The Workshop Model

I enjoy using twitter. I get my daily sports news, running stuff (because it is different than sports!), general news, and education information. In my feed came a link to a post about the workshop model. Now the title is whether Lucy Calkins is insane, which would seem to be pure hyperbole for the sake of readers. Alas, further reading shows the title to be closer to the author's point of view than one might hope.

I've used the workshop model for 3.5 years. I used it in my student teaching, and have used it in my practice in 5th grade. Workshop has been a part of my practice for both reading and writing, although admittedly it hasn't been the only method I've used. Some are huge workshop fans, and others are very much against the workshop and the Teacher's College. Me? I'm probably more pro-workshop than anti-workshop.

Like any model or program it has positives and negatives. Positives are that reading and writing are more authentic through use of the Calkins model than through the use of a basal program, or scripted writing program. The basal program will have students focus on a particular comprehension strategy (envisioning, inference, etc) by having students read an 8-12 page excerpt, stopping periodically to monitor comprehension. In the workshop model students read, and will either record information in a reading journal or in discussion with a reading buddy. For me, I use the workshop model with a novel study. They will get together in groups, and they have people to discuss the book with. Questions will come at the end of the week as students summarize, generate meaningful questions from reading, and talk back to the text.

Comparing the two, as I've used both, kids have been far more successful with novels in their hand. Instead of parts of books, and drilling away at a comprehension skill with 3-5 questions while reading, they are able to read larger chunks. They can process information at the end of a 25-45 minute block, walking away with a far different idea of what reading is. A basal program just didn't do that with my kids, as I found them bored and meeting the minimum of what was expected. The basal essentially generated a script for me to follow, essentially making me an implementer of materials. While Calkins has a narrative for her strategies, I've found that you have great flexibility in your ability to chose strategies your kids need, and base them off of read alouds or books you have in your room. I've done inferencing and character description using Wildwood and Prue. Kids loved it, and were able to take the same strategies and apply them to their own stories they were reading.

There is one main question I've had in relation to this. Are my kids coming to me at a higher starting point than there's (therefore presupposing a higher incoming skill set)? Between 85-95% of my students have met standard in my 3 years (depending on year), a modest increase over where they were in 4th grade. If their skill set is higher, are they better able to fit in a less structured model? Is there an issue of materials available? I pour a ton of money into my classroom library each year- novel study and just plain novels. If you don't have a ton of books, particularly those at the levels of your kids, you're screwed in workshop.

The irony is the posting about Calkins and workshop mentions the lack of data to support the program's use. Education has been laden with pendulum shifts. If it isn't use of data for instruction, it is how data doesn't support a program (evidence based). If we aren't railing against programs that are too scripted and limit teacher freedom, we are railing against the lack of guidance and structure. I see the limitations in the lack of explicit phonics instruction. I see where having some smaller texts for small groups might be helpful in supplementing what you already do (to meet needs of students through ongoing assessment). But is Lucy Calkins insane?  Doubtful. Idealist? Yes.

End of Year Redux (Part 3)

First let me start wby saying that I am at my jury duty summons, hence the lack of time away from school stuff. Lots of really interesting information gathered from my end of year surveys. Most were things that I already knew or suspected. The next step is to think about next steps... Technology needs to be leveraged. It integrates wells with literacy and project based learning. What I need to do more of is doing more with particular tools. Instead of doing 1 photostory then another two months later, I need to follow it up more immediately. This will help as I expand the various tools available for kids later in the year. This might mean doing a few shorter projects- those not 2+ weeks in duration. It also might mean having less integration with content areas- more sproduct focused as opposed to duly product/content. More reading! I have two different ideas. The first is making reading the primary homework. Since our district is going to be adding a new online learning platform, I could have some short response work for them to post. In some ways this would mimick the flipped classroom- less lecture in class, more done in advance. This would provide good information about their understandng prior to arriving, helping narrow in on some of the students with misconceptions. It would not eliminate reading during my literacy time. But would allow for more novel study books, and/or more social studies content learning (and time for projects). The last thing I am thinking about connects to our use of journals. I need a better system for dividing it into parts. Currently I do front/back with social studies in front and reading literature in the back. Unfortunately the back just isn't what I want. I need more space for word work/roots, and a division between strategy work and novel study. While we apply the strategy with the novel study, I wonder if that makes the journal a bit disjointed. By that I mean you can't see the continuous train of thought around a book. I'll likely used the Reader's Workshop model for journals as a guide. Soon I'll post more about changes in my curriculum map, and how I want to change the way kids demonstrate understanding.

Reading Conversations

My social studies/literacy block has migrated exclusively into literacy. I'm really excited about how things are going thus far. We're doing novel study, which is really another way of saying literacy circles, book clubs, or guided reading. The latter of those is the most tenuous, but still fits.

In reality my literacy block is a combination of many different practices. It uses a workshop model, pulling out lessons from the Units of Study for Reading. I have kids writing in journals with stop and jots, or making notes on sticky notes. I conference like I might in the workshop model, or with guided reading. I will take notes in OneNote, having kids give a retelling before some oral reading. I'll follow that up with positives or constructive pieces. I am also using the Guided Reading model of writing about reading, focusing on analyzing texts, making inferences and predictions. Finally it comes together with end of the week book club work where we are talking about books.

Compared to last year I am having kids write less. I used to give kids a Fact Question Response sheet, with another sheet for an element we were working on (setting, character map etc). But I found that to be a bit much. Some kids struggled with the amount of work, or just simply weren't detailed enough. Instead I've found the workshop model to be more successful, and to give me more time to work with kids on what they are reading.

The best part of it all was in my last group today. We were talking about characters and how we describe them. Kids had listed a variety of traits, internal and external. I did a short read aloud from Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, focusing in on how Lynne Jonell describes Emmy. At a stopping point I had kids turn and talk to describe Emmy thus far. The room erupted in conversation, and kids were excited to describe her, almost as though they couldn't wait to tell their shoulder partner. When we group shared the level of character traits were fantastic. Kids were making connections to characters in other books (unprompted) and able to explain why they thought Emmy embodied a particular trait ("she has a little bit of mischief in her, because you can see she kinda wants to do what the rat is telling her."). I couldn't have been happier.