Writing and Reading Workshop Microteaching

For our microteaching lesson my group focused on writing and reading workshops. A reading workshop is similar to a book club in that a group or class reads the same book and completes an assignment after finishing the reading.

My placement uses reading workshops and has throughout the entire year. Students are divided up into groups of similar reading levels and assigned a color; my placement has three colors: green, red, and blue. The green group consists of the most advanced readers and are assigned books that are at an "above grade level" difficulty. Red consists of average readers and are assigned books that are at grade level but are still challanging. The blue group consists of readers that are below grade level and struggle with fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All groups, with the exception of the blue group, read the same book independently and complete activities after reading. The blue group meets at the back table and reads the book together, outloud along with my CT. After completion of the book and activity, the group meets and discusses their thoughts on the book and shares how they chose to complete the activity.

Writing workshops are similar to reading workshops. Ususally, the teacher poses a vague, broad prompt for the students to write about and gives the students free-range to write about anything that applies to the topic. Writing workshops are loosly directed and give the students the topic of which they are expected to write about; the students are free to exploit the prompt in any way they chose. Individuality and creativeness are the main focuses of this type of free-writing. For example, if the teacher posed the prompt, "Spring is in the air. Tell me about your favorite aspect of Spring. If you do not like the Spring time, chose another season" the students would be free to write about anything that pretains to Spring time or any other season they chose.

I see writing workshops in my classroom as well. Every morning, my CT puts up a "Daily-5"activity on the board in which one of the "5" things they must complete is a free write around a topic she posts. The students record their writings in their journals and are free to share if they wish.