One of the most difficult challenges in my first years of teaching was making the most of my Reader’s Workshop block. Finding a balance between teaching students reading skills tailored to their individual needs, giving students a solid block of reading time, conferring with students about their reading progress and holding students accountable for reading quality “just right books” was something I valued but could not efficiently manage for the life of me.
I read countless books and blog posts about experts and professionals who had it all down to a science. I followed their recipes and had days where the mini lesson went smoothly but the conferring was inefficient and vice versa.
One day I were perusing through the book fair after one of my parent-teacher conferences and stumbled upon my saving grace… another book about teaching reading. 🙂
But this one was far different from any other I had read. Donalyn Miller’s,
The Book Whisperer is one of those books you pick up and can’t put down…it fills your mind with inspiration and has you thinking about things in a whole new light. In this case, the whole new light was shining on reading instruction.
After reading Miller’s book over a weekend, I walked through the door on Monday morning with excitement pumping though my teacher veins. I had a whole new approach to teaching reader’s workshop…that Monday, I tried it…it worked and it’s been working ever since!
Over the next month, I am going to share the ins-and-outs of my Book Whisperer-inspired reader’s workshop. It is a time of day where my students and I read, share our excitement about reading, read more, write about reading, read more, talk about reading and read some more.
To celebrate the launch of this blog series, I am hosting a contest. One lucky winner will be sent their very own copy of
Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer to inspire reader’s workshop in their classroom. The contest runs from now until my next post in my Reader’s workshop Blog Series on Monday, January 27th. Feel free to enter daily! Good luck!
10 Responses
Congrats on your first giveaway! I am planning on doing one as soon as I hit a milestone in followers! LOL… I look forward to hearing more about your reading team time and how you are using this book. I have heard so much about it! I, too, just started my blog and TPT store this year. Glad I saw your post on TPT..
Susan
LopezLandLearners
Susan, I know what you mean about getting those followers…so much more difficult than the pros make it seem. 🙂 Thanks for following the TPT thread here!
I love my RW time in my class! I love when students are so excited and motivated to talk about the characters and what's happening in their books!
I have not really done Readers' Workshop in my classroom, but I've considered it. With all the new standards now, I need a new approach. This book sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing your excitement about it, and thanks so much for the chance to win it.
Jan, I hope you will pick up a few tips here to meet the needs of the updated standards. We are transitioning this year and I am finding this approach to R.W. fits in nicely! Can't wait to continue the conversation. Thanks for joining!
Love your blog! Right now, I am a reading intervention/instructional assistant. If I had my own classroom, I would love to use readers workshop! I have my masters in reading and I think this format is so important to have children grow as readers.
Kristin, how exciting to have attended a workshop about the book! Congrats on being a first year teacher. I took a peek at your blog and am so impressed by your classroom! Thanks for joining the conversation. 🙂
Thank you Jen! I just hopped over to your blog…love your Thinking Journals!! Glad you joined the conversation.
Cheers!
Laura
I worked super hard in Colorado to develop my reader's and writer's workshops. Now that I moved to Michigan I don't have the big blocks of time I did in the past, but I still very much believe in them and am trying to do as much as I can with the little time I have. 🙂
Thanks for the fun giveaway!
Katie
I Want to be a Super Teacher
I do a modified version of Daily 5 during my reading block. I too, am struggling a bit with conferring with students about their reading progress. Thanks for sharing your experience and giving us an opportunity to win this book (which sounds amazing).
Teacher Gone Digital