Working Through Workshop Challenges
It is definitely a good idea that I did not jump in right away with workshops, portfolios, and standards-based grading all at once. I need to make sure I get this workshop stuff down first! While my first two posts reflected on my workshop set-up (30 minutes of reading workshop, 20 minutes of instruction, and 30 minutes of writing workshop) and managing time (student goal-setting and my own flexibility with direct instruction), this post will wrestle with some challenges I faced this week, namely (1) teaching goal-setting, (2) needing to better refocus my mini-lessons, (3) keeping up with outside-of-class reading “homework,” and (4) separating reading and writing workshop. Current Class Structure We are currently looking at drama using Julius Caesar . My eighty-minute block sophomore English class currently runs as follows: 1. First fifteen minutes of Reading Workshop : Students settle in to read their self-selected leisure reading novel. ...