Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Eight

How did we get to Week Eight already?

That means we have only two weeks to go, and I only have a week and a half before I'm off on a swift trip to Japan.

This week was all about getting back into our routine, after a week out of the classsroom. Percy Jackson stayed popular, as well as 39 Clues. The seventh graders have nearly all finished Juggling with Mandarins (Out of Reach) and are looking forward to a discussion of the book next week. In our mini-lessons, we began talking about first-draft reading, and how we should approach an unknown or complex piece of text.

Friday was school photo day, and I was really hoping to sneak in some extra reading (Thursday was extra sneaky with assembly time, only just got the books collected in time), but alas we were the first photo of the day, so there was no waiting. Also on Friday, I talked to the children in preparation for my professional development on Wednesday. I asked them what they enjoyed most about Reader's Workshop (time to read, choice of books, being able to talk about and promote books) and if they felt they had become better readers since they'd been doing Reader's Workshop (emphatic yes - quicker reader, trying more difficult books, better imagination, better vocabulary.) I'm looking forward to putting this forward to my colleagues on Wednesday.

Next week we keep going with first draft reading, begin a week and a half celebration of informational books and have a good book discussion for Juggling with Mandarins :)