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Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop: Making Informed Instructional Decisions in Grades 3–6
In this book, two seasoned teachers show how to set reading goals, assess students to ensure goals are being met, and carry out instruction. Stressing that there are many ways to determine where students are and just as many ways to determine where to take them, they give teachers the tools to make that journey. They open with overview chapters on reading workshop and “the first six weeks” and move to detailed chapters on independent reading, read-aloud, whole-class instruction, small-group instruction, and conferences. In short, they provide a model for assessment-informed instruction.
208 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2008
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61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 11, 2016
A must read! This book really helped me establish my Reader's Workshop. It helped me understand how I can teach each child, although they are reading different books.
August 9, 2017
Great, great, great resource. Wonderful overview of the reading workshop. Loved getting an inside look to Franki's classroom. Expert teacher!!!
January 13, 2008
This is the right book at the right time for teachers of middle grade readers. The authors have set out to do nothing less than start a revolution in this crazy world of politics-driven standards, accountability, and testing, testing, testing.
"Instead of looking at what our students can do and scaffolding them as they move forward, standards, tests, and measures are forcing us to use a deficit model of assessment -- and we wind up focusing on what kids can't do.
We've written this text to turn the tide. (p. 7-8)"
Sibberson and Szymusiak begin by reminding us of the particular instructional needs of readers in grades 3-6, as they did in their 2003 Stenhouse book, Still Learning to Read. The shift from reading predictable primary texts to reading complex intermediate texts requires readers to acquire more sophisticated reading strategies.
"We cannot prepare students in grades 3-6 for every challenge they will encounter in the books they read. Our goal shifts from preparing them for a text to preparing them for any text. (p.11)"
As the authors lead us through in-depth discussions of the various routines and structures of the middle-grade reading workshop, the emphasis is continually on the kind of data and information we can gather about our students at that particular time. They never depart from their message that our stance when assessing readers should be what students can do, whether we are listening to conversations, observing, having an individual conference, looking over the students' reading interviews or logs, taking a status of the class before independent reading time, or any of the countless other times that we assess our students as a natural part of living in the same classroom with them throughout the day. And they never stray from the stance that the purpose of any and all of this assessment should be to inform our instruction of individual children, small groups of children with the same needs in a particular area, or our whole class.
This is a very user-friendly book. There are lots of samples of student work (not all pretty, and at a variety of levels -- just like you would find in your classroom), an abundance of text boxes with bulleted points for easy reference, and short lists of books throughout that support the facet of reading workshop being discussed in the text.
With the myriad of opportunities for day-to-day assessment in the reading workshop comes the challenge of record-keeping -- finding or creating the right forms, and remembering that
"For our record-keeping system to inform our instruction, it should be ever changing...I have to remind myself often that there is a difference between record keeping and assessment. Just because I haven't written it down doesn't mean I haven't assessed a child. (p.51)"
A generous 18-page appendix gives reproducible examples of the forms Franki has developed over time for her classroom. (But don't forget that notes-to-self jotted on stickie notes are sometimes the only form you need!)
New middle grade teachers, this is a book that will help you to implement your reading workshop. Not only will you understand each of the components of the workshop format, you will know why they are important to student learning, and how you can use assessment within each component to plan for your instruction in a meaningful way. Experienced middle grade teachers, this book is a breath of fresh air -- a reminder of the value in all we do, and chock full of new ideas for tweaking and polishing our workshops to make them more effective than ever before.
"Instead of looking at what our students can do and scaffolding them as they move forward, standards, tests, and measures are forcing us to use a deficit model of assessment -- and we wind up focusing on what kids can't do.
We've written this text to turn the tide. (p. 7-8)"
Sibberson and Szymusiak begin by reminding us of the particular instructional needs of readers in grades 3-6, as they did in their 2003 Stenhouse book, Still Learning to Read. The shift from reading predictable primary texts to reading complex intermediate texts requires readers to acquire more sophisticated reading strategies.
