Jennifer,

Here are some answers to your questions:

1. I get my book boxes from reallygoodstuff.com Here is a link to the book boxes: http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/product_details.aspx?item_guid=6f34e415-8cbd-4a68-b158-89fb79fc21fd

2. I was a part of a committee in my district that has been writing our own units of study for reading workshop. I can't share those here, but here is a link to a great website with some reading workshop units for all grade levels: http://curriculum.dpsk12.org/index.htm#lit_pg

3. You can find information about my spelling program on my website. Click on "Literacy Links" in the sidebar menu and then choose "Word Study." Here is a link to my website: http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/index.htm

4. Many of the fonts I use are from a "School Fonts" CD that I can no longer find available to purchase (including the polka dot font), but I also get many of my fonts from different websites. Here are links to some of my favorite font websites:

http://www.fontseek.com/fonts/kids.htm

http://www.fontauthority.com/fontCategory.aspx?Kids

http://cooltext.com/Fonts-Kids

http://www.billybear4kids.com/fonts/fonts.htm

5. I have done many reading workshop presentations for teachers in my district and surrounding districts.

I hope I have answered all of your questions!!

-Beth

Dan,

Thanks for reading the blog and for posting your comments! I'm glad my resources have been helpful to you!

It was exciting to see a comment from a teacher in New Zealand!!

-Beth

Diane,

I have no experience teaching Kindergarten, so I am not completely familiar with the ability level of students at this age. Since a great deal of the notebook requires students to be writing about their reading and recording books, I am guessing such a resource would likely be too challenging and probably not very worthwhile for students at this age.

Are there any kindergarten teachers out there reading this blog whose students keep any type of reader's notebook?

I wish I could be of more help!

-Beth

Beth,
Your website is amazing. Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful ideas. I am wanting to implement the readers workshop in my classroom next year. I have a few questions for you.

Where did you purchase your book boxes?

Where do you get all of your mini-lesson for group and guided reading time?

Do you do whole group spelling?

Where do you get all of your cute fonts? I especially like the polka dot font and the bigger block fonts you have used for your classroom posters?

Have you ever done any workshops for teachers? Are you willing to do that?

Thanks you so much for all these resources. You have positively changed my reading programme!
Dan Oades
Auckland, New Zealand

I teach Kindergarten - any suggestions on how to adapt the notebook for K?

Maggie,

Here is a link to the Teacher's College wesbite where you can learn more about the reading institute I referenced in comment #91: http://rwproject.tc.columbia.edu/

-Beth

Maggie,

You asked about where I was trained for reading workshop. To be honest, most of my "training" came from my own reading professional books on the topic. There are some great books out there! Here is a link to my favorite professional books about reading workshop: http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/indexproreading.htm

I also attended Lucy Calkin's Columbia Teacher's College Reading Institute a few years ago. It was a wonderfully helpful week of training for me!

-Beth

Johna,

You asked about what types of third grade books to purchase for literacy centers. I am not exactly sure what you mean by that? Do you mean guided reading groups or word study centers? Let me know what you mean by literacy centers, and I can help suggest some books.

-Beth

Beth, currently my District is "authentically implementing a basal" I would like to write my thesis on the effects of using a basal vs the reading workshop approach. Do you know of any research that supports the reading workshop approach? I am a fan of reading workshop.

I am very interested in starting a reading workshop approach at our school. We use Lucy Calkins for Writers Workshop. Where did you get your training for Readers Workshop? I have not been able to find any professional developments on the topic. Thanks!
Maggie

I am a first year 3rd grade teacher. I taught kindergarten for 9 years and feel really out of the loop on what types of 3rd grade books to purchase for literacy centers.

Any suggestions?

Johna Hancock

Lisa,

I think a reading workshop approach to teaching reading would be so powerful in a middle school setting! If you have an hour each day with your students, that would be enough time to teach a 10-15 minute mini-lesson, provide them with 40 minutes of independent reading time where they could meet in book clubs or partnerships, and then close the lesson at the end of the hour.

Storage would definitely be problem if you had to store Reader's Notebooks for each group of students you teach in your classroom. I know that when I was in middle school I had a locker where I kept my materials, and I was expected to bring the appropriate books or notebooks to class each hour. Would your students be able to keep their Reader's Notebooks in their locker and bring them to class each day rather than storing them in your classroom?

