Challenges to Implementing a Workshop Approach to Reading Instruction

Dr. Frank Serafini – Assistant Professor – UNLV

I have spent the last six years conducting workshops across the United States, and teaching graduate and undergraduate classes that focus on workshop approaches to reading and writing instruction. For the most part, my experiences and instructional approaches have been readily accepted by classroom teachers without incident. However, it has not been without some reservation. In this position statement, I will address the various challenges that classroom teachers have offered concerning why they don’t feel they can implement a workshop approach in their classrooms. I believe that all of the challenges these teachers offered are legitimate concerns, however, they should be addressed, discussed, and can be overcome.

The Pressures of High Stakes Testing – This is by far the biggest challenge offered about implementing a workshop approach to reading instruction. Their challenge is, “How do we prepare students for standardized tests if we don’t teach to the test during reading instruction?” Since, many of the expectations for being a successful reader in the reading workshop are drastically different from those expectations for readers on a standardized tests, I suggest we separate test preparation from reading instruction. In other words, rather than teaching reading as a single ability that can be used with poetry, newspapers, novels and test passages, I suggest we teach standardized test passages as a separate genre. In another position statement on this site, I share some thoughts about how this genre study might go. The most important thing about this approach is that it helps readers understand that reading for a test and reading in the reading workshop may focus on different skills and processes.

Administrative Pressures – In today’s public schools, administrators are under tremendous pressures to raise test scores and produce evidence that their school is not leaving any child “behind.” Some administrators do not support workshop approaches to reading instruction, preferring instead the implementation of a commercial program or scripted lesson format. I believe that this has more to do with control than with concerns over effective teaching. Since, reading workshops rely on both pre-planned experiences and response-centered instructional approaches, all lessons cannot be scripted out in advance, or contained in a little box in a teacher’s lesson book.

Many administrators require teachers to write out their lesson plans a week, sometimes a month, in advance and be turned in to be evaluated. This gives them some false sense of accountability, but also lets everyone know who is in charge. When teachers are trusted, and principals have faith in teachers ability to teach reading, they may require teachers to turn in reflections AFTER the week I over to discuss how the lessons went and how they are going to use the information to create the next week’s curriculum. Teachers should be able to explain how their teaching aligns with state and district standards, but also how it aligns with what they know about their students and the topic under consideration. Not all quality instruction can be planned out in advance. Teaching is a responsive, human activity, not a technical act that can be scripted.

Whether we like it or not, it is part of our job to educate our administrators as to why we teach the way we do. Many of them have not read the professional articles and books we have, nor have they taken classes or attended workshops and conferences that focus on teaching reading. Unfortunately, I know very few principals that attend in-services with their teachers. This is a tragedy. As teachers of reading and readers, we need to be able to articulate the theoretical foundations upon which we develop our instructional practices, explain how we adequately deal with the mandated standards and testing requirements and why we are offering the instructional approaches we provide. Until we as teachers explain why we teach the way we do to wider and wider audiences, we will struggle against those that feel they can script lessons and dictate how to teach. If these changes don’t work, consider finding a school where you “philosophy of teaching can survive.”

Access to Reading Materials, Primarily Quality Literature – Another legitimate concern is the lack of resources provided for workshop approaches. So much money in districts go to basal readers and commercial programs that there is little left over for trade books and literature. What a shame! Like my first year of teaching, many teachers don’t have access to a large classroom library. Over time I have amassed a large literature collection, but it takes time and money. I spent my own money on books (about $4,000 per year), ordered books from book clubs, borrowed extensively from other teachers, made good friends with the school and public librarians, and asked administrators for financial assistance. I also joined the library selection committee, when there was one, to insure that the books I wanted were being ordered.

If you have 30 students in your room, you need at least 300 quality books to get started with a literature based, reading workshop. I would prefer 3000 but I am an idealist. One of the foundations of a workshop approach is choice, and you can’t have choice if there are no books to choose from. Seek donations from wherever you can. Get to know retiring teachers and find out what they are doing with their collections when they leave. Garage sales, used book stores and parent contributions have all added to my collection.

Lack of Knowledge of Children’s Literature – Although, many teachers would not readily admit this, many teachers attempting a workshop approach to reading instruction don’t have enough knowledge of children’s literature to know what is available or how to use what they have. Not only do we need to remain current with what is being published, as well as know the classics, we need to be able to discuss literary devices, the art in picture books, the interplay between illustrations and text and how readers make meaning in transaction with literature.

For many teachers, a refresher course in children’s literature would enhance their ability to teach in a reading workshop. Spending some Saturday mornings in a local children’s book store may help as well. Teachers also need to read professional articles and publications that focus on literature and reading workshop in study groups. Reading these books is greatly enhanced if teachers are provided time to talk about what they are reading. Create teacher study groups where you read children’s literature along with professional materials.

In the mornings, on my drive to school I would listen to young adult novels on tape in my car. I read young adult novels when I am working on the stair-master (trying to keep my figure, you know). I have decided to only read novels that have been positively reviewed because I don’t have time to read poorly written novels. The Newbery and other award winning books is where I start. The more I know about quality children’s literature, the better able I am to put the best books in a child’s hands.