"We cannot prepare students in grades 3-6 for every challenge they will encounter in the books they read. Our goal shifts from preparing them for a text to preparing them for any text. (p.11)"
As the authors lead us through in-depth discussions of the various routines and structures of the middle-grade reading workshop, the emphasis is continually on the kind of data and information we can gather about our students at that particular time. They never depart from their message that our stance when assessing readers should be what students can do, whether we are listening to conversations, observing, having an individual conference, looking over the students' reading interviews or logs, taking a status of the class before independent reading time, or any of the countless other times that we assess our students as a natural part of living in the same classroom with them throughout the day. And they never stray from the stance that the purpose of any and all of this assessment should be to inform our instruction of individual children, small groups of children with the same needs in a particular area, or our whole class.
This is a very user-friendly book. There are lots of samples of student work (not all pretty, and at a variety of levels -- just like you would find in your classroom), an abundance of text boxes with bulleted points for easy reference, and short lists of books throughout that support the facet of reading workshop being discussed in the text.
With the myriad of opportunities for day-to-day assessment in the reading workshop comes the challenge of record-keeping -- finding or creating the right forms, and remembering that
"For our record-keeping system to inform our instruction, it should be ever changing...I have to remind myself often that there is a difference between record keeping and assessment. Just because I haven't written it down doesn't mean I haven't assessed a child. (p.51)"
A generous 18-page appendix gives reproducible examples of the forms Franki has developed over time for her classroom. (But don't forget that notes-to-self jotted on stickie notes are sometimes the only form you need!)
New middle grade teachers, this is a book that will help you to implement your reading workshop. Not only will you understand each of the components of the workshop format, you will know why they are important to student learning, and how you can use assessment within each component to plan for your instruction in a meaningful way. Experienced middle grade teachers, this book is a breath of fresh air -- a reminder of the value in all we do, and chock full of new ideas for tweaking and polishing our workshops to make them more effective than ever before.
September 22, 2010
I got some fabulous ideas out of this book! I think there is something in this book for every teacher at any stage in their career using Reading Workshop. What I especially appreciated was the section on groups (book clubs, student initiated groups, etc.) and ideas for read aloud.
Sibberson's classroom truly sounds like a place where so much of the learning and teaching is organic. What a lucky place for kids to be!
Sibberson's classroom truly sounds like a place where so much of the learning and teaching is organic. What a lucky place for kids to be!
April 8, 2012
Great masters to use for the classroom. Unfortunately, our Language Arts time is too short in the school day to implement all of the great ideas Franki mentions. I met her at a conference in the summer of 2011 and she's a wonderful teacher. She has great ideas, wonderful organizational skills and this book definitely offers some fantastic ideas for teachers at any stage!
July 31, 2010
Just finished this book in preparation to moving back to working with middle grade readers. So much of our teaching needs to be based on what we observe that our students need. The authors deliver practical ideas that will help students think deeply about books.
October 31, 2016
Hands down, one of the best professional books that I've ever read! It was fabulous and has offered me so many different ways to think about how I teach reading in my classroom. I can only dream of being as "with-it" as Sibberson and Szymusiak.
Currently reading
September 9, 2009This book has been ordered for the 2009-10 to assist with our work in Reading Workshop.
to-find
April 15, 2010Scholastic doesn't allow sneak peeks. Grr!
December 26, 2012
WOW! This book made me want to COMPLETELY change my reading instruction in my 6th grade classroom! LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!
August 19, 2011
This book made me really think about how I'm teaching and what drives my instruction. I'm excited to use many of her ideas this year. I highly recommend this book.
August 1, 2011
This was a quick read that I think will help me fine tune my reading workshop. I got some great ideas and plan to have this out on my desk next school year.
Want to read
October 12, 2011Love it so far, but time is of the essence. I think I'll make it my professional book of the school year to get through (just not quite yet). :)
October 8, 2011
Gives some concrete step-off points for reading workshop.
February 2, 2012
Read-aloud journals have changed my teaching!
May 8, 2014
Excellent ideas to practice throughout the school year, taking into consideration every aspect of the individual habilities of our students regarding reading comprehension.
June 15, 2014
EXCELLENT resource. It is a fantastic tool to get the MOST out of Reading Workshop.I will be rereading/referring to this one constantly.
December 2, 2015
first read summer 2014
reread summer 2015
reread summer 2015
March 21, 2016
A must read for any utilizing reading workshop in their classroom.
May 31, 2020
Lots of good tips and forms to use...I'd never thought of using a read aloud notebook...that's going to take some time to mull over, but I like the idea.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews