Classroom Close Up: Guided Reading with Jenna: Introducing Workstations with Jenna Ogier

[01:00:09.06]
Jenna: Guided Reading, generally that starts with a reading mini-lesson and that could be on a reading strategy or skill and it also could be on, like, teaching a workstation. So, for today, it was teaching, you know, the fluency workstation.

"OK. Today, before we go into Guided Reading, our important Guided Reading groups, I'm gonna teach you one more workstation. So first, can someone tell me what are the workstations that we've been working on? Nila?"

Nila: "We have, we, we can do creative writing, and we, and we can get pick, uh, a mysterious picture from the creative writing folder."

Jenna: "Good."

So it would be really lovely if you could just teach them all in one sitting, and then have them do it. Um, but we definitely do kind of like, a rolling out, um, version of Reader's Workshop. And so, since it's the beginning of the year right now, they only have like three or four options for their reading workstations.

"So that's one option that you have. What's another workstation that you can work on?"

I started out the year with just teaching them silent reading and then we practiced that.

"Writing workstation, and then yesterday we had talked about you could also do silent reading, right? That that's a third option, which..."

And, then once that starts looking good, then we add on another workstation, and so, you know, we noticed that many scholars didn't know how to sign their name in cursive, so it's like, we need a cursive workstation. Um, so then we add on that.

Student: "Cursive packet."

Jenna: "Yes. So, we have cursive. We're scholars..."

And then once I see that scholars know how to use that workstation, we keep on adding more and more.

"I'm gonna give you a fourth option today, our fluency workstation, which we talked..."

And, then throughout the year, they're constantly shifting and changing according to the needs of the students. And so, if we're working on combining sentences with a positive, the maybe I'll throw in a workstation that, you know, helps scholars review that skill.

"But first, why is fluency important? Why is it important to have a fluency workstation, and for us to work on our fluency, if we want to be good readers? Tylie, what do you think?"

Tylie: "If you don't have fluency, you will read like a, um, robot."

Jenna: "So, you'll read like a robot. Then our reading doesn't sound natural. OK. So, fluency is important because we don't wanna sound like robots, and we want to increase our reading levels. Any other reasons that it's really important to practice our fluency? Comprehension. If you're reading in that robot-like way where it's all choppy, it's really difficult to remember what is happening in the story, because sometimes I've seen scholars do this, too, with their fluency. They go 'Everyday in places around the world, special trains called high-speed trains, travel between cities at amazingly fast speeds. Passengers....', and that's way too fast, right? So, not only do we wanna make sure that it's not robot-like, but then at the same time it can't be too fast because then that will mess up our comprehension too. Right? So, I'm gonna put on here remember not too fast."

And so, they know that they're getting the skills that they need to become better readers. So, I think there's like a lot of buy in when I'm introducing Guided Reading and Reading Workstations and like, why is work that we're doing so important?

"And actually, do I have a volunteer? A really brave volunteer, to help me model how you would do this workstation with a partner? Let's see. Julianna, do you want to do it? OK, come on. Today, what Julianna is going to do is she's gonna time me reading the entire passage, and then she'll stop the timer, OK? And then I'll be able to record my time on here. And, that's what we're gonna do each week, so that scholars will be able to put their words per minute over here, and then we're gonna see how much we grow, with our fluency. OK. So, Julianna, why don't you go ahead and help me out, and you can, at zero? OK. So, when I start, then go ahead and press start, OK? OK. 'Everyday in places around the world, special trains..' "

I model it with another student, so It's super clear about what should it look like when I'm at this workstation and we practice that.

" 'In the meantime, if you ever have a chance to ride a high-speed train, don't hesitate for a second. You may just miss your chance.' Awesome! How did I do?"

Student: "One minute and 57."

Jenna: "One minute and 57 seconds. So then, that means the next time that I read this story, I want to get a better time than that. So, in this first box here, I would write one minute and 57 seconds, and then after you go, your partner should go, right? So, if Julianna and I were partners, then after I went, then Julianna would go and she could record her score. OK? So, questions about that, so it's super clear? Precious?"

Student: "What if you take forever, is that a good level?"

Jeanna: "Well, we want to improve, but even if it does take you five minutes, six minutes, it doesn't matter because you're gonna keep on working on it. This is what that workstation is for, right? You're gonna get better and better and better and you're reading levels are gonna get better, and better and better because we talked about this before like, reading is exactly like sports. When you're playing basketball, if you keep on practicing, you'll get better, and better, and better."