Pacifica School District is proud of our
commitment to students and has been collaboratively developing a new Strategic
Plan and companion plans. This summer, June 20th – 24th,
2011 nearly every PSD teacher, principal, and district administrator
participated in a week long Teachers College Reading and Writing Project:
Reading Workshop Institute. The institute affirmed who we are and our past work
towards becoming a Balance Literacy district.
[We] believe:
§ Reading instruction should match the individual reader;
§
Reading
instruction should teach toward independence;
§
Reading
Instruction should explicitly teach strategies to access skills;
§
Reading
Instruction should value time for reading, volume of reading, and variety of
reading experiences; and
§
Reading
instruction should follow predictable structures and routines.
[1]
As one of the three major
components of Balanced Literacy, Reading Workshop makes real the beliefs stated
above through minilessons, students
reading time, a mid-workshop teaching point, and a teaching share time.
[2]
Minilessons
Reading workshop begins with students meeting
for a short (5-10 minute) minilesson. During the minilesson, students are taught
exactly what they need to learn to become more proficient readers and have the
opportunity to practice the skill or strategy during the minilesson.
Student Reading Time and Conferring Time
The workshop provides students with 20-30
minutes each of private reading time and partner time. The teacher often leads
a guided reading group and/or strategy lesson during this time.
Mid-Workshop Teaching Point
Students often convene in the midst of a
workshop and the teacher gives students a quick pointer in response to a shared
problem. Acknowledging what one reader has done well helps the others learn a
specific skill or strategy from a successful reader in their class.
Partner Time
Students meet with a matched partner almost
every day during reading workshop. Often these students have read the same text
and support each other’s comprehension of the text.
Teacher Share
Teachers share ways in which students have
incorporated that day’s minilesson into their work and share their insights or
discoveries.
Reading Clubs
Students in primary classrooms work in reading
clubs during particular units of study that are aligned with the newly adopted
Common Core State Standards. A reading club is one or two partnerships gathered
around baskets of books that are connected in some way and both read and talk
across the books in their club