-Beth

I realize this is a belated posted but, I would like to know if it is feasible to put some of these practices to use in middle school, primarily 7 & 8 grade? Since at these grades we are departmentalized and have several classes how can the "storage" of the notebooks be set up. I like the way your picture shows, but not sure how it will work for my circumstance. Please advice

Wendy,

I truly appreciate your comments and am so glad that you have found the ideas on my website and on this blog to be of use in your own classroom. I am always excited to hear from teachers who are using the ideas and materials that I share!

-Beth

Calandra,

Thanks for your compliments! You mentioned in your post that you feel like you sometimes fall short of holding your students accountable in your reading workshop. I felt this way too when I first began implementing RW in my own classroom. Check out my "Assessment in the Reading Workshop" post for tons of helpful tips about how I hold my students accountable. Here is a link to the post: http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2009/11/assessment-reading-workshop.html

-Beth

I just had to write to you - your website is very impressive and I applaud your professional commitment. By sharing your creativity, you are inviting other teachers to create the same dynamic learning atmosphere for their students. Bravo!

One word describes you: Awesome!!!! Thank you for sharing your ideas. I am a second year teacher and I am trying to keep myself organized. Sometimes I fall short of holding the students accountable. Please pass on any other helpful tips you have because they are greatly appreciated!!!

Leah,

You asked what students do during the mini-lesson or for their reading task when they are not reading the genre we are studying. Whenever we begin a genre study, my students are asked to have at least 3 books from that genre in their book box at all times. This allows them to have the necessary books available to use when doing tasks related to a specific genre.

-Beth

Chrissy,

Thanks for your comment. I am excited to hear that some of my reading workshop ideas have helped inspire great teaching and learning in your classroom!

-Beth

I am a reading teacher and I have intervention groups in the afternoons where I have students doing a lot of independent reading. I LOVE all the reading workshop ideas, lessons, handouts, assessments, etc. I have been using so many ideas from this site! I recently made a bulletin board with the thick and thin questions...the students were thrilled to ask THICK questions and the lesson was more than effective. Thanks for all the SUPERB ideas!!!

Beth,

I'm wondering what you do if students aren't reading the genre you are focusing on in your mini-lesson. For example, if you are focusing on the character mini-lessons, what does the child do for her task if she reading an informational book at the time?

Linda,

I understand your "mommy brain" comment! I am about to welcome my second child in March, and I'm sure it only gets worse with 2 little ones:)

You asked about when my students fill their book bins. You specifically asked if they do it every Monday. Actually, there is no specific day that students are asked to fill their book boxes. Since readers are finishing books at different times, it does not work for me to have "shopping" days. Instead, my readers can opt to switch their books during morning work time any morning that it is necessary. Our morning work time lasts for about 15 minutes, and any student who needs to switch books can choose to do it during this time. Students are not allowed to shop for books during reading workshop because it often disrupts other students who are trying to read independently or meet in small groups.

You also asked about my read aloud time. This is a time of the day that is separate from reading workshop. However, it is often related to the skills I am teaching my readers and writers in reading and writing workshops. I choose books that lend themselves to the modeling of skills I am teaching in reading workshop or the author's craft we are studying in writing workshop. While students are not usually required to do any written work at this time, I do make my read-alouds interactive. Students are expected to participate in the discussions and turn and talk to their "talk partners" when asked to do so.

I hope that my feedback has helped answer your questions! Thanks for posting on the blog!

-Beth

Sharon,

I am glad my videos have been helpful for your professional development classes! Good luck with the continued training of teachers in the area of reading workshop!

-Beth

Hi,

The wonderful reading workshop ideas and templates that you share have provided me with some spark!
I am clearly suffering from mommy-brain and am needing everything spelled out for me... how do you go about the routine of filling book bins on Mondays? Do you just tell the kids to take a few minutes in the book nook to fill their bins with good book choices? Also, I see in your daily schedule you have read alouds as well as your reading workshop. During a read aloud do you simply read to the kids with no follow-up being required of them?

Beth,
Thanks for sharing your videos on your website. I am a literacy coach currently teaching professional development classes on the Daily 5. Even though you don't specifically have anchor charts posted, etc. in your classroom you truly have a Daily 5 structured classroom environment. Teachers I am working with have wanted to see what a reading workshop looks like and you have provided me with the perfect resources. Thank you, thank you. I have used your same classroom structure in my own classroom and students love it!

Jessica,

You asked about why I choose to use a Reader's Notebook binder instead of a spiral notebook. That is a great question!

