how well the group shares went and things they can work on.

10. Day 6: Abandoning Books • Once in a while student abandon books and this is ok. • Hold a group discussion about why readers abandon books and when it is ok to abandon books.

11. Day 7-8: Genres of Books • Distinguish between fiction and non fiction. • Discuss different kinds of fiction. • Discuss different kinds of non fiction. • Show examples of the different kinds of each.

12. Day 9: Keeping a Record of your Reading Provide your students with a reading journal (notebook). Divide the journal into three sections: • Reading Log – readers keep a list of books they’ve read • Title/author/genre, • Date of completion • Easy, just right, challenging • Response to their reading – readers can share their thinking about reading by writing (Day14), create a list of reading interests (Day 16) • Reading interest or book recommendations(Day 17) • Check for understanding as you read: what was the author’s message (Day 18)

13. Day 10: Guidelines for Readers Workshop • Each day for a set amount of time will be readers workshop. • Discuss and make a poster of guidelines for the class for expectations during this time. Let the students have input on this. • Guidelines can include: • You must always be reading or writing in your reading journal • You need to work silently • Use a soft voice when talking with the teacher • Select books that you will enjoy and don’t abandon them until you have given them a chance • List your book information in your journal • Always do your best work

14. Day 11-12: Written Responses to Reading • Share with the class that not only will they share their thinking orally in groups or as a class but that they will also be writing about their thinking. • Share an example friendly letter or journal entry where you share what you might be thinking about while reading. • The journal response or weekly letter must include the title and author of the book they are reading. If writing a letter, proper friendly letter format must be followed. • Hang a poster up which has students assigned to what specific day of the week their journal is due, and also that they can’t just write one or two sentences that does not give enough information about them as a reader. • Be sure to write back each week to the letters or respond to their entries, and share your thoughts on their reading. Also share what you are reading and what you are thinking about your reading.

15. Day 13: Editing your Journal ResponseProofreading and Using punctuation • After the first week or so of journal writing, conduct lessons on • proofreading, using the correct punctuation, and solving unknown words (Day 19-20). Show letters written without punctuation and that are not proofread and allow the students to correct these letters. • Establish and explain your grading system for letters: • 1 point for having all the required parts of a friendly letter • 1 point for the author • 1 point for the title of the book and underlining it • 5 points for content • 5 points for punctuation and proofreading. • Remind the students of these requirements and post a rubric in the room as a reminder. Suggested read-alouds: Puncuation Takes a Vacation, or Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

16. Day 15:Using Sticky Notes • Have the students use sticky notes to mark places they were thinking while reading. • Provide each student with two sticky notes (1x1 works best). • Discuss with the class coding you could use to mark on their sticky notes to remind them why the marked it. (T=T reminds you of another book, a smile face could mean funny and so on. Include your students’ input in creating a coding system.)

17. Incorporating Components to the Writing WorkshopWhat is a Writer’s Notebook? It is… • A place to store your thoughts, feelings, observations, ideas, opinions, and more • A place to record your reactions “A writer’s notebook gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day.” From A Writer’s Notebook by Ralph Fletcher It is not… • A diary • Not a reading journal in which students write summaries, main ideas, or letters to characters per the teacher’s assignment “The writer’s notebook nudges students to become more active learners. It gives them a place to react to their world. To make that all-important personal connection. And the notebook provides a safe place- no grades, no one correcting their grammar.” School Talk, Writer’s Notebook: A Place to Dream, Wonder, and Explore, Ralph Fletcher

18. What’s the difference? • Writer’s notebook • Reader’s notebook • Portfolio • Writing folder

19. Teacher-Student Conferences • Listen—get to know the writer • Be positive—build on strengths • Focus on improving life-long writing skills • Focus on one teaching point (approximations) “...in a conference our job is to interact with students so that they can interact with their writing, not just for five minutes but for a lifetime.” Lucy Calkins (1991)

20. Reading/Writing Conference http://bcove.me/tq2occfj

21. Time Management • Teach each one of these things separately one per day. • Allow 20 minutes of independent reading and/or writing each day and two or three times a week small group or whole class discussions and share. • Remind the students daily of reading/writing workshop guidelines and usually after a few days they are doing very well with this.

22. Bibliography • Calkins, L. (2006). Units of Study for Teaching Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann. • Fountas, I, & Pinnell, G (2001). Guiding Readers and Writers. Portsmouth: Heinemann.