Reading Workshop looks a little different in my classroom compared to a lot of other classrooms. When I taught at Ft. Benning, I did not have a parapro with me in First Grade. I tried different ways to set up Reading Workshop so that my students could be self-directed and did not need much teacher support for the activities. I developed a system to have Reading and Writing Workshop going on at the same time. At the beginning of the year, I make four groups of students and each day of the week they rotate through the 'workshops'. On the first day, two groups will be at Writing Workshop and the other two groups will be at separate Reading Workshop activities. The next three days they rotate through the activities. It has worked really well for me because there is less 'center' stuff to make and keep up with. I am able to walk around the room and do individual conferences or pull a small group to reinforce a concept. My activities board only changes once a week and I can explain the activities in a short amount of time. I have used this system for five years and I love it because my students are working on their level and they are engaged in authentic reading and writing activities.
