Éschools shouldn't be about handing down
a collection of static truths to the next generation but about responding to
the needs and interests of the students themselves.
Alfie
Kohn
ItÕs
fifteen minutes after the morning school bell has rung. Students are sitting in
pairs on the floor and at tables sharing the entries they wrote in their
literature response logs the completed the previous night. As the song "Me
and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" by Paul Simon begins to play on the
classroom stereo, students realize it is time to finish up sharing their
reactions to their readings, put their logs in their cubbies and gather on the
carpet in the front of the room. By the time the song is finishing up, the
students are sitting on the floor around my rocking chair ready to begin our
"Opening Ceremonies."
As
usual, I start by saying, "Good Morning", and ask them ÒWell, whatÕs
been happening in your lives?Ó This allows students to share special events with
the entire class. Students share stories about recent camping trips, newly
arrived baby cousins, an outing to Peter Piper Pizza, the score of the weekend
softball game and any other important news from home. We listen carefully to
each other, knowing how important it is to get to know one another and respect
the stories and experiences we bring to our learning community.
After
we have finished sharing our stories and events in our lives, I reach for my
guitar and begin plucking a few notes to see if it is in tune. The "music
director" takes the typed lyrics from the song box and passes them out to
each student. This weekÕs song is ÒHouse at Pooh CornerÓ written by Kenny
Loggins. This song is a ballad about Winnie the Pooh and his friends in the
Hundred-Acre woods. Students sing along with me as I accompany them with the
guitar. On Mondays, students listen as I sing the song to them. Tuesdays, we
look at the lyrics and talk about what the song means to us and what we think
the composer was trying to relate to their audience. By Friday, the students
will be singing along with me, and playing tambourines, maracas and other
percussion instruments.
After
we sing our song, I share the headlines from the local newspaper. We try to
keep track of any current events that pertain to us or we have been interested
in. Attendance is taken, announcements are made, and we are ready to begin the
reading workshop. I always begin the reading workshop with a read aloud I have
chosen specifically to go along with a study we are involved with. On this
particular day, the read aloud I have chosen is The Night of the Gargoyles
written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by David Weisner. This book is part of a
Òfocus unitÓ, where we have been studying the various types of illustrations
found in picture books and their relationship to the written text. The
illustrations in this particular book are created with black and white
charcoal, or pencil sketches. From high atop the ledges of buildings in New
York City, the gargoyles in this book come to life to gather at the fountains
and roam the night. The dark and foreboding pictures, add to the ominous mood
of this story.
As
I finish reading the book, students immediately begin to share their ideas
about the story, in particular the illustrations. I turn to a large chart
behind my rocking chair, and begin to write down some of the ideas that are
being discussed.
ÒThe black and white drawings make the story
more spookyÓ says one student.
ÒIt reminds me of an old black and white
monster movie I saw once.Ó
ÒI think he [David Weisner] lives in New
York City because we donÕt have gargoyles like that here in Phoenix.Ó
ÒThe gargoyles are ugly, but I like them.Ó
These are just some of the ideas offered
by my students.
As
the children continue discussing the book, I make some quick mental notes. The
book Jumanji and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van
Allsburg, would also offer new perspectives in our discussions. Where the
Buffaloes Begin illustrated by Stephen Gammell, Rome Antics by David
Macauley would be good books to include in this part of our focus unit as well.
Soon, we will be turning to other types of media used in picture books to
discuss, however for the time being, we are focusing on these black and white
illustrations and their relationship to the written text. These ideas about the
illustrations will continue to be part of our discussions all year, because of
the amount of picture books I read, and the importance of the relationships
between text and illustrations.
As
our discussion winds down, I check my workshop schedule to see who I am meeting
with today. Everyday, I have scheduled a short reading conference with five different
students before I begin meeting with any strategy or literature study groups. I
call over five different students to my table area, and ask them what they have
been doing during the reading workshop for the past week. This helps me keep
track of what each student is doing, what goals they have set for themselves
and the progress they have been making. It also provides me with the
opportunity to see if any problems have arisen. After I have met with the five
students, this takes about fifteen minutes, I am scheduled to meet with the
ÒWhipping BoyÓ literature study group. They have just finished reading the book
and today is the first day for their discussion. This should be exciting.
