Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Twenty-Two

So, we returned back to school for term three last week. Unfortunately, it looks to be shaping up as a very chaotic term. Year 7s have camp, Year 6s have QCATs (more testing) and the school has been turned into a construction zone!

We began the term off with a huge book talk, where I introduced the books I'd read over the holidays. We also tallied up our books - nearly 100 read over the holidays between the whole class.

We began small group work last week. We're going to be focusing a lot on mysteries this term, so we completed a short mystery comprehension, looking at what the elements of a mystery were and retelling the story. The students enjoy working in the smaller groups, and we're working hard not to let those small lessons eat too much into reading time.

Popular books: well Alex Rider and CHERUB remain popular, as does the Battle Boy books. There's an air of anticipation for the final Hunger Games book. A lot of students were also eager to read Tomorrow When the War Began and Chasers. And they begged me to bring in the Dance Academy books I bought for myself, thinking no one would want to read them!

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Fourteen

Well, this was the week we did it - the students have broken through 500 books read since the beginning of the school year! At the same time, I broke through 100 books, so we're all feeling very accomplished.

This was the week that poetry came to the fore, with immense interest in Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. The boys in my class, some of whom have been writing really great poetry, particularly loved the beginning - boys don't write poetry. Most of the boys who have been reading this have also been reading Shelter Dogs which I bought on my recent informational book spree. (I've built a decent collection of informational books now!)

We focused on test preparation this week, using an old Grade Nine test paper to show the kids that the same skills are useful at all levels. The mantra in our room is REREAD REREAD REREAD! a skill that is actually quite difficult for Gifted children. They went home wih strict instructions to do no homework but reading- the tests are next week . . .

I've also begun a blog for the kids - What Do I Read Now? Inspired by what I've read of Teri Lesesne's Reading Ladders (I've actually put the book down, which was really, really hard to do, so I could mull over it) I've begun making clearer connections between books, and I'm encouraging the students to do the same. I hope the students will be able to use the website to make their own connections (as I get it going) and find new books to try.

In my own reading, I've been really trying to fill the gaps I had from the recent Top 100 Children's Books. I'd never read Bridge to Terabithia before, so that was a revelation (of course I knew the ending, but it didn't stop it being really sad) I've also read The Westing Game (wow) and I'm currently reading The Tale of Desperaux.

Talking of The Westing Game - on Friday I devoted the first part of the day to Book Talks. I book talked Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief (read it!) and then The Westing Game. I was amazed at the response to it, though I suppose the children were interested in the links between it and books like 39 Clues. I also really enjoyed the student's book talks which included Joey Pigza, Love that Dog, The Recruit and other current favourites.

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Eleven

So, with the Easter break over, we're all back for the longest term of the year. Not all fun and games of course, with our national testing right smack bang in the middle, and report cards due at the end of the term, but it is shaping up to being a good reading term.

It's not easy getting back into school after a holiday, and even harder, I discovered, when you've just come back from an overseas holiday! But we all knuckled down and began the term off with some new books and good reading. We were thrilled that our holiday reading took us up over 400 books read since February.

Our first task of the term was a book letter, to allow the students to reflect on last term and make goals for this term. A lot of the students want to try harder books, while some want to try a different series or genre. Some have made goals to make more time for reading.

We've also begun our test preparation, with students in Grade 5 and 7 required to take this test in May. Although they all did well in the practice tests, there's always room for improvement, so this week we covered active reading, reading directions and rereading.

The Percy Jackson series remained popular this week, and the girls finally got their hands on The Hunger Games. There are definately more students reaching for informational texts, as well as an increase in interest in the Looking Glass Wars (probably associated with the Alice in Wonderland movie). Another interesting development is the number of students who are now borrowing from the local council library, as well as students talking about visiting book shops with their families!

Next week brings more test preparation as well as the first of new books I've ordered coming in - now I just need to get through the big pile of books I have here!

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Nine (and part of week 10)

This will be my last post of the term, as my husband and I are soon off on holiday. We're heading overseas, and I'm really excited by it. I'll be back in about 2 weeks time.

