Juli Kendall's Weekly
Reading Workshop Journal
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Self-selected members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List are joining
together to explore the Reading Workshop and other ideas about supporting
young adolescent readers. Juli Kendall, a reading teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Juli is also keeping
a weekly journal of her own Reading Workshop initiative. Find out more about
our project at our Reading Workshop homepage.
You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin
to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
Week #5
We're all growing together
in the Reading Workshop
"I never want to teach Reading any other way again. This is so much
better." -- Teacher after 3 weeks of modeled Reading Workshop
lessons
When it all comes down to it, we in Education like having our own classrooms.
It can be very difficult for educators to share areas. So when I was asked
to spend mornings working in another teacher's room to establish a good
environment for struggling readers, I experienced some feelings of uncertainty.
Teaching in someone else's space can be very problematic. But it has turned
out to be an exciting experience for the students, the teacher and me.
My classroom has always been a very personal place where I determine all
the physical, emotional, social and educational parameters. This poor teacher
was about to have her space "invaded" on a daily basis for a year!
Imagine having someone "take over" for 3-4 hours a day. So we
set out to forge a relationship.
She needed to spend quite a bit of time to recreate her classroom. She wanted
to change what was displayed on the walls as well as rearrange furniture,
bookshelves, cabinets, seating, computers, etc. So I suggested that while
I started the Reading Workshop at the beginning of the year, she work on
what she referred to as "de-cluttering." This way she could spend
the initial start up time getting everything in the room just the way she
wanted it. At the same time, she could get a feel for how I teach and what
expectations I have for the students during Reading Workshop.
It took about 15 days for her to "de-clutter" and start working
with the students. But this wasn't wasted time. She added a large Independent
Reading Rubric to the walls, as well as a huge alphabetical word wall and
an enormous generic writing rubric. She posted Benchmark question stems
in large print and a chart showing students' scores on weekly Reading Comprehension
quizzes. She set aside a large area for exhibits of students' work. She
completely rearranged the furniture and reorganized and enlarged her collection
of books. She organized these by level for Independent Reading, Partner
Reading and Guided Reading.
The whole time she was working, she was "listening" and learning
about Reading Workshop. She now has a good feel for how slowly I go and
how much I reteach. This going slow in order to speed up reminds me of "The
Tortoise and the Hare." Persistence and commitment win the race.
A year-long reading seminar
Recently she described the time we will spend together as "a year long
seminar on Reading." We have 1/2 day for planning once a month but
it is really the short daily conversations we have that help us know where
the students are and where we need to go next. We base our teaching decisions
on the information we get from students during Individual Reading Conferences,
the running records that we take while students are reading and other information
we get from observing readers, listening to their discussions and evaluating
Reading Journals.
At this same time, she also became an astute observer of students who are
"doing" Reading. After James and Rattanak ended their Partner
Reading session by saying, "We talked about the book. Give me 5!"
She was so excited that she ran over to tell me the news.
Several days later, she noticed that students were spending time after lunch
talking about chapter books and how many they want to read this year. (Just
a reminder p; these students all fall into the category of "reluctant
readers.") She mentioned that she had never heard that kind of conversation
before.
Then, after just 4 weeks, as Johana and Chandra, our most at-risk readers,
moved from 1st grade to 2nd grade books with a great deal of pride, she
shook her head with amazement. "These kids are really learning to read."
Using Reading Workshop as the framework for collaboration and learning,
we are working to create a rigorous, yet appropriate instructional program
for each of the 24 students. But it is the classroom teacher's response
to Reading Workshop and the growth of her students that has been most dramatic.
How much fun to be a part of such an exciting classroom!
Coming next p; Daily Interactive Read Alouds
See Juli's October curriculum map.
Read Juli's next journal entry
Read Juli's previous journal entry
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
Back to Juli's journal index
Back to the Reader Workshop Index Page