That Workshop Book: New Systems and Structures for Classrooms That Read, Write, and Think

by Samantha Bennett

Excellent Book

Genres: Teaching, Professional Development, Education, School, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published September 11, 2007

Reviews

[Trina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently, a colleague and I were talking about implementing workshop in a middle level classroom, and I mentioned this book to him. As I was pointing out how the book was structured and what I loved about it, I found myself reading it again (for the third time). Honestly, it is one of my very favorite professional books about learning and teaching. It's inspiring and well-written, yet still backed with relevant research. As a literacy coach, this book makes me long to return to the classroom again.

That Workshop Book highlights some impressive, passionate teachers-the kind of teachers I want my own children to have and the kind of classrooms that I would want my children to be a part of. Each teacher has an intentional, consistent structure of assessment, planning, and instruction-every day, all day. This book also shows how an effective coach can nudge a teacher through a coaching conversation and how teachers and coaches can work together.

I love the emphasis in this book that workshop is a system where students need big chunks of time to read, write, and talking to think. Sam Bennett shares, "In order for workshop to work, a teacher must believe that what comes out of students' mouths and pencils is more important that anything a teacher could say." I agree - it's the student's thinking that matters most.

This book isn't just for elementary and middle level teachers. I think that there is so much application for high school teachers as well. In my opinion, That Workshop Book is a great book to pair with any of Cris Tovani's books or Penny Kittle's books.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Samantha Bennett visits six practitioners of workshop teaching, from 1st to 8th grade, and shares their structures, rituals, routines, and systems as they show a Goldsberg's Variations-worth of activities teachers can do if they want to talk less and allow kids the time to SHOW what they KNOW via time -- time to write, read, talk, and listen.

Using a "catch and release" metaphor (fishing, you see), Bennett shows how teachers should constantly pull the kids in for debriefing and mini-lessons to help show them how it's done before re-releasing them for more workshop tasks. The book provides detailed examples and cites all of the sources these teachers are drawing upon to execute the lessons. There's something of value no matter what grade you teach (or even if you are a parent). Worth a look if you're curious about the conditions that kids need to learn.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of teachers offering accounts of workshop in their classroom situation. As professional books go, this one is fine. Focused on elementary instruction, it offers student samples and a chance to examine the thinking that goes into instructional decisions. There isn't a lot here that I haven't already gleaned from Nancie Atwell, Katie Wood Ray, and the rest, but as a secondary teacher I'm not really the audience. It might help teachers who have bought into the idea of workshop but need more background in making it work.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional resource for any teacher who works at implementing a workshop model for student learning. Samantha Bennett gives us a window into the systems and structures built into the workshops of six classroom teachers. This book will stretch your thinking, challenge assumptions, and inspire readers to take one more step on the journey to building classrooms where students and teachers read, write, and think at a deep level.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Bennett visits classrooms from 1st grade through middle school where teachers are using the workshop model. She gives explicit examples and student work to show how workshops are fun.

I'm a high school teacher, so I realize I'm not really the intended audience, but I really did glean a bunch of ideas from this book. I love how she takes us through the whole workshop from the beginning to the teacher's reflection at the end. And throughout the whole thing, she repeats several times that the point is not it completely copy what these teachers have done, but rather to take some of the same ideas, structures, and methods and run with them in our own way. Loved this.

[Buddy Draper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d previously read excerpts from this book, which were very helpful. This time I decided to read through the whole thing. Seeing the workshop structure planned out and organized over the course of several weeks was helpful. It was also helpful to see the different ways the worship model can be utilized in a classroom.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great descriptions of the philosophy for and various teacher examples of workshop style teaching over a variety of grades. Wish it had just a bit more breakdown of the workshop parts itself beyond the examples.

[Nicole Jamison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many usable strategies to implement this year!

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. The author looks into the classroom of 6 different teachers of different grade levels to observe their reading, writing and humanities workshops. She shows the breakdown of time into Mini-lesson, worktime, debrief and shows what happens in each one, highlighting specific techniques that the teachers implement. I'm impressed.

[Cory Blystone · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are planning on becoming a teacher, especially an English Language Arts teacher, this book is invaluable on creating a multifaceted and successful classroom learning environment. Oh, and it includes a ton of fully in-depth mini lessons. Like, from start to finish and examples and everything. THIS BOOK IS AWESOME!!!

[Kate Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas for making learning more student-led, cross-curricular and activity-based. Would love to put this into practice, but as a librarian with 30 min of instruction time, tops-- I have trouble making the full circle. Would highly recommend to any classroom teacher.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading this for a class. It is helping me make changes in my classroom.

[Maggi Rohde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can not imagine a better text about running workshop in your classroom.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The advice and ideas are solid, but I lost patience with some of the scenarios, etc, since the bulk of them had to do with the primary grades and I'm looking for 7-12.

[Sarah Krajewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a lot of great workshop ideas from this book, even from the elementary school workshops. It also reaffirmed a lot of what I already do.

[Heather Wall · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on workshop I've read. Opened my eyes to so many other possibilities for reading/writing workshop. Very easy to read.

[Bethann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for ANY teacher! :)

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic resource to get readers to think critically...very creative!