Last week was a huge week in Reader's Workshop. We began focusing on informational texts, identifying the good ones in the class, making lists of more topics we'd like to know about and talking about the mechanics of informational texts. We also received three new books during the week - The Story of London, Amelia to Zora and Shelter Dogs, which helped keep the excitement up.

The students put up with being videoed and photographed for my professional development, with one kindly doing a conference on tape. They were thrilled with the short video I put together highlighting the Reader's Workshop, though I was told to make the music happier.

The professional development was a real success, and we had a visit from another class in the school to show how we did mini-lessons and book talks. They brought some new ideas with them, which added to our knowledge.

Popular books this week? Well Smile is still up there, along with Percy Jackson, but the latest is Conspiracy 365, which I managed to snaffle the fourth in the series on Thursday. There's going to be 12 all up and I cannot keep them on the shelves. There's a great trailer here.

Have a great two weeks, and I'll be back with more posts about Reader's Workshop, reading, book recommendations and links after I've rested and flown around a bit :) 

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 :)

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Seven

The Week That Wasn't.

Well for me it wasn't anyway. Due to a number of things needing to be done this week, I spent a grand total of one day and one role marking time with my students. It's difficult to be out of class that long - even more difficult when you run a classroom a little differently from other classrooms, and you have to try to explain that to the supply teacher.

When I finally got back in the room on Friday, I was anxious to see what they were reading. The Ranger's Apprentice series is taking off in popularity, along with the Percy Jackson books (a lot of kids borrowed them from the library to supplement the copies I have in the classroom.) Wendy Mass books remain popular, with Every Soul a Star a highly sought after choice. Several of my boys are also picking up Dork Diaries to read, definately not turned off by the bright pink cover.

Instead of just book talking on Friday, I read the first part of a couple of books. It worked well with The Wednesday Wars - straight into a reader's hands. I also put Lush by Natasha Friend and Millicent Min Girl Genius by Lisa Yee onto the shelves.

Finally, several students have finished their book trailers this week, and we previewed them in the computer lab. It was great to hear the students praising the efforts of others, and I was interested to see which books were chosen. Perfect and 11 Birthdays were popular, as was Ranger's Apprentice. They're so excited about reading, making the classroom a really exciting place to be.

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Six

This was the Week of Cranky.

It began with the release of a draft national curriculum which (in the eyes of the politicians) equates grammar and phonics with reading, and says nothing about enjoyment of a book. It continued through a week of practice testing, two months before the actual national test, topped off with a late night of parent teacher interviews, and finished with an overly-long assembly which ate all our reading time. Plus wet-weather lunches, which meant the kids did not go out in fresh air for 7/10 of the breaks this week. (Queensland children do not cope with being under cover). I think we all wore a delightful pair of cranky pants this week.

Despite our reading time being severely curtailed, there were some really good things, reading wise, going on in the classroom. One of my students finished Hatchet and its sequel, and is now working his way through two other Hatchet related books from the school library. His enthusiasm is infecting all the children who sit at his table, so I can see Hatchet being read more widely. One of my students has nearly finished The Hunger Games and was telling me (and his mother) how good, and sad, and wonderful it was. One of the girls finished The Truth about Forever overnight - keeping her in books will be my challenge this year. And there's anticipation about the eight new books I have almost ready to put into the library.

The testing practice was interesting. Considering we're two months out from the test, I was thrilled to see the results, particularly in grammar and punctuation, writing and reading. The students who had me last year and had experience with reader's workshop did best, especially the boys who floored me with their high scores in reading. The writing was my favourite to mark though, because I can see the influence of reading in their writing - little twists of plot and character which really stand out. And the simile "it's a secret bigger than your grandma's underwear" . . .

The parent-teacher interviews were uplifting. Stories about kids reading until late (up to two hours a night), devouring all the books the parents can buy, and enthusiastically sharing their reading with their parents. Also parents mentioning that they've noticed an improvement in writing, and even their child's regard of others. And they all love the classroom library.

Then there's the boys writing letters and developing websites about 39 Clues . . .

