Flash Freebie!!!! Reading Workshop Unit Is FREE for 24 Hours!

Check it out!  Teacher's Notebook has this awesome new feature called Flash Freebies!  For 24 hours, Monday at 8am until Tuesday at 8am Teaching Upstairs is giving away 25 Launching Units for Reader's Workshop!!! This unit is adaptable for grades 3-5 and is based on the work of Lucy Calkins! Other units are available in our store. Watch for more Flash Freebies coming soon!!! 

Where Are The Super Readers?

“Plato said, ‘What is honored in a country will be cultivated there.’ Teachers who honor literacy provide special spaces and material in their classrooms to promote literacy development as an integral part of the total school curriculum”Morrow, 1989

When a young student enters a classroom, are they expected to become a successful reader? I have seen and heard of many teachers that do not expect this of all of their students. I have been in classrooms where teachers will ask their “readers” to come to the front of the classroom and pick out a book to read to a classmate who is “not yet reading”. One may wonder whether that teacher would be struck by those words if he or she was able to look in from the outside? The teacher may have made this statement because their opinion of what a “reader” is not developmentally appropriate. In contrast, this teacher should be labeling all of his or her students as readers and be looking at where their students fall on a developmental continuum of reading.

The question again is, how many teachers have you met that question our students abilities to read? Many teachers believe that if a kindergartner does not leave their classroom reading book upon book then they are destined to live life as a struggling reader. This is not only a faulty assumption, but it damages the student’s future for becoming fluent readers. These expectations leave students feeling that they are not normal. Their teacher’s actions scream that they are not “readers” and this causing the student to feel that they will never catch up. Not only do a teacher’s expectations affect the student, but also the parent. Parents generally take on the teacher’s expectations of what their child should be accomplishing at a certain age. This leaves unreasonable expectations on the student at school and at home. Educators need to take into consideration that if a child‘s first exposure to reading is their kindergarten classroom, they will just be entering the emergent reading stage. This is unlike some students that will have already been exposed and are developed emergent readers. Teachers need to be equipped and ready to be able to help guide all of these students at each of their own paces. If a teacher expects all students to develop reading fluency during kindergarten they will be taking students that are not ‘reading ready’ and placing unreasonable expectations on them. The NAEYC and IRA warn against this. 

“The readiness perspective implies that until children reach a certain stage of maturity all exposure to reading and writing, except perhaps being read stories, is a waste of time or even potentially harmful (1998).” 

What types of expectations should teachers and parents have for our young readers that are appropriate, positive, and beneficial?

My First Year of Being a Teacher Bloggess!

It has been an exciting year!  I have just began to explore blogging and selling the products that I create for my classroom in the last year.  During this time I have been blown away with the amount of support and community that is in our online world!

I would highly recommend to ANY teacher that they become a part of at least one online community or at least follow some fabulous blogs!

So her is what has inspired and supported me in my first year of being a bloggess!

+Rachelle Smith at What the Teacher Wants.  This was the very first blog that I started following and inspired me to begin to create materials and introduced me to Teachers Pay Teachers (I will tell you more about that later)! Rachelle and Natalie have done such a great job support their followers with great ideas, tons of freebies, and a great platform for educators!

LadyBug's Teacher Files  This site has great ideas for classroom decor, organization, lessons, tech tips and lots of free things!  I have always found their organizational ideas to inspire me!

School Girl Style- I love this blog!  She has great ideas and awesome links to other bloggers that inspire!!

Here are a few other honorable mentions that I have followed over the year!

I love using these websites to learn more about blogging and getting fonts!

As a celebration of becoming an official bloggess (only in my mind) I am giving away a product that is typically sold in my stores for $8.99

For the next week A Reading Teachers Essential Set Up Packet will be free in my Teachers Notebook Shop!

Happy Blogging!

Reader's Workshop Tips and Tricks Round 2

In the last Reader's Workshop Tips and Tricks #1 I talked about how to get to know your students before you begin your Reader's Workshop.

This weeks Tips and Tricks Round 2 are based around getting the first few weeks off the ground!!

Before a child can have an interest in reading, he must first have an awareness of it.  The child who is unaware of the riches of literature certainly can have no desires for them.

          ~ Jim Trelease 

I have to admit that I am a Reader's and Writer's Workshop junkie...I love scouring the web looking for new ideas to integrate into my classroom.  I have learned a few things over the past years while teaching Reader's Workshop in my fourth grade classroom.  I thought it was about time I put them down and shared some of the tips and tricks that I have been taught.

The most important piece of advice I have ever received about implementing and learning Reader's Workshop is you need to give yourself time and grace!  There is no one that is able to implement it all at once without taking the time to get to know each of the parts in-depth.  Experts say that it takes at least three years for an educator to have all parts of the workshop fully implemented and thriving.

 The best advice that was given to me was to make the first year you do
workshop the "year of the mini".  

Start off really concentrating on getting to know your minilessons.  I find that the best format to organize these lessons and really keep track of all of the parts is using the same format that Lucy Calkins uses.  The only thing I did for my own lessons for the first year...and for those of you that may have some of my lesson is I eliminated the "mid-workshop teaching point".  Then about half way through that first year I was able to grasp how and when to insert that "mid-workshop teaching point". Now a few years in, I have become artful at doing and I know the lessons well enough to really know what the students need and where they are missing pieces.

I have developed a series of Reading Workshop Units for grades 3-5.  They are all on sale starting today on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook!!!!!!  

Example Unit
Reader's Workshop
Launching Unit:  Building A Reading Life

The Reader's Workshop: Launching -Building a Reading Life is easily adaptable for 3-5. 16 Lessons with connection, teaching point, active engagement, link, and sharing. It addresses Common Core Standards and includes anchor charts, minilessons, booklist, conferring notes, partner expectations, parent letter and much more. This product has been adapted from Units of Study for Teaching Reading Grades 3-5 by Lucy Calkins.

In the Launching Unit some of the very first lessons include...

• Setting expectations for behaviors during the mini lessons, independent reading time, and partner work.

• Setting goals for reading as a class.  I keep these posted all year.
• Typical starter mini lessons like "Signs to Watch for When Choosing a Book" and "Reading Fast, Long, and Strong".  During this unit you will be continually trying to build their reading stamina.  Over the past few years I have used Stamina Graphs as recommended by the "The 2 Sisters" who have written Cafe and The Daily Five.

I highly recommend if you are a lower elementary teacher that you check out the linked websites above.  The Sisters really have done a fabulous job giving resources that you can use tomorrow!

• Setting up partnerships.  These partnerships start off minimal and using them only a few times a week with very specific conversations.  Then during the next unit which is our Character Study, they are ramped up.  By this time they have had a lot of experience with accountable talk and are ready for action!

Later this week I am very excited to blog on the Tips and Tricks of Conferring.  We just had an amazing PD day with a woman who had the coolest ideas and set up to her conferring...so get excited for that to come your way!!!