The Launch:
The First 20 Days
South Plainfield School District
July 25, 2013
Establishing a Routine
This procedure takes about a month to get
going, but once implemented it works very
well.
Two important goals to independent
reading/writing:
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help your students think of themselves
as readers/writers
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establish a routine for independent
reading/writing
Essentials of Reading & Writing Workshop
Reading Workshop
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Teacher Model
Shared Reading
Minilessons (researched
based reading strategies)
Guided Reading and Literature
Circles
Time to read independently
and time to share
Choice
Reflection and Evaluation
Environment and materials
Writing Workshop
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Teacher Model
Shared Writing
Minilessons
Teacher and peer
conferences
Time to write independently
and share
Literature based
Choice
Records and self assessment
Environment and materials
Day 1 – Selecting Books
• Share with your class how your classroom library
is organized.
• Show students how to check out books.
• Discuss reasons to choose books. Make an anchor
chart to hang up on the wall of different reasons
we choose books such as:
• we like the author, the cover, read the back,
read other books in the series, like the genre,
it’s a new book, heard about it, need to read it
for school work.
Day 2 -3: Choosing Books
• Getting your students to pick the right books is
very important, students should read “just right”
books, while sometimes easy and challenging books
are ok to read also.
• Make a chart with 3 columns labeled easy, just
right, and challenging fill in with characteristics
about those types of books. For example: font
sizes of each, pictures, difficult words, and
confusing, are some things my students bring up.
Day 4 -“Reading is Thinking”
• Make a poster that says “Reading is Thinking”
• Explain to the class that today we will have quite
a bit of time for reading and that reading is
thinking and you can do your best thinking when it
is quiet.
• After the students have silently read, finish the
poster by adding what the students were thinking
about while they were reading- I wonder what will
happen next, this reminds me of, I was scared,
happy, sad, surprised when…
Anchor Charts
Day 4: Thinking and Talking
about your reading
• Share with your class things that you are thinking
about while you are reading. Use a specific
example of a book and what you thought about
while reading that book.
• Tell the class how they will be thinking as they
are reading and different things they might be
thinking about, write these on the “Reading is
Thinking” poster.
• Have the students mark two places with sticky
notes that made them think about something
while reading.
Day 5: Group Discussions
“How to Buzz with each other”
• Discuss with your class how they can talk
with each other cooperatively.
• Make a poster (with your guidance) of
some simple guidelines about sharing with
others.
• After a group discussion about how well
the group shares went and things they can
work on.
Day 6: Abandoning Books
• Once in a while student abandon
books and this is ok.
• Hold a group discussion about why
readers abandon books and when it is
ok to abandon books.
Day 7-8: Genres of Books
• Distinguish between fiction and non
fiction.
• Discuss different kinds of fiction.
• Discuss different kinds of non
fiction.
• Show examples of the different
kinds of each.
Day 9: Keeping a Record of
your Reading
Provide your students with a reading journal (notebook).
Divide the journal into three sections:
1. Reading Log – readers keep a list of books they’ve read
o Title/author/genre,
o Date of completion
o Easy, just right, challenging
2. Response to their reading – readers can share their
thinking about reading by writing (Day14), create a list of
reading interests (Day 16)
3. Reading interest or book recommendations (Day 17)
4. Check for understanding as you read: what was the
author’s message (Day 18)
Day 10: Guidelines for
Readers Workshop
• Each day for a set amount of time will be readers workshop.
• Discuss and make a poster of guidelines for the class for
expectations during this time. Let the students have input
on this.
• Guidelines can include:
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You must always be reading or writing in your reading journal
You need to work silently
Use a soft voice when talking with the teacher
Select books that you will enjoy and don’t abandon them until
you have given them a chance
– List your book information in your journal
– Always do your best work
Day 11-12:
Written Responses to Reading
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Share with the class that not only will they share their thinking
orally in groups or as a class but that they will also be writing
about their thinking.
Share an example friendly letter or journal entry where you share
what you might be thinking about while reading.
The journal response or weekly letter must include the title and
author of the book they are reading. If writing a letter, proper
friendly letter format must be followed.
Hang a poster up which has students assigned to what specific day
of the week their journal is due, and also that they can’t just write
one or two sentences that does not give enough information about
them as a reader.
Be sure to write back each week to the letters or respond to their
entries, and share your thoughts on their reading. Also share what
you are reading and what you are thinking about your reading.
Day 13: Editing your Journal Response
Proofreading and Using punctuation
After the first week or so of journal writing, conduct lessons on
proofreading, using the correct punctuation, and solving unknown words
(Day 19-20). Show letters written without punctuation and that are not
proofread and allow the students to correct these letters.
Establish and explain your grading system for letters:
• 1 point for having all the required parts of a friendly letter
• 1 point for the author
• 1 point for the title of the book and underlining it
• 5 points for content
• 5 points for punctuation and proofreading.
• Remind the students of these requirements and post a rubric in the
room as a reminder. Suggested read-alouds: Puncuation Takes a
Vacation, or Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
Day 15:Using Sticky Notes
• Have the students use sticky notes to mark places
they were thinking while reading.
• Provide each student with two sticky notes (1x1
works best).
• Discuss with the class coding you could use to
mark on their sticky notes to remind them why
the marked it. (T=T reminds you of another book,
a smile face could mean funny and so on. Include
your students’ input in creating a coding system.)
Incorporating Components to the
Writing Workshop
What is a Writer’s Notebook?
It is…
 A place to store your
thoughts, feelings,
observations, ideas,
opinions, and more
 A place to record your
reactions
It is not…
 A diary
 Not a reading journal in
which students write
summaries, main ideas, or
letters to characters per
the teacher’s assignment
“A writer’s notebook gives you a
“The writer’s notebook nudges
students to become more active
learners. It gives them a place to
react to their world. To make that
all-important personal connection.
And the notebook provides a safe
place- no grades, no one correcting
their grammar.”
place to live like a writer, not
just in school during writing
time, but wherever you are, at
any time of day.”
From A Writer’s Notebook
by Ralph Fletcher
School Talk, Writer’s Notebook: A Place to
Dream, Wonder, and Explore, Ralph
Fletcher
What’s the difference?
Writer’s notebook
Reader’s notebook
Portfolio
Writing folder
Teacher-Student
Conferences
 Listen—get to know the writer
 Be positive—build on strengths
 Focus on improving life-long writing skills
 Focus on one teaching point (approximations)
“...in a conference our job is to interact with
students so that they can interact with their
writing, not just for five minutes but for a lifetime.”
Lucy Calkins (1991)
Reading/Writing
Conference
http://bcove.me/tq2occfj
Time Management
• Teach each one of these things separately one
per day.
• Allow 20 minutes of independent reading
and/or writing each day and two or three
times a week small group or whole class
discussions and share.
• Remind the students daily of reading/writing
workshop guidelines and usually after a few
days they are doing very well with this.
Bibliography
• Calkins, L. (2006). Units of Study for Teaching
Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
• Fountas, I, & Pinnell, G (2001). Guiding Readers
and Writers. Portsmouth: Heinemann.