So, despite the cranky pants, it was a week which proved to me that Reader's Workshop in my room is real and it's working. Which definately lessens the cranky a little :)

Photo from flickr

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Five

Wow. Half way through the term already. We had a busy, busy week this week. We delved into thinking about the main idea, our own background knowledge and how to condense a plot into 5 words :) Reading buddies worked really well here, as students tried to summarise their whole plots!

The individual reading is going well in the classroom, spurred on by my own reading from last weekend (I read 6 books, including the latter three Percy Jackson books). Smile by Raina Telgemeier was a massive new inclusion to the classroom library, with the girls all begging to be next to read it, and one girl immediately rereading it. (BTW I highly recommend it - I absolutely loved it). The Grade 7s are also working their way through Juggling with Mandarins (published as Out of Reach in the US) by V. M. Jones. I'm setting one book a term as a compulsory read for them, though there's no worksheets or vocabulary, just discussion to follow. The Grade 6s and 5s just want the Grade 7s to finish so they can read the book too.

Unfortunately, we're required to run full practice NAPLAN tests next week. So we spent some time renaming it 'You Know What' and 'That which must not be named' before a quick run through what the testers are looking for. We came up with a routine which involved reading it through 'in the zone', then rereading again looking for the 'Three Fs' - important Facts, Figurative language, and Finding similar words. We'll look at this more clearly before the real test - really point out how much of a different genre the test is.

Finally we had a fun Friday when I premiered my first book trailer (for The 6th Grade Nickname Game by Gordon Korman, which I placed in my classroom library after the trailer aired. It stayed on the shelf for, oh, well about 2 minutes). The kids really enjoyed the trailer, and when we went down to the computer lab, they all had a go at making their own using Movie Maker and Paint.net (I wish we had a better graphics program at our school). One, for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, was particularly effective and I jumped when Medusa appeared on the screen.

On Friday we also finished our first read-aloud of the year. Parvana (also known as Breadwinner) by Deborah Ellis, was a huge hit with the class, even if they didn't all enjoy it at the start. A lot of them are asking about the sequals which are in our school library. On Tuesday (I'm out of the class Monday), we'll begin to read Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin, which I quickly previewed yesterday.

To top off this huge week of reading, we added a new poster to our classroom door which has been a talking point to my students and any who go by. It shows how many books the students have read since the beginning of the school year (153), how many I have read (54) and what some of our favourites are - our little way of spreading the reading bug to others around us :)

 

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Four

How can we be into Week 4 already? This round up is a little late, due to a weekend at the beach - but it is here!

Unfortunately the week started off poorly. I was away at training (which pushed me to write my post on how real readers don't use highlighters) and the substitute decided to make students write, rather than having a discussion and then reading. Students were confused, and precious reading time cut down. Sigh.

As for the rest of the week. Well we talked about plot a lot. We talked about how things can go well or badly for characters, and we listened to a lot of passionate book talks. They are really going well at the moment.

I also finally got the book buddies together (it was so great to see the kids jumping up to show others books they should read) and we launched our first sneak attack and read before our very long assembly.

Finally we finished the week with our second lot of book letters. These were written at the computer lab, and aren't as good quality. I think I might have to move book letter day to Thursday and stick with the old fashioned pen and paper. I will try to respond to all the letters this time as a bit of a surprise.

Photo from Flickr

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Three

So, onwards to week three. A week in which student leaders were inducted, classes were switched and giant chess pieces arrived (so a regular sort of week then). Also my first full week of the year!

So how did Reader's Workshop go this week?

Well we moved on from thinking about ourselves as readers, and began thinking about our characters. Specifically who is around them, what is their situation, what is their personality like, what do they want and what it standing in the way of that? We talked about strong characters, created a class character map about Parvana from Breadwinner (like a mind map, focusing on family, situation/circumstance, personality and motivation - I'll try to get an image up of it soon) and students created maps of their own characters (lots of Aubreys and Dan Cahills). Friday was a bit of a wash out, since the chess pieces arrived when we were reading and we had to go out and watch the epic game between one of my year 6s and one of next door's year 7s (my guy won, after considerable help was given to both sides).

