One thing that will help is to make sure your mini-lessons are indeed "mini." When I first started doing reading and writing workshops in my classroom, I tried teaching too much during each mini-lesson, and I was really cutting in to the students' independent practice time. I began taking my mini-lessons and breaking them into shorter mini-lessons with a single (more specific) teaching point. Perhaps this will help.
I also understand your frustration with students being pulled out for speech, resource room, etc. I always try to collaborate with the teachers who are pulling my students out of my classroom so that they can build on what we are doing in class. Classroom teachers at my school have also been asking those teachers to "push in" rather than pull out whenever possible. That way the students are given extra support, but the support is directly related to what I am teaching in my classroom.
Linda (comment #4),
You asked how I fit it all in? You can check out my daily/weekly schedule here: http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/indexschedule.htm
One thing that will help is to make sure your mini-lessons are indeed "mini." When I first started doing reading and writing workshops in my classroom, I tried teaching too much during each mini-lesson, and I was really cutting in to the students' independent practice time. I began taking my mini-lessons and breaking them into shorter mini-lessons with a single (more specific) teaching point. Perhaps this will help.
I also understand your frustration with students being pulled out for speech, resource room, etc. I always try to collaborate with the teachers who are pulling my students out of my classroom so that they can build on what we are doing in class. Classroom teachers at my school have also been asking those teachers to "push in" rather than pull out whenever possible. That way the students are given extra support, but the support is directly related to what I am teaching in my classroom.
Thanks for posting your comments!
-Beth