Literacy Workshop
Daily literacy instruction is an integral piece of second grade! To foster skills in reading comprehension, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and writing we have a daily literacy workshop in our classroom. During this time children are engaged in a variety of activities and lessons that strengthen their literacy skills. Typically we begin our workshop with a whole class comprehension lesson. A read-aloud text is often used to model a comprehension strategy and students interact with the text by sharing questions, predictions, and inferences with a reading partner and the class. After a whole group lesson, children receive small group and/or 1-on-1 instruction with me each day. While a child is not working with a teacher s/he may be engaged in the following activities during Literacy Workshop:
Read to Yourself: The best way to become a better reader is to practice each day, with books you choose, at a just-right level!
Read to Someone: Reading to someone allows for more time to practice strategies, helping with fluency and expression, checking for understanding, hearing your own voice, and sharing in a learning community.
Work on Writing: Just like reading, the best way to become a better writer is to practice writing everyday!
Listen to Reading: Children listen to reading from CD’s and online storybooks. This allows children to hear examples of good literature and fluent reading. It also expands readers’ vocabularies.
Word Work: Spelling strategies allow for more fluent writing, thus speeding up the ability to write and get your thinking down on paper. Working with words benefits readers, as well as writers, as they explore how words are built and taken apart.
While children are engaged in their independent work, I work with small groups reading a text together (guided reading) or on word work activities. I also meet with individual students each day to confer about their reading or practice other needed skills. Throughout the workshop, children move from their literacy choice to brief whole group lessons to break up the session. At the end of Literacy Workshop we gather once again to share our new learning.
The CAFÉ Menu for Reading Strategies:
The “CAFÉ Menu” is a collection of highly effective reading strategies that the students will be taught to use, to help them become better readers. They are organized into four goals:
• C is for Comprehension: “I understand what I read.”
• A is for Accuracy: “I can read the words.”
• F is for Fluency: “I can read smoothly, with expression.”
• É is for Expanding Vocabulary: “I know, find, and use interesting words.”
During individual conferences, I will listen to your child read, help him/her pick a reading goal, and suggest a reading strategy that will help. I will provide coaching on how to use the strategy, and then meet back with your child at a later date to see if he/she has been able to use the strategy. Your child should be able to tell you exactly what goal he/she is working on: “I am working on my accuracy”, and his/her strategy: “I am looking for small words inside big words to help me read new words”. Research shows that when students know exactly what they need to work on, and why, they are much more successful in meeting their goals!
The “CAFÉ Menu” is a collection of highly effective reading strategies that the students will be taught to use, to help them become better readers. They are organized into four goals:
• C is for Comprehension: “I understand what I read.”
• A is for Accuracy: “I can read the words.”
• F is for Fluency: “I can read smoothly, with expression.”
• É is for Expanding Vocabulary: “I know, find, and use interesting words.”
During individual conferences, I will listen to your child read, help him/her pick a reading goal, and suggest a reading strategy that will help. I will provide coaching on how to use the strategy, and then meet back with your child at a later date to see if he/she has been able to use the strategy. Your child should be able to tell you exactly what goal he/she is working on: “I am working on my accuracy”, and his/her strategy: “I am looking for small words inside big words to help me read new words”. Research shows that when students know exactly what they need to work on, and why, they are much more successful in meeting their goals!
