When a teacher chooses to implement Reading Workshop in her classroom, it means giving up some control and giving more responsibility to the student readers. Many teachers feel as though students in a reading workshop are not held accountable on a daily basis. Of course there are usually daily tasks, and teacher is also still meeting with students in individual conferences and in guided reading and strategy groups. But it is impossible to check in with every student every day.

For this reason, I use a self-checklist that students are asked to complete during the last two minutes of workshop everyday before returning to the carpet for the closing.

As a class, the students helped me create a list of the four to five most important things they believe they should be doing during IDR time. At the end of each week, students hand in their self-checklists so that I can look them over.

In some instances I use the information to address concerns with specific students during upcoming reading conferences. I then send the completed checklists home for parents to see as well.