The First Week

Typically the first week of a Reader's Workshop in my classroom involves procedures...lots and lots of procedures!

Procedures Menu:

1.  Sharpening your Pencil--Students find out that sharpening their pencil, constantly, takes away from the focus of the reader's workshop.  Therefore, I restrict pencil sharpening (of any kind) to the very beginning of the workshop period.  Really, that's why I have a drawer full of sharp pencils!

2.  I let students read any book for the first two or three weeks of school.  It allows me to find out what kind of books students will typically pick when left on their own.  Are they reading comic books?  Are they jumping into a great novel?  Are they "pretending" to read?  It's a great time to begin my anecdotal records!

3.  Where do we sit during reader's workshop?  Anywhere...as long as it's not near your friend that will be a distraction to you or get you into trouble.

4.  We have to take notes???  Yes!  Notes are often related to the anchor charts we create in class.  Sometimes students are asked to "have a go" at the class anchor chart and create their own.

5.  You never know who's going to be turning in their reader's notebook, so do the work every day!  Expect to turn in your notebook at least two times during the week.

6.  Recess and lunch are times for talking with friends.  End of story.

7.  Yes, you really get to pick YOUR OWN BOOK for independent reading!

Those are the procedures we covered this week.  We also discussed a few important components of books and reading:

We read the following books as read-alouds this week:
The Teacher From the Black Lagoon.

My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss

Fireboat:  the Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey  **This book was our 9/11 read.  It's a wonderfully uplifting tale about a group of heroes on September 11.