Introduction to Reader’s Workshop

GoalsThe 25 Books CampaignPrincipal’s Book of the MonthDaily Readers Workshop beginning with the

Foundations StudyReader’s Notebooks & Reading LogsAnnotated bibliographiesA strong independent reading program within

Readers WorkshopWell-stocked and organized librariesStudents matched to books on their independent

reading levels.

Independent Reading

What is independent reading and how is it different from SSR or DEAR?

Independent ReadingTo quote Fountas & Pinnell:

“Independent reading, as we use the term, is a systematic way of supporting and guiding students as they read on their own. In independent reading, students silently read books of their own choosing while you confer with individuals; they also respond to their reading in a notebook.”

Guiding Readers and Writers p. 116

Independent Reading & SSRSustained Silent Reading Independent Reading

•Any time during the school day.

•At a signal, students begin to read and continue until they receive the signal to stop.

•Read continuously.

•Teacher reads as a model for students.

•During Readers Workshop.

•Students gather books and notebooks as part of Readers Workshop.

•Read continuously.•Keep their own records.•Confer with the teacher about their reading.•Think about and write responses to their reading.

•Teacher confers with individual students on a regular basis.•Teacher observes student’s reading behaviors and keeps records.•Uses observation records to inform teaching of mini-lessons, guided reading lessons, and literature study.

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Independent Reading

“Everyone has heard the proverb: Practice makes perfect. In learning to read it is true that practice — just reading — is a powerful contributor to the development of accurate, fluent, high-comprehension reading. In fact, if I were required to select a single aspect of the instructional environment to change, my first choice would be creating a schedule that supported dramatically increased quantities of reading during the school day.”

— Richard AllingtonWhat Really Matters for Struggling Readers, p. 24

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The more you read,

the more you know.

Learning New Terms

• Research shows that students learn vocabulary both directly and indirectly; however, most vocabulary is learned indirectly.

-- Conversations • Words used in context and reinforced

through repetition and application

-- Reading• Words encountered in context and often

repeated. The more a student reads, the more words they encounter and learn

The Size of the Task

To comprehend grade-appropriate academic texts, students need to

learn new terms at a rate of

2 - 3, 000 words/year

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Independent Reading

• When students read books at their independent level, approximately 2% of the words will be unfamiliar (Betts, 1946)

• Students learn 5 - 10% of previously unknown words from a single reading (Nagy & Herman, 1987)

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Independent Reading• In one study, 5th graders who scored at the 90th

percentile in reading spent approximately 54.6 minutes reading independently each day. If they read 150 words per minute (a conservative estimate, according to Harris and Sipay in 1990), they encountered 4,180,000 words during the year.

• If 2% were unfamiliar, they encountered 83,600 new words.

• If they learned only 5% from single encounter, these readers learned 4,180 new words that year, well above the 3,000 word average.

Indirect Learning • If, over a school year, a student reads for an

hour each day, five days a week, at a slow rate of 150 words/minute, the student will encounter 2,250,000 words

• If 2 - 5% of those words are unfamiliar (meaning that the student is reading at the right level), s/he will encounter from 45,000 - 112,500 words

• Research indicates that students learn between 5 - 10% of the unknown words from a single reading. This means that the student will learn at least 2,250 words in this way.

Herman, Anderson, Pearson, and Nagy, 1987

Indirect Learning:Twenty Five Book Campaign

-- In addition to their regular school reading, grade 8 students read one million words annually (25 books of at least 125 pages in length), including both grade-level appropriate narrative and expository text.

-- In addition to their regular school reading, grade 12 students should read two million words annually (25 books of at least 250 pages in length), including both grade-level appropriate narrative and expository text.

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The more you read,

the more you know.

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Benefits of Independent Reading

During Readers Workshop, independent reading time will allow the students to:

• Practice, apply, and extend reading strategies.

• Increase background knowledge.• Encounter and acquire new words,

sentence structures, and text structures.

• Acquire experience with a variety of genres.

Readers WorkshopOverview

Readers Workshop Independent Reading

So….What to Read?

• What you choose

• Accessible and interesting articles, websites, references, and books that help students build background knowledge

• for LA • for other courses • for understanding the world that they are inheriting

The Reader’s Notebook The purpose of the Reader’s Notebook is to

give students a place to record their thoughts, wonderings, and understandings about the texts that they are reading. It is also a place to reflect on the processes and strategies they use for reading. The entries in the notebook should deepen students’ understanding of the texts they are reading. These entries lead students to improved comprehension and a deeper understanding of themselves as readers.

Setting Up the Reader’s Notebook• On the very last page of the notebook write: “Glossary of

Reading Terms”. Draw a 3-column chart with these headers: “Term”, “Meaning”, “Example”.

• Make a Table of Contents. See Lesson 3 page 35.• Number the first 6 pages i—vi. These pages will be

used for the Table of Contents.• Write “1” on the lower right corner of the next page,

which is the first page of the notebook itself. It is also a title page for Section 1: “Notes on Reading”.

• Number from 1—50, using the backs of the pages.

Work Cited

America’s Choice, Literacy Training. PPT. Washington, DC. 2009.