Workshop teachers struggle with time-building in two teaching sessions, one for reading and another for writing. There is just too much to do, too many transitions, and very little integration of reading and writing. To compound the frustration, we find that our students don't have nearly enough time to read and write independently.
Enter the Literacy Studio, an alternative workshop model that combines reading and writing. It's a way of teaching that makes sense to kids -with more time for choice, independent reading and writing, small group work, and conferring. The Literacy Studio defines and describes this new model and makes clear, through lesson samples, student work, and conversations with teachers just how much more efficient and effective literacy learning is when students see themselves as writers who read and readers who write.
Ellin Keene describes a step-by-step plan for getting started with Literacy Studio that includes:
- The research that Literacy Studio is based upon
- Sample lessons that integrate concepts from reading and writing
- Adaptations for students with learning differences, English learners, and very young children
- Abundant online resources to complement the book.
The Literacy Studio. Tools to re-think your workshop structure and strategically plan for integrating reading and writing. Isn't it time?
About the Author: Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, non-profit director and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years. Ellin works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad. Her emphasis is long-term, school-based professional development and strategic planning for literacy learning. Ellin recently published The Literacy Studio: Redesigning the Workshop for Readers and Writers which is focused on an up-to-date conceptualization of Readers/Writers' workshop. She is the author of Engaging Children: Igniting the Drive for Deeper Learning (2018), is co-editor and co-author of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching (Heinemann, 2015); co-editor of the Not This, but That series (Heinemann, 2013 - 2018); author of Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Understanding (Heinemann, 2012), To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2008), co-author of Comprehension Going Forward (Heinemann, 2011), co-author of Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, 2nd edition (Heinemann, 2007, 1st edition, 1997) and author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) as well as numerous chapters for professional books and journals on the teaching of reading as well as education policy journals.
