Reader's Workshop

What is Reader's Workshop all about?

Each day we have a one hour Reader's Workshop. During this time, we begin with a 10 minute mini-lesson where the children come to the floor and I teach them a reading strategy. At the beginning of the year, many of our mini-lessons revolve around the rituals and routines of our workshop such as "What Good Reader's Do" or " How to Read a Book". During this time we also start introducing our Literary Stations. (You will be able to learn more about them soon.) After our mini-lesson, the students return to their seats with his/her own book bin and read for about 10 minutes quietly.



At the beginning of Kindergarten the book bins contain books that are simple ABC books, books from home, nursery rhyme notebooks, and maybe a favorite book from the room. We will also add in our favorite read alouds throughout the next couple weeks. Although most children at this time are unable to read, they mimic reading practices by what has been modeled for them such as predicting what the book will be about, pointing to the words, looking at beginning sounds, and looking at the pictures.




As the year progresses the books will become books that are "just right" for them individually. After independent reading, the students work in Literacy Stations. Once again they are reading during this time. The last 10 minutes of our workshop is our closing. Here they are able to discuss what they learned from our mini-lesson that day and how they applied that during their reading time. The closing is very important to our workshop because it provides students the opportunity to discuss their own learning and how that impacts what we are doing in the classroom. Ask your child each day what he/she did in Reader's Workshop. You will be amazed!