After trying out a true notebook approach, I found it was hard for my third graders to keep their ideas and thoughts organized in the notebook as well as their materials. I tried to add tabs to the notebook pages so that the notebook had different sections, but the pages ended up falling out, and students would use random pages to do their reading work. This made the notebooks hard to assess when I collected them to check in on my readers' progress.

I switched to the binder because it is so easy to add new things in a specific order without asking my students to glue in handouts and stick loose papers in their notebooks. My binder has different sections. I like that students can add new reading log pages if necessary, add useful handouts in the mini-lesson handout section, and keep important materials and notes for reading partnership meetings in the partnership section of the binder. They also create genre graphs each month that they add to the genre section. If I did not use a binder, my students would not be able to keep their materials and their reading work organized in a way that is easy for them (and for me) to locate specific materials and information. They also have blank notebook paper at the back of the binder where they respond to their reading like they would in a traditional spiral notebook.

I do happen to have the space in my classroom to store these binders, and I understand your concern about the binders taking up quite a bit of room. However, I do not find them to be cumbersome when students are using them to record their books or respond to their reading. They bring them to the carpet for the mini-lesson each day and have them with them at their book nook at all times during independent reading time.

I hope my ideas have given you some insight about the use of reading binders!

-Beth

Marsha,

I read your comment on another one of my blog posts that said you did read some of my comments in response to other teachers who also are required to use basal texts. It seems you are certainly not the only teacher out there who desires to implement a true reading workshop but is being held back by the demands of a basal curriculum.

I have actually responded to many teachers' concerns about this issue on my other posts about reading workshop as well. If you are looking for ways to balance the basal text with the daily routine of a reading workshop, I suggest reading through the comments I have posted here and on many of my previous workshop-related blog posts. Here are links to the other posts where you will find some of my comments related to your question:

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2009/11/assessment-reading-workshop.html

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2009/10/reading-workshop.html#comments

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2009/10/classlibrary.html

-Beth

Beth-

First of all I love your website! I have been referring to it for years, so thank you for all the great ideas! I was wondering what made you switch to using a binder for the Reader's Notebook. I currently use a spiral notebook and am worried the binder may be too cumbersome. Unfortunately I don't have the great classroom space that you have. Can you give me some pros and cons for using the binder with my Gifted and Talented students?

Stephanie,

Thanks for posting your comments on the blog.

You asked what I do if a student is not completing the work. I am guessing you are referring to the tasks that students are asked to complete during individualized daily read time. Since I check in on students' progress on a regular basis, I am always aware of students who are not doing their reading "work." I make sure to meet with these students immediately and set up a plan to hold them accountable for completing tasks. Usually an individual conference with the student where we set personal reading goals leads to an improved effort on the student's part.

However, there are times when these students must face consequences for their incomplete reading work. In our classroom economy, students receive debits for not turning in homework assignments. I consider reading work to be just as important and will apply the classroom economy rules to reading workshop tasks as well. (For more information on my classroom economy, read my recent blog post: http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2010/01/class-economy.html ) I also look for ways to recognize these students when they do put extra effort into tasks. When I see a glimpse of quality work, I am quick to choose these less-motivated students as my "reader of the day." That usually boosts their confidence and increases their level of motivation to continue working hard.

You also asked what I do when a partner has not read or brought questions for a buddy meeting. I believe you are referring to my reading partnership unit. While students are very independent during this unit, I do make sure that they alwasys sign-up first before conducting a partnership meeting. When they sign up for a meeting, I check their "thick" questions first and then approve the meeting. This way I know that both readers are prepared to make their book discussion meeting as purposeful as possible.

I hope I have answered your questions!

-Beth

Beth-I also want to thank you for all of the time you have spent helping other teachers. I have been using some of your fantastic ideas for the past 2 years. I also need to stay with my district's guidelines and I do need to use the basal readers and I cannot use the Reader's Workshop in my classroom; however, I was hoping that I can incorporate some or most of the reader's workshop activities along with the basal reader. The reading series that we are using has wonderful leveled readers and I am thinking that I can also use these books to create a "reader's workshop" in my classroom. Any suggestions that may help me?

Beth,
Thank you for all the great ideas! I am considering implementing Reading Workshop in my classroom next year and I have a few questions. What do you do when you meet with a child who is not completing the work? What do you do when one partner has not read or brought questions for the buddy meeting? I have several students this year who I can see doing this and was wondering how you handle the situation. Thank you!

Sara,

That is exciting that you are getting ready to implement a reading workshop in your classroom next year! While managment and organization are keys to making it work, the lessons that you teach are ultimately the most important component.

