Readers’ Workshop

Putting together a readers’ workshop small group schedule is more beneficial when it is data driven…but this isn’t always easy to do! With so many beginning-of-year assessments and data points, I’ve been overwhelmed in the past just trying to make it all work. But with some thoughtful planning, creating a targeted conferring and small group schedule aligned with a readers’ workshop approach can be done. See where I’ve found some success in the past.

If you are ready to teach and assess with a data-driven approach, sign-up below for the First Steps towards Data Driven Instruction: ideas for formative assessment organization. This guide will get you moving in the right direction as you learn how to organize instruction and assessment processes!

Readers Workshop Components

Through my years as a teacher, I’ve gotten very familiar with how to teach readers workshops. I typically had a 90-minute language arts block allotted for both reading and writing workshops. And I always tried to back it up to an intervention time in the upper grades, if possible.

With 60 minutes designated for a readers workshop, I knew I had to be strategic. This is especially true when using reading workshop Lucy Calkins programs. I found it difficult to stay within the proper time frame for each individual piece of the workshop. The readers workshop is made up of 5 components: mini-lesson, independent work/conferring & small groups, mid-workshop teaching, and share. Each component has immense value, but the whole process can feel quite time consuming. Before making the decision to skip a part, consider changing the organization and doing some extra planning first. 

If planning readers’ workshop groups feels overwhelming..

Whether you’ve been teaching for a while or just starting out in the field, it’s important not to let the readers’ workshop schedule overwhelm you. Looking at all of the assessment data can make meeting student needs feel impossible. But if you plan strategically, it really does all work! Even if it may look a little messy at first. Read on to see my system for finding time to meet all of my student needs.

Reading Workshop Schedule

When putting together my readers’ workshop schedule, I create individual schedules for each part of the block. This helps me stay organized.

Step 1: Readers workshop schedule

I always start by breaking down the block by the time allotment. I’ve usually done these in 60 minutes. Be sure to leave time for the reflection; I’ve seen some really powerful moments during this time. It closes out the lesson and it doesn’t take very long!

Step 2: Compile assessment data with a planning overview

Then I gather all of my data points, including reading levels or levels from other assessments. Added to the schedule page, this groups are easily accessible on my clipboard. This is helpful when new groups begin forming or when I need to change my schedule. Create groups from assessments or screeners in an organized way. Just record an assessment name and create topics to break down the parts of the assessment. Some reports do this for you, but I always find it helpful to print or write it out myself. The overview can be organized with other planning pages.

After compiling the assessment data, I fill out a planning overview with all of my groups and decide how many days I plan to meet with them. There always seems to be a lot of erasing as I plan out my guided reading, strategy, and intervention groups! I like to have a master copy of my groups so I can reference until the schedule works itself out (and it always does).

Intervention groups happen during the 20-minute intervention block each day. I do find it helpful in upper grades to back it up to my reading or writing block. This gives students a chance to finish writing or read for a book club.

Scheduling conferring and small groups 

Everything I learned about scheduling conferring and small groups came from Reading Strategies by Jennifer Serravallo. She is a genius in my book, and I’ve had so much success employing her techniques and approaches. Her book does give a planning page for scheduling each week, but I chose to make my own to fit my block a bit better.

I break my readers’ workshop independent work into two blocks with two tasks. The first block, I call Round 1. In Round 1, students read independent reading books or other texts that apply to the mini-lesson I’ve just taught. During Round 2, students are completing a reading response, reading or working in a book club, or with their reading partners. I break it down like this so that it’s easier for me to schedule all my groups.

These change every week and sometimes even the day before teaching based on what I’m noticing! Use a pencil so that you can make changes as needed.

I love planning conferring and small groups in this way. Targeted and explicit teaching is the focus with each student. This schedule is not mundane. Students are still meeting with the teacher on a regular basis. They are actually getting real skills to help them progress as readers through guided reading, strategy groups, or conferring sessions each week. Taking good anecdotal notes is imperative so that you can ensure teaching points are valuable to student growth. These ideas are helpful to work through with a reading coach or with someone you respect in your building so that you can ensure you are meeting all student needs.

Readers workshop in kindergarten

As a former Kindergarten teacher, I recognize that schedules and plans need to be adapted to fit the needs of 5- and 6-year-olds. At times, I have shortened my mini-lesson and adapted my readers’ workshop activities to make them more hands-on in the beginning of the year before students could really sustain independent reading time. 

This scheduling approach has been productive and efficient in Kindergarten. And I’ve had a variety of guided reading groups, strategy groups, and conferring all going during the same week. At first, I was hesitant to take beginning readers out of guided reading. But I really believe in this approach and their progress was amazing! Teaching targeted skills helped them build confidence and gave students the strategies they needed to connect the pieces of reading together. Just my opinion of course, but I would never go back to sticking to regular rotating groups!

More Reading Workshop Ideas

Readers workshop activities: With my “two rounds” (mentioned above), I usually use independent reading with sticky notes in the first round and apply the mini-lesson objectives. The second round is more focused on collaboration and communication about books, which is why book clubs work so well here. Students are still reading, writing, and thinking about a text with the opportunity to share with others and build on their speaking and listening skills.

I do try, though, to stay away from reading worksheets during my readers’ workshop. Applying reading skills happens when students are practicing reading!

Readers workshop lesson plan template: I keep my planning templates as simple as possible with the teaching points I need. I typically don’t write too many student notes on these pages because I prefer to use individual student reading folders. This allows me to access standards-based checklists for each student and can keep all individual student data in one place.

Related articles

If you are looking to plan out a math workshop schedule with formative assessment as a focus, read more here.

Use these ideas to create your own reading group schedule that allows you to follow the readers’ workshop model and use formative assessment to drive instruction.

Planning a readers’ workshop schedule doesn’t have to be a stressful process, Just take one step at a time as you organize your student data and turn it into specific, targeted groups.

Don’t forget to download these organization ideas to help you keep track of all that data you take during small groups and conferring. This way, taking and keeping anecdotal notes can become a helpful, data-driven part of your teaching practice. And this will make planning your weekly schedule that much easier!