When Teachers Go To SchoolIn Readers Workshop, students share with each other in the classroom what they learn from reading.
Wednesday and Thursday, literacy coaches, teachers and other education professionals got to learn and share teaching techniques with education consultant and author Debbie Miller.
Miller taught primary grades in the Denver (Colo.) Public Schools for 30 years. Now a staff developer with the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, she works extensively as a private consultant with schools and districts on long-range planning and development of literacy programs. She has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver and currently at Regis University.She is the author of "Reading with Meaning" and "Teaching with Intention."
Rachael Hoffert and Lisa Carpenter are literacy coaches for Warsaw Community Schools. Literacy coaches lead the professional development for the school corporation. They go into classrooms and work alongside teachers to help improve literacy in students.
Wednesday, Carpenter said, Miller gave a presentation to about 200 education professionals at the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center. Those in attendance represented Middlebury, Warsaw, Tippecanoe Valley, Wawasee, Wa-Nee, Goshen, Elkhart, Bremen and Quincy, Mich., school corporations.
During her large group discussion, Hoffert said, Miller talked a lot about implementing Readers Workshop. Readers Workshop is part of the balanced literacy program Warsaw Schools has adopted districtwide. Hoffert said they want to create lifelong readers and thinkers in students.
Carpenter said there are several components to Readers Workshop at WCS in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. It starts with a large group lesson that focuses on a reading strategy, such as making connections or referring. "Things that we know good readers do," said Hoffert.
After that, Carpenter said, students are given a chunk of time for reading at their reading levels. This allows the teachers to meet with small groups or one-on-one instruction, Hoffert said. It all ends with a group share.
Thursday morning, after a discussion time with about 50 of the educators, Miller and the group then walked over to Washington Elementary School. In Val Hutton's second-grade class, Miller taught students for about 45 minutes in Readers Workshop while the group of educators observed.
During her time in Hutton's class, Miller read the book "Those Shoes" to the students. During the reading, she asked students questions and had them talk to each other about the book. Asking questions about what they're reading helps readers learn what the author wants them to understand in the book, Miller told the students.
After "Those Shoes" was read, students were given time to quietly read their own books. While they read, Miller talked to a few students one-on-one about the material. After individual reading time, the class then met again in group and discussed what they read and how they read.
Thursday afternoon, Miller then took another group into Cathy Hood's first-grade class. Inbetween the morning and afternoon session, Hoffert said, Miller and the educators had a conversation about what Miller did in Hutton's classroom and what she observed about the students and their reading habits.
Miller's two-day visit was funded through the All-Write Consortium. The consortium includes many school corporations that pull their money together to bring in speakers and host other events.
