What Does Reader's and Writer's Workshop Look Like?

Each day, the students spend the morning engaged in writer's workshop and then reader's workshop. Workshop time involves a two hour long block (one hour for reading and one hour for writing) in which the students are working on developing their literacy skills. Each workshop time is broken down like this:

Mini Lesson: I bring the kids to the rug for 10-15 minutes to explicitly teach a skill or strategy to them within the unit we are working on. For example, we are still in the "Launching" unit which is centered around establishing reading and writing routines. Typically, I model the strategy and show students how they can use the strategy in their reading or writing. I incorporate turn and talks so the students can reflect on what they saw me do or what I was teaching them. 

Independent Practice: Students spend time reading or writing to practice the skill taught. During this time, students are either independently reading/writing, working with a partner, or meeting in a small group with me to develop reading and writing skills. For reading, each student has their own book bag filled with "just right" books at their level. For writing, each student has their own writing folder that houses pieces of writing they are working on about events that have happened in their own lives.

Share: Students are given the opportunity to share with a partner or group to reflect what they worked on as a reader or writer. Share time can happen in a variety of ways. Sometimes, I let students share with a partner or small group. Other times, I may ask a few students to share their work to the whole class so I can highlight something they did as a reader or writer that I want everyone else to see. It's also a great way for the kids to give positive feedback to one another!

The structure of reader's workshop and writer's workshop will always stay the same. We will always do a mini lesson, independent practice and a share time every time. What changes is the units of reading and writing we are working on. For example, in reading our next unit will be centered around "Tackling Tricky Words". In writing, we will start our "Journaling" unit. This structure is great because once the routine is in place, it gives me ample time to conference with students and pull small groups to meet all the individual needs of your little learners!