Several years ago, Lakewood City Schools developed a vision for curriculum adoption and implementation for the essential area of Language Arts. The district was fortunate be selected from many applicants around the world to work with the Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project (Columbia University). If you want to learn more, here is a link to their website: http://readingandwritingproject.org/about.Since then, Writing and Reading Workshop have been phased into our elementary and middle schools. There have been summer training institutes and "coaching" visits throughout the school year in order to help us become experts in this challenging, yet rewarding, way of teaching. Last week, two sessions were held in the district to be sure everyone--general education teachers and intervention providers--has had training in the Workshop model. With everyone "speaking the same language" when it comes to teaching reading and writing, we feel confident that Lakewood's children will become confident, enthusiastic readers.
One note about the reading workshop model--which is just being introduced in grades 3-5 this year--is that phonics instruction plays an important role. In Lakewood, we use the Fundations curriculum for this purpose, with lessons taking place daily in grades K-3.
Your child should be bringing books home with him or her every single day, and I encourage you to listen to them read or read your own material beside them. I see Workshop in process when I visit classrooms daily, and it is a thrill to see kids reading and talking with their teachers and with each other about what they've read. The best way to become a better reader and writer is to practice! If you have any questions or feedback about Reading or Writing Workshop, please be in touch with me or your child's teacher.
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