How do first grade teachers lead guided writing groups during literacy workshop?

How can intermediate teachers integrate word study into the writing workshop?

How can we get our staff to agree about what’s essential when it comes to implementing the same core elements in our literacy programs?

These are just a few of the dozens of questions colleagues discuss in staff meetings, in hallways, or at study groups. School communities are trying to establish common routines and expectations for literacy programs, even as they acknowledge that teachers must vary schedules and activities to accommodate the diverse learners and needs that emerge in any given classroom.

This day-long seminar shows how two different teachers at different grade levels who share common beliefs about literacy and learning implement reading and writing workshops of a successful workshop program in action throughout a typical day in an elementary classroom. In What’s the Difference?, first-grade teacher Katie DiCesare and fifth-grade teacher Karen Terlecky take you into a day in the life of their bustling reading and writing workshops.  Katie and Karen are teachers at the same school in Ohio, where their principal (Karen Szymusiak, co-author of Still Learning to Read) is committed to consistent, thoughtful literacy workshops at all levels.

Highlighting a range of minilessons, small-group instruction, and conferences with students, the day-long event is designed to help veteran and novice teachers compare and contrast primary and intermediate workshop routines. The workshop will include examples of:

• Using picture books to teach reading strategies;

• Word study homework and sentence analysis;

• Individual conferences with diverse students;

• Small groups targeting nonfiction text features and summarizing;

• Selecting student work as mentor texts for the whole class; and

• Teacher reflection on what goes well and what could be improved in the workshop routines.

You’ll leave the day with a wealth of templates, tips, and sample lessons to recharge and refresh your classroom teaching, as well as launching conversations with colleagues about what consistency across grade levels might look like. Here is an excerpt from the participant DVD:

Katie DiCesare and Karen Terlecky are both teachers in the Dublin, Ohio school system. They have presented their teaching strategies regionally, and published their writing on the Choice Literacy website.