What I have enjoyed so far about using the Units of Study with the Kindergarten class, is that they are already starting to see themselves as readers. The first few days of Reading Workshop, when I brought out books and had kids actually sit with their own books in their laps and were asked to look at them, I ended up having a few of the kiddos just completely refuse to pick a book and sit with it. I am now a few weeks into the units, and all of the kiddos know just what to do and ALL of them join in and are able to sit with a book on their own. (Of course we are still working on increasing their stamina!) And not just sit with it but read and reread it. They are starting to develop this sense of seeing themselves as readers, and that's so important.
The conferring piece has been, and still is, the biggest change for me as far as how I interact with students as they read. I had previously spent student's private and partner reading time with reading groups (with older grades), so adding that component with this group has been a nice addition, Although I am being more mindful of this aspect of the workshop, I still find it difficult in that I am working with young students that have shorter attention spans so it can still be a challenge to ensure that I routinely and consistently am able to get that piece in.
Your insights are so true for kindergarten and workshop. Seeing kids realize that they can interact with books without reading all the words is exciting. The short attention spans certainly mean looking at workshop a bit differently than with older students.
ReplyDelete