Reading Workshop in the Elementary Classroom

How is your reading block structured? I used to do shared reading from an anthology, guided reading groups, and Daily 5 centers. Every week I planned lessons for 4 guided reading groups and gathered materials for 5 centers. It took a lot of time! Now, I use a reading workshop model. My students are engaged in meaningful reading, and my prep time is cut in half. Keep reading to find out how to set up reading workshop in your elementary classroom.

Reading Workshop in the Elementary Classroom

This year, my school district adopted Lucy Calkins Units of Study. Prior to that, we used reading workshop for our RtII time, so we already knew the components:

• Mini lesson
• Independent Reading
• Strategy Groups
• Conferences
• Share

Mini Lesson

Every reading workshop session starts with a mini lesson. Lucy Calkins spells out exactly what to teach and how to teach the minilesson. Before that, I had to pull my own materials for the mini lessons. I used Jennifer Seravallo’s Reading Strategies book. It provides the teaching point, sample anchor charts, and even questions to ask the students. I planned my mini lessons around the strategies I knew my students needed.

The mini lesson should be fairly quick, 10-15 minutes. First, introduce the students to the day’s learning target. Then, model how to apply it using a text the students know. I usually use our read aloud book. Finally, give the students a job to do during their independent reading time.

Get more tips to master the reading workshop mini lesson.

If planning a mini lesson is overwhelming, check out these planned reading workshop lessons.

Independent Reading

After the mini lesson, your students will read “good fit” books. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the school year teaching my students how to find books at their independent levels. As they read, they apply that day’s learning target. For example, today our mini lesson was on character traits. As they read, the students wrote a character trait and text evidence to support it on a post-it.

Strategy Groups

While the students are reading, you can pull strategy groups. Strategy groups are small groups of 4 or 5 students who all need to practice the same reading strategy. You pull them together for a few minutes in a small group to model how to use the strategy and practice it with you. Then, they go back to independent reading to practice the skill by themselves.

Find out more about how to start strategy groups, and download my strategy group planning sheet.

Conferences

During independent reading time, you can also conference with individual students. You might check in with students as they practice a strategy group skill or you might meet with children who weren’t in your strategy group that day.

Share

At the end of the reading workshop time, bring the students back together. Have them sit next to a reading partner and share how they applied the reading strategy. A few students can share out with the whole class, too. The share wraps up your reading workshop for the day.

Materials for the Reading Workshop

There are a few materials that help reading workshop run more smoothly.

• A timer or clock to build up stamina – At the beginning of the year, your students won’t be able to sit and read silently for 30 minutes. You need to build up their stamina by starting out with shorter reading workshop sessions. Each day, I write the number of minutes we read silently on the board. Then, we challenge ourselves to make it longer the next day. Right now, my class can read for 45 minutes.
• Book boxes – Your students will need a place to keep all their good-fit books. Book boxes are perfect for this! When my students enter the classroom in the morning, they pick new books. During reading workshop, they take their book boxes to the spot where they’re reading. That way, they have a new book ready, and they don’t waste any time looking for one.

• A well-stocked classroom library – With reading workshop, your students will go through books faster than ever before. You need to have a good selection of books at many different levels. Discover ways to get cheap or free books and how to organize your classroom library.
• Reading pillows – You want reading workshop to be a comfortable and enjoyable time for your students. Reading pillows are one way to do this. I put pillows around my classroom, and students earn the right to sit on them when they exhibit appropriate reading workshop behaviors.
• Post-it notes – I should seriously buy stock in post-its. I use them for everything! During reading workshop, my students take notes on the post-its and stick them in their books. That way, when I conference with them, they can show me what they were thinking and where in the book they found the evidence.

Helpful Hints for Reading Workshop

• Spend time setting up the expectations for reading workshop. – Taking time to set up reading workshop at the beginning of the school year will help it run smoothly all year long. Make sure your students are following the expectations, and practice until transitions are smooth.
• Motivate all your students to read. – You might find that you have some reluctant readers in your class. They just flip pages without reading or they stare into space. Have those students set a personal goal for the number of pages to read or the amount of time to read. Another way to motivate your students is with a reading challenge. My students love the “Can You Read the Rainbow?” reading challenge. They read a different genre for each color of the rainbow and get a special certificate when they “Read the Rainbow”. This has motivated some students who never finished a book to read more and try different types of books.

• Use your students’ needs to plan mini lessons and strategy groups. – For reading workshop to be effective, you need to know your students. Plan mini lessons around strategies your whole class needs. For your strategy groups, look at individual students and their needs. Find out how to use data to drive your instruction.

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What Do You Think?

Do you use reading workshop in your classroom? What tips do you have for making it run smoothly?

Let me know in the comments below.

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