I
say, ÒOkay, Lets get started!Ó A group of six children head over to the
listening center, where they are enjoying a collection of poems read aloud by
various teachers in our school. I asked several teachers to choose their
favorite poems and read them into a cassette recorder. The students have been
enjoying the teachersÕ poetry selections and the sound of their voices reading
these poems.
Another group heads over to the art
supply center. They have just completed a literature study on the book AbelÕs
Island by William Steig, and are creating an illustrated map of what they
think the island Abel was stranded on might look like. They will be sharing
their artistic creation with the class in a few days. We are all looking
forward to their presentation.
Still
another nine or so children are headed for various spots in the room, books in
hand, for independent or paired reading. They have chosen their partners and
their own books. They assume the responsibility to make good choices about what
they are reading and make sure they have selected enough reading materials to
remain engaged for the entire block of time.
I
sit in with the literature study group reading Whipping Boy, written by
Sid Fleischmann, for about twenty minutes. The discussion begins with students
sharing their favorite parts of the story, and soon turns to issues of
fairness, as students express their concerns about Jemmy, the whipping boy,
having to endure another whipping for the actions of Prince Brat. It doesnÕt
take long for students to share examples of perceived injustices in their lives
or their experiences at school. We decide as a group that we want to focus on
the topic of fairness for the next few days. Students are given a supply of
post-its and are asked to go back and find some parts in the story that add
credence to their ideas concerning the topic of fairness. One student gets a
large sheet of chart paper and writes down some of the ideas discussed in the
group today. This chart will help us keep a visual ÒtrailÓ of our thinking and
the issues that have arisen in our discussion.
After
meeting with the lit group, I am scheduled to work with another group of six
children in what I call a Òstrategy groupÓ. I gather together five students,
from various activities in the room, for a short meeting. From the close
observations of my students, I have decided that these students need some help
using context clues in their reading. It seems that these students over-rely on
the Òsound-it-outÓ strategy as a primary strategy during their reading. I have
decided to use a ÒclozeÓ procedure, where I take a text and intentionally cover
some specific words to see what strategies they will use to predict what the
covered words could be. We meet for about fifteen minutes, discuss our
strategies for predicting the covered words, and then I ask students to try these strategies the next
time they are reading on their own and tell me how it works. I will meet with
them again next week to check on their progress.
I
walk over to the tape player and put on some soft jazz music. This is the
signal for students to take a few minutes and write down the names of the books
they have been reading in their reading logs. These logs are a simple form that
I created for students to keep track of all the various books and materials
they read during the year. It has columns for the date, the title of the book,
the number of pages and a small section for comments. By the end of the year,
these logs are filled with literally hundreds of books that children have been
exposed to during the reading workshop.
Within a few minutes, children begin to
gather on the rug for our Òsharing circleÓ. At the end of every reading
workshop, we gather together to share our ideas or concerns about our reading
or the workshop itself. Three girls eagerly share their ideas about a new book
they are reading together, called Absolutely Normal Chaos. This is
another book by Sharon Creech, author of the Newbery winning book Walk Two
Moons that I had just finished reading to the class last week. In this new
book, the character Mary Lou Finney is one of the characters that we met in Walk
Two Moons, and they are excited to follow along with more of her
adventures.
Some students share new titles they have
found, while others remain silent, listening to the comments of their peers.
One boy shares a new reading strategy that he learned at home with his father.
He realized that in the index of a non-fiction book, the page numbers that are
listed in bold print, are pages with illustrations. This has helped him with an
inquiry project focusing on the Grand Canyon he is working on. We talk about
this for a minute, looked at a non-fiction book from the classroom library as
an example, and decide as a group that this is an important strategy and should
be added to our reading strategies chart. I tell him to add it to the list on
the wall when he has the time.
