Flint 7: Reader and Writer Workshop

This chapter takes me back to my time spent in a first grade classroom as an assistant teacher. It was the first time I had ever been in a room setting that had reader and writer's workshop. It was also the first time I had ever witnessed the needs of each student being met. Mrs. A had her classroom up and running like a well oiled machine. The routine stayed the same so the children always knew what to expect. We started each morning with a song at "morning meeting," calendar (place value), and a favorite read aloud. The read aloud was usually a part of an author study, like Robert Munch. The books began on an easier level and continued on until we met Junie B. Jones midway through the year. The children went WILD over these stories. During this time, Mrs. A always had the children engaged and conversing about the text, doing picture walks, making predictions before, connections during, and introducing/talking about new vocabulary they came across. We then left the carpet and went to our seats where writer's workshop time would begin. This was a time the children wrote on their own independently. We would float around to each desk asking the students to read their stories aloud to us, adding words to their own personal "word banks," or the time would be used for individual conferencing with students about their writing. When they had completed their stories, there was a small amount of time reserved for "share." When the papers had been looked over by Mrs. A, she always chose 4-5 papers to hang up in the classroom under "Author of the Week." She did this every week through out the year ensuring each child had this opportunity.



One other thing I wanted to mention was her Shared Reading with the students...when she used a "repetitive book" like Maurice Sendak's "Chicken Soup With Rice," she would make it part of her "positive behavior support" in her room. Example, the story has the part in it where all the children chime in "going once, going twice... sipping once, sipping twice...going, sipping chicken soup with rice." So when the students would get a little too loud or she just needed their attention for a moment, she would start a chant "going once, going twice..." and the students would follow up with "going chicken soup with rice." So cool! I just loved being in that room with her and this Flint chapter brought this experience back to me.