"...and Not to Yield": Explorations in English Education

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 ...

As I have shifted to a readers-writers workshop approach and focused more on standards-based learning, I have had to change not just how I teach but what I teach. If students are working more in class (rather than on homework or writing outside of class), I cannot fill an 80-minute block with lecture or group reading. Comprehension questions are no longer necessary as students are working on a lot of independent reading or as they are writing paragraph-length analyses. This has caused me to “lose” some stories and lessons I have enjoyed in the past. But that’s the catch. I enjoyed them. We all know we each appreciate different stories and different concepts. When I opened my class up to choice reading and having students analyze their own texts, I had to provide more class time for this. As others have said more eloquently than me, we must make time for what we value. I want my students to love what they are reading (and, by extension, I want them to love reading), and I want my ...