Reading and Writing Workshop by Kathy Bartelmay Curriculum Director

Shortly before winter break, teachers Amy Lau, Jeff Burch, and I flew to Chicago to present at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention.  It was a special year at NCTE.  It was the organization’s 100th anniversary, and we were celebrating in the city where John Dewey founded the University of Chicago Lab School to test his new theories of progressive education.

What does progressive reading and writing instruction look like today?  NCTE has identified the following skills as critical to 21st century literacy:

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology and synthesize multiple streams of information
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally 
 
• Create, critique, analyze, and compare texts and multimedia  

But knowing what to teach is only the first step. How schools teach is equally important. Amy, Jeff and I did our presentation on ways inquiry-based reading and writing workshops work hand-in-hand with project work to actively engage students and provide them with the skills they will need in college and beyond. To show you how this instruction differs from the way traditional schools teach reading and writing, I’ll compare the fairy and folk tale unit our second grade does to the way this genre is taught in traditional schools.

Active Inquiry Classroom

Traditional Classroom

Whole Class Instruction The teacher reads a story aloud and models the active thinking good readers do.  For example, as she reads The Paper Bag Princess, she pauses after several pages. “Whoa, this is really different than the fairy tales I’m used to.  The prince got kidnapped and the princess is off to the rescue.” After finishing the story, she writes on a chart:   Good readers … • make connections (comparing The Paper Bag Princess to traditional fairy tales) Before releasing the students to read, the teacher reminds them, “Remember when you read today, good readers are always pausing and thinking about how the story connects to other experiences they’ve had.” Independent Work Students return to tables, which contain baskets filled with fairy tales from many cultures and on a variety of reading levels. Students choose one, read independently, and record open-ended responses in reading journals. Example of a 2nd grader response in Paige & Andrea’s room: Dear Cinder Edna (main character),     I think you made the right choice thinking that Prince Randolph was boring. Cinderella certainly had a boring life after she got married!  I liked that you didn’t get married and kept a positive additude (sic) all the time. Small Group Work The teacher connects their new story to the read-alouds they have read together.  Students look at the cover, title, and pictures and make personal connections. (e.g., “This reminds me of the Cinderella DVD I saw at my grandma’s.”) Before students read silently, the teacher reminds them to mark any connections they make with post-its so they will be prepared for a discussion. Students also know to mark favorite parts or anything they don’t understand.  When finished, the teacher asks for a volunteer to start the conversation.  One student says that the character of Manyara in the story (Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters) reminds her of Cinderella’s wicked stepsister. The teacher asks her to elaborate and the child reads aloud a part she has marked with a post-it, which illustrates how mean the character is. The conversation continues.

Whole Class Instruction The teacher tells students they will begin a unit on fairy tales. She introduces the new vocabulary they will encounter in their story by writing words on a board and asking volunteers for the meaning.  Independent Work Students return to desks to do seat work or read a library book while waiting for their reading group to meet. Small Group Work After students read an assigned fairy tale from their reading book, the teacher poses questions. (“Who is the story about? What was the problem in the story?”) Students write or give oral answers and the teacher corrects.

When you walk into a Duke School reading workshop, the class is buzzing with conversation.  Students are choosing texts, reading voraciously, sharing ideas, and posing their own questions.

Our middle school social studies and language arts study group meet with me each month to investigate ways to ensure our content area reading and writing are aligned with best practices. We’re currently reading, Comprehension and Collaboration, by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels. Last Thursday we met to discuss the chapter on comprehension strategies and I think every one of us highlighted a quotation that represented our philosophy at Duke School. “Comprehension is not about answering those literal questions at the end of a story, chapter or textbook section. Comprehension is not about spitting out facts and filling in blanks. Comprehension is about understanding. And reading is not merely about word calling.  Reading is about thinking.”

And that’s what you’ll see in a Duke School reading and writing workshop, whether it is second grade or middle school-conversation, collaboration and deep thinking.