Reader's Workshop & a Freebie!

Hey bloggers!

Our reader's workshop is almost fully up and running! We have really been practicing our Read to Self station a lot lately. We are practicing our reading skills and building our stamina!

Each student has their own book box with a phonics phone. Right now they have books that they chose (fiction & nonfiction). They are working hard to read their books (which is difficult for some of them still) so we continually refer to our chart "3 Ways of Reading."

Eventually, there will be books that are at each child's reading level. As soon as all of our workshop stations are set up, I'll be able to start guided reading and get them those books!

Here is what Reader's Workshop looks like in my classroom:

Each group will have the Read to Self station daily. The other 5 stations (Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, Respond to Reading, & Surprise Station) are hit by each group once a week. The surprise station could be computers, smartboard, reading games, puzzles, etc. Each group goes to 2 stations a day during our 75 minute block (mini-lesson, station 1, station 2, share time).

The groups that my students are in for workstations are mixed ability groups. This is nice because it allows them to work together and help each other when needed. The groups that I pull for guided reading are same ability groups so as I call out a group that I need, they leave their station to come to meet with me.

Last week and this week we are working on our "visualizing" skill. I would read aloud a book to them without showing them the pictures, have them tell me what they visualized (some days we would chart our ideas and some days they would actually draw them), and then I would read the book again and show them the pictures.

Here are some of the books that we have been using: 

A Bad Case of Stripes

Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing

Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers

Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook

Piggie Pie

& My Teacher Sleeps in School.

The Clever School Teacher Website has a few visualizing sets that they sell! You can check them out {here} & {here} & {here}.

Here is a {freebie} for you!

TpT    or    TN

We have used this a few times while practicing our visualizing. Some days we create a chart of things that the students pictured in their minds and some days we use this worksheet to draw our ideas! The students draw what they saw in their minds and decorate the head to look like themselves (add hair, hat, etc).

My Donor's Choose Project
I also wanted to mention a Donor's Choose project for my class. Our classroom funds have been drastically cut this year so we could really use your help! We need new headphones for our Listen to Reading station as well as new books & CDs for that station. If you are willing to help we would greatly appreciate it!
Feel free to pass along the link to our donor's choose project if you know of any companies looking to make a difference as well! Thank you :)

How do you run reader's workshop??