FREE Balanced Literacy Scope and Sequence Part 1 Reader's Workshop

Ever wonder how people can keep a mini lesson to last only 10 minutes? Do you struggle with keeping the standard clear and evident? Do you hate writing plans? If you answered yes to any of these questions then this blog post it just what you need! 

I finally did it! While I love the creative side of teaching, paper work has never been a friend of mine.  I loathe doing lesson plans, scripting lessons, and keeping records. I put it off. BUT, these activities are essential for effective teaching.  So, what did I finally do? I finally took our bundled units for readers workshop, writers workshop and literacy centers and created a monthly scope and sequence to show how the three series work together to grow literate children.  In this blog post, I am going to explain the reader's workshop scope and sequence. Read all the way to the bottom. The scope and sequence is a FREE download!

Brainstorming the Unit

 Each month, when Michele and I were writing these units, we would meet for dinner at Panera! After dinner, we would spend hours sitting in the booth unpacking the standards and deciding what the children would be able to do if they had indeed mastered the standards.  We then decided on our daily focus for each of the 20 days and what the resources would look like that we would be using. Then, we went home! We each had our assignments--Michele would script the lessons we had agreed upon and I would make all of the anchor charts, teaching pieces and plan our monthly celebration.  It works! Michele gets to do what she is a genius at--scripting, and I get to do what I enjoy--creating resources.
This picture shows our spreadsheet for the 5th month. Each of our units include this type of spreadsheet. This enables us to quickly see which resources are needed and to identify the big idea for each lesson.

Scripting the Lesson

 

For each of the 20 days, Michele wrote DETAILED lessons where she scripted our thinking and what we are going to say in order to get the responses we are seeking. Don't worry that you can't read it, I'm going to show you a close up of each component of the lesson.

Lesson Components: Part 1: Connect

The mini lesson occurs with the kids gathered around you in your meeting area.  They observe and listen as you connect and TEACH the new learning.

In the connect part of the lesson, the objective it to remind the kids what we did yesterday.  This gets everyone ready and in the same place.

Part 2: Teach

The new learning is introduced during the "teach" portion of the mini lesson.  In this lesson, we are teaching the children how to "switch up" their thinking when they are reading by looking at the picture and then identifying the beginning sound.

Using these cards, I show the children the picture with the letter "t", I identify the picture as a toad. But, when I open the card, I see the "fr" and so I "switch up" my thinking to see that it is a frog. After modeling with a few cards, sharing my thinking each time, it is their turn.

Active Engagement

Active Engagement is when the children practice the new learning.  We listen in as the children answer and demonstrate their understanding. 

The children sit beside their elbow partner as we show the remaining cards. They are responding to their partners as they "switch it up".  In this particular mini lesson, the children do not need any materials to practice their new learning. But sometimes, the children do need resources.



For example, in this lesson, during the Active Engagement portion of the lesson, the children are retelling Little Red Riding Hood. Each partnership needed a set of the retelling pieces to demonstrate their mastery. 

Link 

During the Link portion of the lesson, we are reminding the children what they just learned. 

This is a great time to model using the academic vocabulary and to equip children to use this vocabulary during their discussions with other children and with us.

During the Link portion of the lesson, we are also building our anchor chart. I premade the chart. Then, we cover it up with a piece of bulletin board paper. Each day, we reveal the next part of the anchor chart to show the new learning.

Scope and Sequence

See what we did there? Michele and I did all the prep work. We unpacked the standards, brainstormed the big ideas, scripted the lessons, and made the resources.  Here's what's cool about that...now you can shift your focus to the delivery.  That is the most important part!

Here's what we just finished. I made a spreadsheet for each month. This enables you to see what you are doing during reader's workshop, writer's workshop and at literacy centers. You can grab the 9 month spreadsheet at the bottom of the blog post.

Both the Reader's Workshop units and the Literacy Center units have scripted lesson plans for the mini lesson! That makes it super easy. Be sure and grab these discounted bundles (it might just make your life a little easier).

Reader's Workshop Mega Unit 

Literacy Center Mega Bundle

Writer's Workshop Bundle 1 

For the Writer's Workshop, I did NOT script the lessons. These units have the monthly spreadsheet of the resources and the big idea, but no scripted lessons.

Writer's Workshop Bundle 2