Does your school use the Teacher College Reading and Writing Workshop Model? What are your thoughts on it? It seems to be the hot new bandwagon in international schools, and I recall getting a few questions on it at a job fair last year. Is this the direction that most schools are going in for the literacy model? Is this model used in the U.S. much? I asked a couple of friends who teach in the U.S. and they had never heard of it.
I know Lucy Caulkins is a bigwig and her emloyees at TC are on the consulting tours (NESA, schools, etc.). I am wondering if I need to do training in this model (because most or all school are going to this model). Any advice or opinions on this model would be appreciated.
Reading/Writing Workshop Model - your thoughts?
I currently teach in the States and am in the process of applying abroad. When I first started teaching, 5 years ago, Workshop model was a huge deal, at least in my state. The lesson plan and evaluation templates that we use at my current school are all designed for Workshop model so it's pretty much become the expected norm in my district.
If this is the new thing for international schools then it would probably be worth it to do some research on it. It's not terribly difficult. The basic idea is that instruction should be student centered so that in an hour long class the teacher may spend about 15 min of the class time teaching a skill or concept (the mini lesson) and then the majority of the class time is spent with students working either independently or in groups to practice the skill through some sort of activity (writing and reading), generally with some sort of end product. Usually you take the last 5-10 minutes of class to debrief/share out work/assess whether or not students understood the concept. At my school there's a huge emphasis on making sure that each lesson has an opportunity for students to read, write, speak and listen.
It's definitely a good model although I personally feel like, especially in the upper grades, students should have experience with varied teaching models. Most college classes are not activity based and I've found that some of my former students who come back to visit really struggle in their larger classes where the professor may lecture because they haven't really built up the stamina to sit and listen to someone just talk for 45 min.
If this is the new thing for international schools then it would probably be worth it to do some research on it. It's not terribly difficult. The basic idea is that instruction should be student centered so that in an hour long class the teacher may spend about 15 min of the class time teaching a skill or concept (the mini lesson) and then the majority of the class time is spent with students working either independently or in groups to practice the skill through some sort of activity (writing and reading), generally with some sort of end product. Usually you take the last 5-10 minutes of class to debrief/share out work/assess whether or not students understood the concept. At my school there's a huge emphasis on making sure that each lesson has an opportunity for students to read, write, speak and listen.
It's definitely a good model although I personally feel like, especially in the upper grades, students should have experience with varied teaching models. Most college classes are not activity based and I've found that some of my former students who come back to visit really struggle in their larger classes where the professor may lecture because they haven't really built up the stamina to sit and listen to someone just talk for 45 min.
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Some teachers use the workshop model, but its not ingrained into our curriculum. Ive been at schools that are really big on the workshop model and its the methodology they have inscribed into their curriculum. Its becoming more popular as a guiding pedagogy more then a methodology in international schools.
I think its a great model, but its not really revolutionary, its just another student centered model, that has the teacher doing less and the students doing more.
I think its a great model, but its not really revolutionary, its just another student centered model, that has the teacher doing less and the students doing more.