While I would love to share my own lessons with you, I have agreed to write the units of study that I use in my classroom for my own school district and am unfortunately not able to post them on this blog.

However, a great resource for reading workshop units of study to help you get started is the Denver Public Schools reading curriculum website. Here is the address: http://curriculum.dpsk12.org/index.htm#lit_pg

Thanks for posting your comments!

-Beth

Beth,
I, too, am a third grade teacher and I love your site! I find myself turning to it for all sorts of information! I'm working on getting organized to kick off a workshop based classroom next year. I've started growing my library and labeling and organizing books, but I'm worried about where to get the information for the mini-lessons and how you organize when you teach what. Our district currently does not have a curriculum map, so it's hard to know when to teach what.
Thank you so much for your help!

Hi Beth,

I am curious if you have a suggestion how to implement guided reading within an IB PYP program. I teach third grade at an international school in Shanghai. There is anywhere from 40-100 minutes of English class per day each week. I'm trying to determine the best way to go about setting up a workshop that includes guided reaidng, and then related writing, spelling and grammar, since there is no separate time for this during the day. Any ideas you have are welcome! Thanks and xie xie

Julia

We use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System to assess students' reading levels in our district. Here is a link to their website for more information: http://www.fountasandpinnellbenchmarkassessment.com/

-Beth

Sandy,

The reading workshop is definitely a K+ approach to teaching reading. It may look a bit different in first grade, but the main concepts are the same. Students are given real time to read texts at their independent level while receiving a daily whole-class mini-lesson and regular individualized time with the teacher in a small group setting.

For more information about first grade reading, Kathy Collins has written a great book about reading workshop for the primary grades. It is called "Growing Readers." It provides background on the workshop and lays out a year's worth of units of study. Here is a link to more information about her book: http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=373&r=&REFERER=

You can even preview parts of the book online.

I hope you find it to be helpful!

-Beth

Beth,
In my former school district, I used STAR to assess my students changing reading levels. How do you assess your students reading levels?

Thanks!

Are the first grade teachers also doing this type of reading program, or it is for the older children.

Tonya,

The "basal" issue is one that I am approached about often. When I first began experimenting with reading workshop in my classroom, most teachers in my district were still using the basal we had adopted years ago. I had also been using the basal since it was the only thing that was provided to new teachers (in terms of a reading curriculum) when I started teaching in my district 10 years ago.

Even when teachers are using a basal text, there are still sequential lessons incorporated into units of study that are presented to students each month. When I first began transitioning from the basal text to a reading workshop approach, I tried turning the basal lessons into mini-lessons. I was, in a sense, teaching the basal content within the structure of a reading workshop. I ended up reading aloud many of the stories in the basal text that students were expected to read on their own. I then used them as mentor texts and referred to them when teaching my mini-lessons. Since the stories in a basal text are often "one size fits all," I did not feel bad about using them as a read aloud or even as a shared text. The stories were often well above or well below the students' "just right" reading levels in my classroom, so using them as read-aloud texts or shared reading texts made the most sense to me. I would teach the content I was expected to teach from the basal, but my students would practice using those skills and strategies in their own self-selected books from my classroom library.

While a basal text can be restrictive when trying to implement an authentic reading workshop, it certainly does not make it impossible. Creativity and flexibility on the part of the classroom teacher becomes essential to making it work!

Good luck, and feel free to post any additional questions you might have!

-Beth

Pegah,

You asked about how I get my basket labels to stay attached to the baskets when the baskets have holes. I actually use self-adhesive floppy disk holders. (Luckily I bought them in bulk a few years ago because I think they are becoming extinct!) They worked great for many years, but some are now beginning to fall off. Once they lose their stickiness, I either replace the old ones with a new floppy disk holder, or I reattach the non-sticky floppy disk holder with a hot glue gun. We have found the hot glue gun to be a good solution for keeping the labels attached to the baskets. Let me know if you come up with a better solution!

Thanks for reading my blog!

-Beth

Suzie,

It sounds like you and your 2nd grade colleagues are doing some great things in your classrooms. I'm glad you are able to use some of the ideas for IDR time from my post. Good luck with your reading workshop!

-Beth

Joan,

I'm glad you have found my blog and my website to be useful! The "thick questioning" lessons have really proven to be helpful for my students. It has been a great way to deepen their reading partnership discussions!

