Launching Reader's Workshop is always one my most favorite things to do! Throughout my years as an educator, I have learned to understand the true value in setting up Reader’s Workshop: routines, expectations, enhancing students’ excitement and most importantly fostering a sense of safety and acceptance as budding readers.
The lesson shared in this blog is the very first lesson I use each school year. It’s message is invaluable: I AM A READER! Especially at the first grade level, the levels and abilities in your classroom are typically as vast as an ocean. In years past, this range has gone anywhere from non-readers to students reading on a fourth grade level. Nonetheless, this lesson is aimed to teach your students that they are ALL READERS.
I start the lesson by giving students a post it note and having them place it on a T-Chart that says: Am I A Reader? I walk away and move the chart so no one can see where they place it besides them! After all students have done this, we discuss it briefly as a class. (WARNING: NOT CUTE ANCHOR CHART BELOW!)
Then, the fun begins! I have my students move around the room to locate and bring back one of the colored task cards I have previously hung around the room. You want to be clear WHICH of the task cards hanging you want them to bring back. You want them ALL to stick with the same “type” of task card (numbers, letters, pictures), so I suggest color coding them for easy differentiation! Once they are all back on the carpet with the same “type/color” task card, I very casually call them 1-1 to hand me their task card and READ what’s on it.
Once all of the task cards have been collected, I stop and dramatically think out loud. I typically ask my struggling readers or readers I sense did not identify themselves as one, “Wait, when you got the yellow task card it did you READ me what was on it?” “And were you able to READ me the purple task card with no problem at all?” With every “yes,” I hear back from the students I move a task card over to the “yes” column on the AM I A Reader T-Chart… and then you wait for it.. Sometimes it’s a gasp... Sometimes it’s a giggle....And sometimes it’s a blank stare because they haven’t picked up on what your message is yet!
Lights, camera, action! This teacher, turned actress, then very dramatically announces that ALL of the students sitting in front of me are READERS. Next, I flip to my next chart: What Can I Read? I add to the chart each of the things students read when gathering their task cards (numbers, pictures, letters, their names etc.) I then have them chant in ALL different kinds of ways: I AM A READER!! (To make it really fun, I allow other kids to lead the chant, too!)
Throughout the year, I like to refer back to this chart and ADD things to it as we learn to read them: short vowels, long vowels, sight words etc. (Suggestion: add cross-curricular topics too like addition sentences and maps to really help students make the realization that this too is READING!!)
After we are finished with our chants, we read one of my favorite stories: Rocket Learned to Read. There are so many wonderful aspects of this story and one of the very many messages is so fitting and encouraging for early readers: You learn to READ one letter at a time!
To conclude the lesson, after a few more chants of: “I am a READER!” I have students color in the sign shown below! (Click this link to get this as a freebie in our TPT store!) When they finish coloring, I take a picture of them holding their sign and place it on a bulletin board in my reading area to be displayed ALL year long.
