the PaperWings

One of our classroom rituals is to change the leaves on the trees with the seasons. The kids know that the new season is "official" when we switch our library decorations! A common quote about reader’s workshop comes from Lucy Calkins, where she basically says that the places in life where the most creativity can happen are the most predictable of environments (the artist’s studio, the scientist’s lab). Those of us who use reader’s and writer’s workshops know that within that predictable structure, what we once may have thought impossible, is possible. I often tell teachers who are just starting workshop that simply by providing the minilesson, independent work, share structure every day without fail, they will be giving their students a gift. Even though there is so much more to workshop, the structure and predictability of the workshop environment is the first and most important place to start. If children know they will write and read for extended periods every da...

Ever finish teaching a small reading group and wonder, "what did I actually teach just now"? You are right to reflect on that question (often!) since teachers get such a limited time with students working in small, focused groups each day. If you believe, as I do, that teaching in small groups and one-on-one is the most effective part of your teaching day, then you'll want to get the absolute biggest bang for your buck possible. By focusing on one strategy during a small group lesson (I mean it! Just ONE strategy at a time- no cheating!), you can maximize student understanding and the probability that they will remember and use what you've taught them. This is the whole idea of the strategy group. Instead of supporting a group of like-leveled readers as they read an entire on-level book, strategy groups pull together a group of heterogeneous students in order to explicitly teach one strategy that they all need. When a child leaves your group, you and each child n...