• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Teach Without Tears
  • Teaching Resources
  • Contact Tara
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Teach Without Tears

The classroom teacher's guide to a fun, low stress year

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Subjects
    • Reading
    • Math
  • Classroom Management
  • Classroom Organization
  • Outside the Classroom
    • Teacher Fashion
    • Teacher Food
    • Teacher Travel
    • Teacher Budget
    • Destress
    • Teacherpreneurs
  • TPT Store

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.

Get started with reading workshop in your elementary classroom. Learn the parts of a lesson and tips for getting started.

Reading Workshop in the Elementary Classroom

If you’re ready to get started with reading workshop now, join me for a 5-day email challenge. Click the link to get reading workshop set up in your classroom in one week. 

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.

Dig deeper into the parts of the reading workshop lesson by joining the 5-day challenge. Each day, you’ll get an email explaining how to set up one part of reading workshop. In just 5 days, you’ll be ready to launch reading workshop in your classroom.

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.

You can organize your classroom library into baskets or onto bookshelves.

  • 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.

reading challenge rainbow hallway display

  • 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.

Download my reading workshop planning sheet at the bottom of this post.

Then, sign up for the 5-day challenge. I’ll walk you through the steps to set up reading workshop in 5 emails. By the last one, you’ll be ready to launch reading workshop in your classroom.

Want more tips to implement reading workshop in your classroom? Join the Rock the Reading Workshop Facebook Group.

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.

If you enjoyed this post and think your teacher friends will, too, please click the button to share it on your favorite social media platform.

Subscribe to the Teach Without Tears Newsletter

Plus, plan the 4 key parts of your reading workshop with this editable planning template.





Teach Without Tears Privacy Policy

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit
Get started with reading workshop in your elementary classroom. Learn the parts of a lesson and tips for getting started.

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on Pinterest

Filed Under: Reading 4 Comments

About Tara Dusko

Tara is a third grade teacher and mother of 2. She loves teaching but not the stress that comes with it. She loves using preparation, organization, and relaxation to destress and have fun teaching! Connect with Tara on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter!
Subscribe to the Teach Without Tears Newsletter!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Eola Ruth says

    February 22, 2018 at 8:50 pm

    I love the name “Teaching without Tears.” I teach in the middle and my store is Teaching with Anxiety. Now we just need a high school teacher to chime in. 🙂

    I also teach reading/writing workshop, and if all my students had teachers like you, they’d be much better prepared when they get to me in 7th grade. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    Reply
    • Tara Dusko says

      March 9, 2018 at 9:24 pm

      Thank you, Eola! I love reading and writing workshop! I’m able to get to know my students so well through conferences.

      Reply
  2. Amy says

    March 9, 2018 at 7:26 pm

    Reading workshop is truly the best. I think the one component that’s often short changed is sharing. Thank you for the reminder!

    Reply
    • Tara Dusko says

      March 9, 2018 at 9:09 pm

      My students love to share what they read each day. The share is also a great way for me to hear from those students I didn’t get a chance to meet with that day.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About Tara

Hi! Welcome to Teach Without Tears! I'm Tara. I love teaching third grade, but I hate the stress that comes with it. Join me to discover ways to destress both in the classroom and at home. Together we'll teach without tears! Find Out More…

Teachers Pay Teachers

Rock the Reading Workshop

Follow Teach Without Tears on Bloglovin’

Follow

Recent Posts

  • Tips for Teaching Your Students About Point of View
  • Tips for Teaching Comparing and Contrasting Informational Texts
  • How to Teach Your Students to Use Context Clues in Informational Texts
  • Strategies for Teaching Main Ideas and Supporting Details
  • How to Teach your Students About Figurative Language

Epic! Books for Kids

Read on Epic! Anywhere. Anytime. On any device.

Really Good Stuff Box

Get Cash Back with Ebates

Ebates Coupons and Cash Back

Teach Without Tears is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Tips for Teaching Your Students About Point of View
  • Tips for Teaching Comparing and Contrasting Informational Texts
  • How to Teach Your Students to Use Context Clues in Informational Texts
  • Strategies for Teaching Main Ideas and Supporting Details

Categories

  • Classroom Management
  • Classroom Organization
  • Destress
  • Just for Fun
  • Math
  • Parenting
  • Reading
  • Subjects
  • Teacher Budget
  • Teacher Fashion
  • Teacher Food
  • Teacher Travel
  • Teacherpreneurs
  • Writing

Pages

  • About Teach Without Tears
  • Contact Tara
  • Teaching Resources
  • Blog
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Congratulations! You’re ready to start meal planning!
  • Join the Take Back Control Community
  • Make-Ahead Meal Masters Program
  • Rock the Reading Workshop

Copyright © 2022 Tara Dusko. All rights reserved.

Disclosure: Some of the links on this website may be affiliate links. When you make a purchase from these links, I earn a small commission. While commissions allow me to keep this site 100% free, I only endorse products I trust and use for myself and clients.