What was a great success was the beginning of book talks. Students still need to think about summarising (might do a short lesson on that this coming week) and 'selling' the book, but overall they're really getting the kids to think about books they want to read, and each other as readers.

As for the books they are reading? Well, 39 Clues is huge at the moment, so I got a couple more for the room. Also big is the Wendy Mass books, The Wednesday Wars and Totally Joe.  My best reader is digging his way into an adult mystery, and really enjoying it - he says he has to work harder to read it.

I didn't get to start book buddies this week, but will definately next week. We move onto discussing plot next week - looking how things move through a book - but I'm off on a PD session Monday, so it might be tight to fit everything in. I think I can pick up some of it in Writer's Workshop though, since we're looking at narratives there.

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week Two

Yay! Survived the second week of school and Day 8 number changes! (In Qld our enrolements are checked on the 8th day of school to see whether you gain or lose a teacher. Numerous changes follow in classes after Day 8, and for the last 3 years, I've been affected by those changes. Very happy not to be changed this year!)

I was away Thursday at a post-operative appointment, but other than that the week went by calmly. Most of the students are right into their books (or their third, fourth or fifth books) and there's a lot of wanting books that haven't been read yet. Book talks are going well as I move through my pile of new books, and Thursday included the first student book talks (apparently one student was very enthusiastic about The Hunger Games). Love, Aubrey also looks like it's going to be a huge hit.

Monday's mini lesson was the best - I found video of a really bad and a really good book talk and we talked about the difference in them. For the rest of the week I wasn't as organised, which is something I really want to improve on, so those mini lessons fell a little flat.

On Friday, the students wrote their first book letters. They wrote about their personal experiences with the book they had read (though some had to use a book they were half way through or read last year) - as set out here. I think the example letter was particularly good, and a lot of kids followed that basic format. Overall it was a real success and I was thrilled with their responses, particularly their summaries.

Goals for next week - to be more organised in mini lessons and work on talking about books and reading more effectively.

Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup: Week One

One thing I hope to do throughout the school year is a Reader's Workshop Weekly Roundup (RWWR), with a brief reflection on the week that was. As we've just finished our first week of school (a half week, really) it's a good place to start!

The three days we had school this week were absolute stinkers - as hot as anything, with the humidity through the roof. Sitting still could leave you covered in sweat. So, as we dripped through the days, I was aware that the students were tired, uncomfortable and by Friday as grumpy as I was. Nevertheless, with Reader's Workshop right at the beginning of the day, I found that we were slipping into a nice, comfortable community feel.

The mini lessons this week were all about setting up Reader's Workshop. We began on Wednesday by talking about the routine - mini lesson, book talks, reading - and completing Reading Surveys. On Thursday by talking about book choice and meaningful books, and we finished the week up on Friday with setting up our Reader's Notebooks. The last lesson was essential by then, as a few students had already finished their first books and needed a place to record them. I introduced a 'wish list' for students to use so they could write down books they wanted to read during book talks, and I noticed this was widely used (yay!)

There were some real highlights this week - the new books I introduced seemed to be winners, particularly Al Capone Does My Shirts (onto its second student) and Hatchet (I got two copies and both are being read). I also noticed a lot of students delving into older books in the library - Young Bond and Cherub were both represented, along with a few books of ghost stories I own. One new Grade 5 student (I have 5/6/7, but all but one of the Grade 6s and 7s have had me as a teacher before) triumphantly told me she'd never read a 'big book' (regular middle grade size novel) before this week, and she'd never read as many pages. I've also had some really positive parent feedback about the reading.

It was also great to have the principal (he's been our deputy for years - it's so hard to think of him as principal!) come through the class and call them the best class in the universe!

Some things I need to address in the future - sticking with a book because you think it might get better or is worth reading, and giving up a book that's just bad; how to talk about a book and your reading (I think I need to model some reading thinking - any ideas?); using sticky notes to mark notable pages/passages. I have ideas for mini lessons for some of them, and I think that I'll need to watch reinforcement in mini-lessons as well.

All in all, a great start to the year.