Reaching Balance

I've slowly started the process of reading professionally. I opted to take Guiding Readers and Writers with my while camping. After doing some kid lit reading, I decided I needed to start the ball rolling on improving my practice. I've also done some reading on the Units of Study Reader's Workshop from the series I purchased earlier in the year. There are a few things that I want to address over the course of the summer:

-Balancing reading/writing instruction
-Balancing reader's workshop with social studies materials/instruction
-Being strategic in using technology to meet our reading/writing goals
-Better and more strategic/planned use of formative/summative assessment

Guiding Readers and Writers is a bit daunting. It isn't a book you'll read straight through. Instead it is better to read in chapters, particularly being strategic in those chapters that will meet what it is your looking for. Sounds simple, but being a linear person it really isn't (after Chapter 1 I should read Chapter 2, not 7!). From the limited amount that I have read, there are a few things I've determined. I'll address one of them today.

My big takeaway thus far is that reader's workshop and my social studies instruction do not mesh very well. Reader's Workshop features an emphasis on Independent Reading. After a book talk and/or mini-lesson of 10 or so minutes, students read independently. They work on charting their progress afterwards as part of a debrief. The lessons are meant to support students as they choose their own books. There are elements of this that I intend to use, but I can't use it wholesale. Why? The way we have our literacy work setup currently is largely through social studies/non-fiction. Obviously there are two glaring holes: 1) where is the fiction/independently chosen books, and 2) where is the independently chosen non-fiction.

Can I integrate the Guiding Readers/Units of Study information? Yes. I just need to be a little choosy. I'll likely do a mini-lesson on Monday. I'm undecided if that means I'll do an entire day of Reading Workshop, monitoring kids reading through some conferring. That might also mean I do 15-30 minutes of reading followed by some social studies work. I'm leaning towards the former, as the latter ends up being scattered. The remainder of the week will likely involve my usual 15/45 minute split of independent reading with social studies instruction. I've got a lot to learn... at least I've got my books organized in one area currently (as seen below).

From Drop Box