Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all reading lesson. Saline students get to take a specialized approach to reading and writing, thanks to a program called Reading Workshop.
The district started the program, which was created by the Columbia University Teacher’s College, last year. The program encourages individual assessment, individualized reading materials and common assessment standards between grades K-8.
The idea is to help students progress at their own level and pace, says Steve Laatsch, assistant superintendent of instructional services.
In traditional literacy curriculum, “everyone reads the same book, and for some it’s too easy and others it’s too hard,” Laatsch says. “With Reading Workshop, teachers assess students and then pair every student up with a bag of books so they can read a lot.”
Students don’t progress when they’re overwhelmed or bored by the reading material, Laatsch says. Reading Workshop allows students to be challenged—but not baffled—by materials that they find interesting and fun.
Teachers also create short mini-lessons around a teaching point that students can quickly grasp. A third-grade mini-lesson could focus on teaching students to summarize the main points of a text, whereas a sixth-grade mini-lesson could teach students to notice differences between genres. The mini-lessons free up more time for students to practice the new concept while reading their selected books.
Although Reading Workshop isn’t exactly a radical new approach, it does take some extra effort from teachers, who take the time to assess every one of their students. To help adjust to the new program, teachers meet with one another every six weeks, sharing lesson plans and teaching strategies.
Teachers also need to create a classroom library with hundreds of books, so that students have plenty of choices for reading material, no matter their reading level.
“It takes time to build a library,” Laatsch says. “You’re trying to set the tone with kids that it’s a literate world, so that kids can access texts in a variety of ways. But that does take money.”
With the help of the Foundation for Saline Area Schools, the district is hoping to raise $70,000, which will provide teachers with funds to build their classroom libraries. So far, they’ve raised $40,000 and are planning future fundraisers—such as the popular Schools of Rock competition in early December—to raise the rest.
