Alvarado Observation

Today my fifth grade colleagues and I were given a wonderful opportunity to observe two fifth grade classes at Alvarado. We were able to observe two different reading workshop lessons taught by two different teachers. It was SUCH a great opportunity, for so many different reasons. I felt really good about how our reading workshop is moving along in my class after observing. These students at Alvarado have been effectively utilizing reading and writing workshop since third grade, so certain procedures and understandings were already in place even before they reached 5th grade. Considering that, I think my students are really doing a fantastic job of managing the procedures and doing the important reading work that is being asked of them. I also saw some great ideas that will enhance our workshop time. In these classes, students meet in their partnerships first (at the very beginning of reading workshop) and create a plan for that day's independent work time. This is beautiful-it gives them a focus and holds them accountable to somebody else besides me. The next day when the partners meet-they will expect each other to share their findings. My students really love working in their partnerships, and they are good at it. So I am thinking this will be a very useful management piece. By observing these two classes it was like somebody took the dirty glasses off of my face and wiped the smudges clean-I walked away with a much clearer version of how my minilessons, anecdotal notes, and conferences should look. We now have better ideas of long-term planning, connections to make to writing, and we even plan to go back and visit during our off-track time. We also all got to go together-now we have an even playing field, sharing the same vision. I see good things in our future!!