Student Guidelines for Reader's Workshop When They Aren't Meeting with Their Small Group

 

You must always be reading a book or writing your thoughts about your reading.

You need to work silently to enable you and your peers to do your best thinking.

Use a soft voice when conferring with the teacher.

Select books that you think you'll enjoy and abandon books that aren't working for you after you've given them a good chance.

 

Always do your best work.

These ideas came from Guiding Readers and Writers by Fountas and Pinnell

Literacy Expectations for Second Semester

Many teachers are wanting to know the expectations for LNW.  We have covered a lot during this first semester.  Second semester, teachers are expected to be practicing what we have covered during first semester LNW PD.  Here's what principals will be looking for:

Interactive Writing in Kindergarten

 Interactive Read Alouds Across the Curriculum

Strong Emphasis on Vocabulary

 

Teachers Getting to Know and Using the New Books in the Literacy Libraries

 

Teachers Using Running Records and Acuity Data to Drive Instruction

   

Reader's Workshop

Mini-lesson

Small Groups

Sharing

Students Writing about Their Reading in Reading Response Journals

Literature Circle Help!

Sometimes you might find it difficult to "fake it" when you're working with a group of students and you haven't read the book they're discussing.  Usually, asking general questions is enough.  Students almost always call each other out if something isn't right.  But, if you're uncomfortable not being very familiar with the book, there is something you can do!

Garrett Lowder shared these resources with us while we were visiting his classroom one day.

On shmoop.com, simply search the title of the book to find a summary of the book or chapter.  You do not need to create an account to view the summaries.

SparkNotes works the same way.  Simply search the title of the book, and voila (maybe)!

If all else fails, try a Google search for "chapter summaries for ________".
 
Remember, if you have a good resource that you use, share it with us!

FYI - Late Starts and LNW

If there is a late start on an LNW day at your building, LNW will be cancelled for the whole day and rescheduled.