* Created by Matthew Streit

Rationale

Reading-Writing Workshops can help struggling readers break through years of frustration by providing opportunities for mentorship and helping them choose books right for them.  These workshops help students develop a love of reading and help them monitor their metacognition.  The same goes for writing: the goal of these workshops is to instill the motivation for students to write about what they want to, and to give them the instruction necessary to do so.

Source:  Calkins, Lucy M.  The Art of Teaching Reading.  Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.   2001.

Procedure

1)      Create an inviting literate environment in your classroom by providing a variety of literacy resources for students from which to choose.

a.       Young adult literature

b.      Classroom sets of paperbacks

c.       Multiple copies of popular titles

d.      Access to computers and unabridged audio books

2)      Classroom lessons should include:

a.       Daily read-alouds

b.      Independent reading and writing time (including computer access)

c.       Group sharing

d.      Journaling

e.       Teacher-student conferencing

f.       Portfolios

g.      Mini-lessons involving strategies and skills

3)      Special considerations for struggling readers:

a.       Provide enough time for students to complete reading & writing activities

b.      Build in student choice, including different types of assessments and different types of classroom routines

c.       Teach students to make connections between what they know and what they’re expected to learn

Source:  Alvermann, Donna E. et. al.  Content Area Reading and Literacy.  Pearson Education, Inc.  Fifth edition.  2007.

** Although I have not taught Language Arts yet, I believe that this strategy/system would work great in a remedial ("second scoop") language arts class or summer school classroom.

Other Procedures

Writing Workshop

While Matt focused primarily on the reading workshop, I will use his outline from above and adapt it to the writing workshop.

1)      Create an inviting literate environment in your classroom by providing a variety of options for writing and samples of writing.

a.       fiction and nonfiction texts in a variety of genres: mystery, romance, horror, adventure, memoir, authobiography

b.      newspapers, magazines

c.       picture books, photo journals, graphic novels

d.      Access to computers and non-print-based texts

2)      Classroom lessons should include:

a.       Daily writing time where teacher models his or her writing/thinking process

b.      Independent writing time (including computer access)

c.       Group sharing

d.      Journaling

e.       Teacher-student conferencing

f.       Portfolios

g.      Mini-lessons involving mechanics, elements of writing, etc.

h.    Reading time for students to familiarizr themselves with different genres and ways of writing

3)      Special considerations for struggling writers:

a.       Provide enough time for students to complete writing activities (structured choice for assignment timelines)

b.      Build in student choice, including different types of writing and different types of classroom routines

c.       Teach students to make connections between what they know and what they’re expected to learn

--contributed by Jennifer Farrell