Readers Workshop

Reading Workshop this year began with minilessons focused on purposeful reading skills.  Using familiar "old favorite" fairy tales, we practiced these skills alone and with partners and carried them over to reading groups, reading independently (Read to Self in Daily 5) and reading with partners (Read to Someone in Daily 5).  We moved from narrative and fictional texts in the first trimester to literary non-fiction in the second trimester.  No matter what type of book or genre we read, these foundational Reading Workshop skills are tools kids use to understand and comprehend what they read.

Reading bracelets remind us to tell the story of what we read and examine the illustrations for details of the story, furthering our comprehension of what we read. 

We remember to "add a pinch of you" by telling what we are thinking throughout the story, giving our opinion, making comparisons and connections, forecasting predictions and retelling the story events in our own words.

Oral Storytelling: telling and creating oral stories builds overall literacy skills.  Here we created our own versions to a tale about white ghosts that changed colors by eating different colored foods.

We may not be able to read every word in a published trade book, but we know how to read the pictures, predict story events, and look for sight words that help us understand the story.

Each sticky note above represents a daily minilesson and practice either through private reading or with a partner to support our learning.

To strengthen our sight word knowledge we created class made books with familiar repetitive text which we read over and over again for multiple purposes.  Here reading and writing meshed together... we practiced writing skills such as spaces between words, stretching our sounds in a word, using upper and lowercase letters appropriately and adding punctuation.  By using theses in our writing, our reading selves looked for these tools to help us read sentences with more accuracy and confidence.  

A key tool for early readers is using a pointing "reading finger" that touches under each word we read, helping ensure we read every word, read what we point to, and then work on reading fluently. When we wrote our books we checked our writing before the class on the document camera.

It was fun to write these class books about our classmates!

Once the 14 class books were made we used them in many Reading Workshop minilessons for different purposes.  For example, one day we focused on our reading finger accuracy, on another the focus was on looking for and reading sight words, or words we know in a snap.  Other times we practiced scooping phrases to increase our reading fluency.  We also made our reading match the punctuation.  By using these familiar class-made books, kids could concentrate on the new reading skill and not be consumed with worrying if they could read every word.  

Anther purpose of the class made books is building partner reading skills.  Reading with anther person takes skill building... listening, asking questions, working together... all toward the joy of reading more and more.  Now when kids read with partners, they know their roles in a partnership.

Alphabet Letters and Sound Work

Since the first days of school we have focused on learning the names of all upper and lowercase alphabet letters and their corresponding sound for reading.  Our work has taken many forms both in individual work and in large and small group lessons.  Every literacy activity connects back to reading skills that build from knowing letter names and their corresponding sound.  Here is a snippet of that progression.

Most days begin with a Daily Message where we practice identifying letter sounds, writing letters and recognizing our SNAP words (sight words).  

In addition to sight words, we look for "chunk" sound patterns that help us figure out new words.

Many children come to school recognizing the names of uppercase letters.  It can be challenging to learn the names of lowercase letters which we need for reading books.  We practice strategies for recognizing visually confusing letters such as b, d, p, and q.  We progress to reading sentences, using a pointing reading finger to isolate words one at a time as we read.  We also pay attention to details such as spaces between words, and connect this skill to writing workshop, remembering to pre-count our words in a sentence, and place two finger spaces between each word.

Dictation: Automaticity is key to reading and writing letters.  We practice dictation by writing a letter when a teacher makes the individual sound.  Correctly forming the letter is also stressed so that when they write connected letters in words, they flow quickly from one letter to another.

Handwriting practice continues all year.  We are learning to read and write our full names with daily sign-in with name cards. 

We use a program known as Heidi Songs developed by a kindergarten teacher to learn chunk sounds. With short, memorable songs, the kids begin to attach a movement to sound... very similar to our FUNdations sound memorization of a/aaaaa/apple.  For example, "oo" as a chunk sound is remembered with a song about monkeys going "oo, oo, oo."  Just ask your child to sing one... in the photo above are oo, th, ch, sh, and ing pictured with a key card.  We have added or and ar since this photo was taken.  As kids read and write they recognize these sound patterns in words and can figure out words with a catchy song they remember.  We sing and dance these songs almost daily.