It
is time for us to go to art class, so I ask the students to gather near the
door, and off we go.
I would consider this a rather typical
day in the life of our Reading Workshop. Although, reading aloud and reading
demonstrations takes place throughout the day, the reading workshop is a single
block of time dedicated to the exploration of literature and the development of
childrenÕs reading processes. Whether we are discussing the different types of
illustrations in selected picture books, or appreciating the beautiful language
in a new poem, the Reading Workshop provides the space and opportunities for
children to experience and discuss quality pieces of literature.
To
the unaccustomed observer, the reading workshop may look very chaotic, with
children doing a variety of things at the same time. However, the reading
workshop is not a haphazard jumble of events, rather, it is an active
environment where children work independently or in small groups on various
projects, deciding what to read, where to sit and with whom to work. It may
look ÒbusyÓ, but there is an underlying structure that helps children make
their own decisions, accept responsibility for their learning and provides
clear expectations for their behavior and the experiences they engage with.
The structure of the reading workshop
must be consistent enough to provide support for childrenÕs development, yet
remain flexible enough to respond to those Òteachable momentsÓ that arise in
the everyday events of the classroom. The decisions about what to teach are
made by a knowledgeable teacher in response to the needs of the children and
the resources available, rather than following the scope and sequence of a
commercially designed reading program.
Before I discuss my theoretical
understandings about reading and learning, the guiding principles that inform my
instructional practice, and the curricular components that make up the learning
experiences I provide in the Reading Workshop, I want to explain the various
events that were described in the opening scene. John Dewey expressed the
concern that what is taught today should build upon what was taught previously,
and should lead to what will be taught in the future. I believe that the
reading workshop should follow this premise. The experiences of todayÕs reading
workshop should build upon the experiences of the previous dayÕs workshop, and
lead to the new experiences of the coming days. It is important for the reader
of this book to understand how a single dayÕs reading workshop is structured
and operates, but it is also important, if not more so, to be able to
understand how the reading workshop operates over time.
As I
explained, our day begins with children sharing the entries in their literature
response logs that they completed for homework with a classmate. Each evening,
students are expected to read for at least half an hour, and to write an entry
in their response logs. These logs are a notebook that children use to record
their impressions, connections and wonderings about their readings. The format
of these literature response logs will be discussed in Chapter 9 on Evaluation.
After about fifteen minutes, I start a
song on the cassette player in my room to signal to students to put things away
and gather on the floor in the front of the room to begin our day. I use a song
that gives students enough time to put things away, and gradually fades out so
that they know when we are ready to begin our "Opening Ceremonies." I
have found that using particular songs for the transitions between classroom
events, allows children to monitor their time and be ready when we are ready to
start, without the teacher having to say anything.
These opening ceremonies are a ritual
that occurs each and every morning, and serves as a consistent way to talk to
each other, share the events and experiences of our lives and get off to a
great start for the day. I have found that beginning the day with the sharing
of the special events in our lives, allows us to get to know and respect each
other as members of our learning community. This form of Òshow and tellÓ or
community share, is an important time for students to be recognized and share
the experiences of their lives. It is also a time for me to learn more about my
students. I have learned a great deal from the interesting stories my students
have told, while it provides an opportunity for children to practice their oral
language skills.
After sharing our experiences in this
"community circle", I begin the Reading Workshop by reading a picture
book aloud to the group every day. The books that I read are not selected at
random, rather I choose books that are connected together by similar theme,
genre, authors or content topics. The reading aloud of picture books, poems,
chapter books and non-fiction materials, anchors the sounds of language in
children, builds community, introduces new authors, genres and titles and
provides an opportunity for children to discuss literature. It is an important
part of the reading workshop, and something that I do several times a day,
everyday. I use picture books in the writing workshop to introduce writing
craft, in the math workshop to help explain mathematical concepts, and in our
sciences workshop to share content information.
