GLT - Reader's Workshop

While teaching these three lessons, we focused primarily on using all reading strategies that the students had been introduced to thus far and even more so covering the last three accuracy strategies. These three accuracy strategies are “tryin’ lion”, “first grade forgetfuls”, and “helpful kangaroo”. The students are all rather enthused about the strategies and truly love making use of them. When introducing the new strategies in each of the day’s lessons, I asked the students what each of the strategies might mean. With “tryin’ lion” I asked the students what it means to be brave. They all had similar ideas about how being brave is not being afraid of something, or trying something new. I then asked the students if being brave could mean not giving up – they immediately all agreed. During the lesson covering the “first grade forgetfuls” strategy, the students were taught to ask themselves three questions. These questions are, does my reading look right, does it sound right, and does it make sense. The students all tried their best to not get the case of the first grade forgetfuls and were proud when they remembered to ask themselves these questions. As for the “helpful kangaroo” strategy, the students all enjoy sharing how they either helped someone or were helped by another classmate. We are constantly working on getting along and being a good friend, and with the helpful kangaroo strategy they all make sure to let us know when they are being helpful.

During the active engagement portion of each day’s lesson, the students practiced the strategies together with a partner and then whole group. They used all their strategies and worked together to figure out the words. When asking for active participation during the lessons, nearly all the students’ hands almost always shoot up in the air. This shows me that they all want to contribute in some way. They are all proud of themselves when they can figure out the words, and show their certainty by providing strategies they used and reasoning for why they sued them. Thus, what I learned about our students’ literacy practices that extend beyond my objectives is that the students all make use of almost all of our strategies on a day-to-day basis. The students are flexible with their strategies and want to make it known that they used the strategies to figure out the words. The students are all very eager to be good readers and take pride in their reading abilities.

As I was listening in and observing during the mini-lessons as well as conferencing with students, it is evident to me that most all of our students use the strategies that they have been exposed to. We are always incorporating the same strategies in future lessons, so for those students who may need extra exposure to these strategies, will most certainly get it. If I were to teach these same lessons again, what I would do differently is have example books that the students have not seen or read before. This way, when I ask them to use their strategies, they will not already know the word. I think these changes would improve the students learning because they would almost be forced to use the strategies being taught in the mini-lessons to figure out the words rather than just recalling what the words are from past read-alouds.