Readers Workshop is an amazing program that is used in the first through sixth grade classes at St. Mary's. Its' basic premiss is to teach children to love reading by exposing them to books that are at their individual developmental stage. Children in the older grades are assessed regularly to determine their reading level. The children have individual book boxes that they fill with books that are "just right books", books that are at their level and that they WANT to read. Through utilizing Readers Workshop, the children at the Main School have soared through reading levels and are motivated to learn to read better because it is fun! The children also have reading assignments to complete at home. This reading is recorded in a reading log, along with the level of the book and the author. This information is gathered to determine how a child is reading on his or her own and to see what books are of interest to him.
At the preschool level, the children are learning to love reading picture books. We are learning that the pictures tell the story and we can read a book by reading the pictures! We utilize components of Readers Workshop that we have tailored to better fit the preschool level. The children are taught to find their "just right books" by reading the pictures to decide if a books content is one that interests them. Books that they love reading over and over again are available for the children to place in their own personalized book box so it can be found easily next time. The children are also encouraged to read regularly with their parents at home. Favorite books are displayed through child created pictures along with each child's favorite part in the story, favorite character as well as other story elements. The children love telling me about their favorite parts of a story and enjoy seeing all of the books they read up on the wall!