Finding a Reading Workshop within my Writing Workshop
I was able to co-present at the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English ( @PCTELANews ) Conference last weekend (October 19-20) with my good friend, Dr. Jen Toney (@JENTONEY ). We presented on Writing Workshops in K-12. Jen is a third grade teacher, and as I teach ninth and tenth grade, we divided the session into elementary and secondary sections after an overview. As I explained my journey to my group—including my daily class schedule (15 minutes of independent reading, 20 minutes of instruction, 45 minutes of workshop)—I got many questions on the independent reading I allow my students. In considering how the session went, I had to inquire more with Jen on her elementary reading workshop approach because I realized that my class has independent reading as a central component (especially when students are asked to write about their writing in writing workshop), but that I do not have a true reading workshop approach. Most of my instruction leads my students to writing