The Politics of No Child Left Behind – There is nothing written in the NCLB law or the National Reading Panel Report that says you can’t use a workshop approach to teaching reading. No where! Some people have tried to interpret the NRP report as mandating scripted, isolated lessons, but it does not say that in th report. The NRP document wants you to be able to articulate the role that direct, explicit instruction plays in your workshop. My new book, entitled Comprehension Lessons: Explicit Instruction in the Reading Workshop, out in summer 2004 from Heinemann, explains what I mean by explicit instruction and the role it plays in my reading workshop. The book will also offer 70 mini-lessons for the reading workshop. We may have to explain how we are teaching reading, but that does not mean we can’t do it in a workshop approach.

Scripted Instructional Mandated Programs – Basically, if your school and administrator requires you to use a scripted program you have five (5) choices, other than quitting teaching:

· change schools

· change the administrations mind about the program

· close your door and teach the way you want in secret

· adapt the program to fit your workshop

· adapt your workshop to fit your program

Some of these choices may not be available to you, but you have to decide how important it is to you and your students.

When Do I Teach Skills? – Like a pasta commercial once said, “It’s In There!” Skills are taught everyday in my reading workshop, I just don’t use worksheets to do it, nor do I isolate my instruction from authentic reading events. Reading for meaning is primary, any text that has no meaning (worksheets, Daily Oral Language, Accelerated Reader quizzes) have no place in my workshop. There are numerous professional articles and publications that describe how skills are taught in workshop approaches. This is no longer a legitimate concern.

Classroom Management Concerns: One of my least favorite concerns is the concern over classroom management. For many teachers, it is a concern over losing control over every aspect of instruction. However, if you are following a scripted program, you don’t have any control already. This concern may be legitimate, no one wants to spend time in a chaotic classroom, but it is wrong focused. Having challenges managing a class is no excuse for providing inferior instruction.

Many teachers refer to workshop approaches as “unstructured” and the traditional “sit in rows” as structured. I disagree!! When students sit in rows, all doing the same thing at the same time, with only the teacher knowing what is happening next, it is extremely unstructured. Structure is develop by consistency in procedures and the sharing of responsibility with students. When students know what to do next, there is more structure than when they wait for the teacher’s next directions. My reading workshop was always highly structured, only it wasn’t structured like traditional instruction. By transferring some of the responsibility to students, teachers are able to work alongside readers and small groups. It takes time to get there, but the rewards are worth it.

Varying Levels of Student Experience - This concern is actually one of the reasons for implementing a workshop approach to reading instruction. A reading workshop is a more responsive, child-centered environment that can use classroom based assessments to guide the reading curriculum. There are no scripted lessons, or a one-size-fits-all mentality. Having all students working on the same book at the same time is about control and teacher comfort, not effective teaching.

The reading workshop focuses on changing the way we think and talk about texts. Readers define what it means to read and be a reader as they learn how to read. Many students come to intermediate grades with deeply held beliefs about school, reading and what is expected of them. It takes time and support to help readers understand the new expectations set for them in a workshop approach. They are required to assume more responsibility for selecting what to read, for making sense of their reading, and for sharing and negotiating what they think about a text. The experiences students have had before they come to my class affects how they respond to the new environment, but does not preclude them from being successful.

Parental Expectations – Parents want to see a classroom environment that reminds them of the one they remember until we can demonstrate why the way our classrooms operate is better than what they experienced. We need to enroll our parents in “Parent University”, a series of workshops designed to help them understand how we teach and the theories that underlie our practices, to help them understand why a workshop approach is superior to sitting in rows reading the same book about in round robin fashion. To do this, we need to talk to parents in jargon-free language, model for them what their children will experience throughout the day, and be able to articulate why we do what we do.

Once parents trust what we are doing, they become allies in their child’s learning. Continuous reporting of student progress and well-planned parent nights can help. We need to explain where our curriculum will come from and how we will deal with standardized assessments. This doesn’t guarantee that all parents will buy into what we are doing, but more of them will.

Peer Pressure – “All the other teachers at my school do it this way, and I have to work with them everyday!” This is by far the lamest excuse for not changing your teaching practices. Just because other teachers haven’t read an article in ten years or attended a conference, doesn’t mean you have to teach like they do. Lounge talk is NOT professional development. The “way things used to be” wasn’t as great as we would like to remember. This is a profession, not a job, so act like a professional. Professionals think about what they are doing, they take classes and attend workshops to improve their practice, they keep current in the literature of their field, they share and discuss ideas with other professionals. Once you stop growing, you’ll fall off the vine.

Misconceptions of Reading and Reading Comprehension – Whether we acknowledge it or not, what we believe about reading and learning to read will affect how we teach. Until we are able to put aside outdated models and understanding of the reading process, the changes we make in our teaching practices will be largely cosmetic. It may look different, but the theory hasn’t changed. For example, just because a teacher is using chapter books instead of a basal doesn’t mean her practice has changed. She may be giving chapter quizzes, asking students literal recall questions and assuming their is one correct main idea in every book. The resource has changed but a “modernist” theory of reading and meaning dominates her beliefs about reading. There is an article on this website entitled, “Perspectives on Children’s Literature: Modernist, Transactional and Socio-Cultural perspectives’ that explores this idea in greater detail.