-Beth

HI Beth,

Your amazing! Quick question, how do you get your basket labels to stay on? The holes on the basket make it difficult for my labels to ever stay on for too long....

Thanks...

Thank you Beth for all of your fabulous ideas. I have found so much inspiration in your classroom website and all of your ideas. Although I teach 2nd grade, I am often able to modify ideas you have for my class. Our 2nd grade team has just started ability level grouping students for reading. I have the High Level students. I am currently putting a binder of reading activities together. I plan on using IDR time very similar to yours. Thank you for all the ideas and suggestions. You truly are an inspiration to many teachers.

WOW...I was looking for information about Thin and Thick questions. I can't believe the jackpot I have hit...what a wonderful website and GREAT ideas.

Pam,

You asked specifically how to help students develop the very important skill of inferencing.

To help my own students with this skill, I do lots of modeling during my read-alouds. I choose books that are well-suited for inferencing and stop often during my read-alouds to "think-aloud" in front of my students as I make inferences. Once they have seen me do it often, I stop to allow the students to share their own inferences.

Below is a book list that provides suggestions for read-aloud books that encourage the inferencing skill.

Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen
Peppe, the Lamplighter by E. Bartone (predicting)
Journey to Ellis Island: How My Father Came to America by Carol Bierman (inferring and
vocabulary in context)
The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor
Winter Fox by Jennifer Brutschy
Dandelion by Eve Bunting
A Day’s Work by Eve Bunting
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
Going Home by Eve Bunting (inferring)
How Many Days To America by Eve Bunting
The Memory String by Eve Bunting
The Wall by Eve Bunting
The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting
Stellaluna by Cannon
See the Ocean by Estelle Condra
Getting’ Through Tuesday by Melrose Cooper
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Carl Goes Shopping by Alexandra Day
Frank and Ernest by Alexandra Day
Frank and Ernest Play Ball by Alexandra Day
Frank and Ernest on the Road by Alexandra Day
Good Dog Carl by Alexandra Day
Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom DeLuise
Dateline: Troy by Paul Fleischman
Shoes from Grandpa by Mem Fox
Possom Magic by Mem Fox
Oink! Oink! By Arthur Geist
Teammates by Peter Golenbock
Grandpa’s Face by Greenfield
Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen
Creatures of the Earth, Sea, and Sky (book of poems) by Georgia Heard
Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti
Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson
The Island of Skog by Steven Kellog (predicting)
She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head by Lasky (inferring)
A Gathering of Garter Snakes by Bianca Lavies (vocabulary in context)
Fables by Arnold Lobel
Shortcut by Macaulay
George and Martha by James Marshall
George and Martha Encore by James Marshall
George and Martha Rise and Shine by James Marshall
White Dynamite and Curly Kidd by Martin and Archambault
Oops: A Preston Pig Story by Colin McNaugton (prediction)
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills
I’ll Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Purple, Green, and Yellow by Robert Munsch
The Lily Cupboard by Oppenheim
Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini
Zoom Broom by Margie Palatini
The Tale of Mandarin Ducks by K. Paterson (inferring)
The Royal Bee by Francis Park
Alvin Ailey by A. Pinkney (vocabulary in context)
All I See by Rylant
Miss Maggie by Cynthia Rylant
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman by Schroeder (inferring)
Squids Will Be Squids by Scieszka
No, David! by David Shannon
White Wash by Ntzoake Shange (predicting)
Autumn Across America by Simon (vocabulary in context)
Big Bushy Mustache by Soto
Chato’s Kitchen by Soto
The Old Man and His Door by Soto
Amos and Boris by Steig
Zeke Peppin by Steig (predicting)
The Gardener by Stewart
Where Are You Going, Manyoni? by Stock
Ben’s Dream by Chris Van Allsburg
The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg
The Wreck of the Zephyr by Chris Van Allsburg
Free Fall by David Weisner
June 29, 1999 by David Weisner
Tuesday by David Weisner
Timothy Goes to School by Rosemary Wells
Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth
The Gift of Driscoll Lipscomb by Yamaka
Encounter by Jane Yolen
If You Listen by Charlotte Zolotow

I hope this helps!

-Beth

Suzanne,

Thanks for your compliments. It is exciting to know that my ideas can be implemented in both a home-school and classroom setting!

-bETH

Hi Beth,
Thank you for your generosity! I am trying to impliment some of your strategies and really like the thick/thin questions. My students are only grade 2 but do you have any other hints or ideas on how to develop that inferencing skill? thanks so much, Pam