Reading Workshop tips that are workin’ for me!

This year I am a Interactive Read Aloud “lab classroom” teacher in my school which means I occasionally host other teachers in my classroom who observe my reading lessons and hopefully learn something they can use in their own classroom. Well, when I signed up to do it, I wasn’t mentally prepared for how nerve wracking it can be! I had a few lovely teachers in my classroom that I respect SO MUCH but I have to admit I was SOOOO NERVOUS! There is a lot of self doubt that builds up before an observation. Thankfully, I think it went pretty well.There are a few things that I am doing in my class to make my interactive read aloud run smoothly and I am so happy to share these tips. Here they are 🙂

– I start my IRA (Interactive Read Aloud) by always telling my students EXACTLY what skill they will work on. I have an 8.5×11 card for EVERY common core reading standard like the picture below

– Before I read the book aloud, I read the book myself and look for spots where I notice myself using the skill in question – in this example, I look for where I notice the characters responding. As I read the book I only focus on this skill throughout. I usually stop for “turn and talk” about 3 times per book. After my read aloud, I send the students off to their independent reading but I hold them accountable to this skill. When the students notices themselves practicing the skill, they write it down on a post-it and hang it on our “Show What You Know” board

– Each student has a spot for their post-it note so that they are held accountable. We spend about one week on each skill/standard so they have one week to put a post-it up on the board. You can’t see it on the picture, but some students have multiple post-its on their name. This makes it so easy to assess their understanding of the standards!
– I am very specific about how I want them to write on their post-it note. I need to make sure I get all the info I need from them without it being a scribbly mess on their note so I ask them to write the following information on their post-it: their name, name of the book, name of the skill, and then finally their response. The following oversize example is hanging above the “Show What You Know” chart

– When I feel like most of my students have mastery over the skill and it is time to move on to another, I hang an “I can” statement

I move pretty slowly with each of these skills. In a trimester, we have about 5 skills/standards to cover. I am really happy with this system because I feel super confident that they KNOW each of the standards. In the next couple of days, I plan upload all of my skills cards. I am proud of them and I know they will be helpful to so many others!

If you like the “Show What You Know” and “Today’s Reading Focus” signs, you can download them for FREE by clicking here (it is a Google doc so no registration needed 🙂