Reading Workshop and Shared Reading. Not Reading Workshop vs. Shared Reading.

Reading workshop is a good thing. It is a wonderful way to create independent readers. It encourages student choice, and we know that promotes ownership in learning. And this is all true, if the students are actually reading. By its very nature, reading workshop is independent. Each student selects a book to read. Teachers are asked to confer with students about these books. In my world, this can mean more than 120 different books at any given time in my classroom. There is no way that I can claim to have read every book available to the students in each of my classes. A conference with me about a book I haven’t read is either a waste of time or a license to cheat. I am not comfortable with either of these as my only method of literacy instruction. I need something else to hang my literacy hat on.

Our students have been working independently and individually a lot since March of 2020. Distance learning forced many of them into a world where no one could really see them when they were “at school.” Some of my students used their distance learning time to read everything they could get their hands on. We exchanged book recommendations and talked about our choices. Then there were the other students. No one really knew if they were reading, and because they were on their own, they were not reading. The reading workshop model, filled entirely with independent reading, was nearly impossible for me to run with fidelity while on Zoom. I cannot believe that I was the only teacher who felt this way. And I believe that many of my students considered it time off from English class each day. That has caused me to think carefully about reading/literature in my classroom.

After distance learning, hybrid learning, and whatever we are doing right now, students desperately need social interaction. They need training in social discourse. They need to learn to listen to each other, even if they do not agree. What better place to do this than a discussion of shared literature?

Adults love book groups. Why? Well, some adults like the evening out and an adult beverage. But really, book groups give us a place to talk about what we are reading with other people who are reading the same thing. They allow us to truly explore our thinking about something we have in common. They expose us to challenging opinions, differing points of view, and questions. Questions make us think. Questions cause us to support our own thinking with evidence. And isn’t this what we want our students to do? Perhaps reading workshop does not need to be our reading/literacy program. Perhaps reading workshop can be a part of something much bigger and more interactive.

Independent reading workshop has kept our students from interacting with each other around their reading choices. It is difficult for a student reading Fablehaven to find relevant conversation with a student reading Code Talker. It is impossible for a student fake-reading The Diary of a Wimpy Kid (for the 47th time) to have anything pertinent to say to a classmate reading the seventh book in the Throne of Glass series. Actually, it is impossible for the fake-reading student to have anything relevant to share with…anyone. My students this past year were, for the most part, good, solid readers. Their test scores said so. But when given time in class to read independently, a number of them simply made reading movements. They made “I’m going to get my book” noises. They used nearly every minute of our reading time getting ready to read. Some of them never actually opened their books by the time the timer beeped. They are not naughty (well, some of them are); they are simply out of practice.

Perhaps it is time to get our students back into a shared-reading dynamic. By reading together and discussing what we read, we can help our students regain the reading stamina they lost over the past two years. Our students need read-alouds and other forms of shared reading. They need background building and concept understanding. They need to be read aloud to, so that they can concentrate on the meaning of literature without worrying about difficult vocabulary or syntax. They need to talk about what they read—to more than just their teacher in a reading conference. They need to see that reading is so important, we do it together for large chunks of time in class. Then, we talk about it. We argue about it. We take sides and have a “Yeah, but” or a debate or a Socratic Seminar.

All of this results in speaking and listening, analyzing and evaluating, comparing and contrasting, and backing up thoughts with evidence from text. Independent reading will provide them with choice in literature and time to digest words on their own. In my classes, we will do both. And I believe that is what my students need.