Planning Our Reader's Workshop Week + Freebie

I have been using a twist on the Daily 5 for my Reader's Workshop for the past few years and I love it! If you'd like to read more about Daily 5 and how I incorporate it, click HERE.

I always start the year with bookmarks with rotations built in. I find this to be a good management strategy as the kids get to know me, I get to know them, and we settle into our classroom's rules and expectations. To learn how to make your own bookmarks, click HERE.

At this point in the year, though, I want the kids to be choosing their own rotations and making choices about where and how they are going to spend their time.

We don't have the time to plan each day, so every Friday, I have the kids plan for the week ahead using our Reader's Workshop Weekly Planner:

This is a full-size page, but I shrink it down to print two-to-a-page and find that size works perfectly. I copy it on blue paper (read more about my color coding HERE) and they keep it with them in their blue Reading Folders.

Each Friday, students receive a blank form and will begin my automatically entering in their "Teacher Time" (TT) space. This is our Guided Reading time, so it's the one non-negotiable when it comes to their schedules.

The other codes can be plugged in where the kids like-- there is a number next to each that they will need to follow. I want to make sure they are dedicating most of their time to Read to Self (4x/week) and Word Work (4x/week). Listen to Reading (1x/week) and Read with Someone (2x/week) are both for fluency practice, so they do those less now that the year is in full-swing.

The last option is Accelerated Reader, or AR. I have kids do this on their own at their own pace during Read to Self. We have Chromebooks in our classroom and my kids have been using AR for a year or two before they get to me, so it's a quick and easy to understand process for them. Days they take an AR Test they will add AR to their RTS square. Interested in a freebie AR Tracker? Click HERE.

At the end of each Reader's Workshop time, we will touch base whole-class and grade ourselves on how we did. We use my Mountain Climbers for this time of grading and I find that kids are very honest about this since they are so used to this scale.

I collect these on Friday and hand out new ones and the process continues! I have found that it has helped them develop the leadership skills we've been chatting about and also fits beautifully into our goal-setting discussions.

Here's one example from this week's goal-setting meeting:

To read more about goal-setting in my classroom, click HERE to get started!

If you'd like to pick up this freebie, click HERE. There are three versions: one like mine shown above, one without the number requirements, and one editable PDF where you can add in your own choices to fit your class' needs! Enjoy!!

Disclaimer: The Daily 5 & CAFE resources are unofficial adaptations of the Daily 5 by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. This freebie is not endorsed by the 2 Sisters. http://www.thedailycafe.com.