After reading and discussing a particular
book or poem, I use a comparison chart or a web chart to create a visual
representation of our thinking. These various charts are available in our room
for us to refer to as our studies progress, allowing connections to be made
across the discussions of different days. These charts will be discussed
further in Chapter 6 on Explorations. I feel it is important to keep visual
representations of our classroom learning experiences for students to revisit,
and to organize our thinking. These charts line the walls of our room, and
organize our studies.
When the discussion concerning the
picture book I have read winds down, I check my schedule to see what children I
am meeting with to have a reading conference. These reading conferences are
brief 2-3 minute discussions, where I check on what students have done in the
Reading Workshop for the past week. I make a few notes in my observational
record folder for that child and move on to the next child. This is my way of keeping
track of individual studentÕs progress, and checking to see if there are any
problems with reading I can help with. These conferences and my observational
record keeping system are explained in Chapter 9 on Evaluations.
After these brief reading conferences, I
am usually scheduled to meet with a literature study group, or a reading
strategy group, or both. I work with lit study groups typically three days a
week and reading strategy groups the other two days. These meetings take about
15-20 minutes each, depending on the topic and the discussion. In the reading
strategy groups, I have called children together for the purpose of
demonstrating an explicit reading strategy using a piece of authentic
literature. This will be explained in Chapter 8 on Instruction. In the lit
study groups, I am facilitating the discussion of a small group of children
around a particular childrenÕs novel. The discussions are designed to help
children Òdig deeperÓ into a piece of literature, and to help children make sense
of the story by sharing ideas with members of the group and listening to
othersÕ perspectives. These groups change as the books children are reading
change. More will be discussed on literature study groups in Chapter 7 on Investigations.
While I am working with these groups of
children, other children are working on various projects, reading independently
or in small groups, listening to books on cassette tape, preparing for a lit
study presentation or doing research for our unit of study in math or sciences.
Children assume a great deal of responsibility for their learning during the
reading workshop. They are expected to have a plan for the workshop and be able
to solve many of their own challenges. This arrangement does not come easy, nor
does it evolve without a great deal of patience, time and practice. By
involving students in the planning and procedures of the reading workshop,
students learn to assume responsibility for their development as readers and
the expectations we have created for our learning community. How I get to this
Òlevel of operationÓ will be discussed in Chapter 3 on Creating a Space for
Readers.
At the end of the workshop time, students
gather together in a circle to share their ideas. Like the authorÕs chair at
the end of the writing workshop, this share circle serves several purposes.
First, it allows children to hear about new books, authors and reading
strategies from their peers. Second, this sharing time adds to our growing
sense of community, as we learn to respect and live together throughout the
year. Finally, it acts as a ÒwindowÓ for me to assess childrenÕs progress, and
come to understand the challenges and experiences that children are having in
the classroom. In actuality, every workshop that we have, writing, math and
sciences, ends with a share circle. These sharing circles allows time for us to
reflect on our learning and hear the ideas and opinions of others in the
classroom.
<A>
Reflections
One
of the biggest challenges for me in designing my reading workshop, is to create
a framework that supports children's development as readers and provides a
consistent, predictable environment that allows children to be successful. Consistency
is an important aspect of the reading workshop, however, I don't want our
routines to become tedious and uninspiring. The structures I put in place need
to free children to be creative, to allow them to read and explore new texts
and to experience the joys of children's literature.
The
experiences that I provide in the reading workshop, are a blend of
"pre-planned engagements" and "response-centered
instruction." I don't go into the daily reading workshop unprepared,
however, I also don't go in unwilling to adapt my plans to address particular
needs that may arise. I have experiences planned ahead of time, but these plans
are flexible and I am always ready to change them in response to the needs and
interests of my students. The ability to provide learning experiences that
support children's development as competent readers, and to respond to the day
to day interactions in the reading workshop, is a crucial element in creating a
successful literature based reading environment.