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Welcome to my Comprehensive Literacy Blog! I'll be publishing lessons (primary focused) that center around mentor texts. In my district, our day begins with "language workshop." During this time, teachers read a mentor text and scaffold students' understanding of the text through prompts, discussion, and writing about reading. The class participates in a close and critical reading of the text that spans several days. Language workshop is broken down into 3 phases per book. The first phase is focused on the literal level of the text (what does the text say?). Here, we focus on gaining a general understanding as well as an investigation of key details. The second phase is based on the structure of the text. During this phase we discuss author's craft, text structure, and vocabulary (how does the text work?). The last phase centers on the deeper meaning of the text - the author's purpose as well as connections to other texts (what does the text mean?). In this phase, we integrate and synthesize our learning. As a side note - Just because there are 3 phases of language workshop, does not mean that you need to read the book 3 times. During some phases you may only revisit certain pages. I do find it helpful, though, to re-read the book at least twice, especially with kindergartners. Furthermore, there are times when a certain phase takes two days. Many times, phase 1 takes two days worth of lessons to complete because we are just becoming acquainted with the text for the first time. I highly encourage you to check out Fisher and Frey's Text Dependent Questions, Grades K - 5: Pathways to Close and Critical Reading, as it was truly transformative in my understanding of the different levels of analysis involved in close reading. So, to recap, my lessons will be divided into 3 phases:

Phase 1: Literal (General Understandings and Key Details) - aligns with Common Core Standards RL 1-3 and RI 1-3
Phase 2: Craft & Structure, Vocabulary - aligns with Common Core Standards RL 4-6 and RI 4-6
Phase 3: Meaning & Purpose/Integration of Knowledge and Ideas - aligns with Common Core Standards RL 7-9 and RI 7-9

These phases allow us to analyze a complex mentor text on many levels. It truly focuses our discussions and encourages students to deeply interact with text. I cannot find words to describe the growth I've seen in my students' thinking over the course of the year. I will do my best to add samples of student thinking as well as anchor charts I've created with my class. Also, just because I teach kindergarten doesn't mean these lessons can only be used with kindergarten students. I do believe that they would be useful in many primary settings. 

Thoughtful Logs: You will see that many of my lessons include a thoughtful log component. A thoughtful log is similar to a reading response journal. Students respond to the mentor text through writing, drawing, etc. to share their thinking. The teacher provides a writing prompt that requires students to answer with evidence from the mentor text. My district requires each student to have a thoughtful log. My students have both a paper/pencil thoughtful log and a digital thoughtful log in Book Creator (iPad). I find it easier to start the year with paper/pencil, especially with kindergartners who are still learning how to actually write. As the year progresses we explore more digital avenues for our thoughtful logs. My district has included 4 sections in our thoughtful logs: My Thinking, Strategies, Language, Genre. Thoughtful Log entries are organized under these sections depending on where they fit. 

Purposeful Talk: Discussion is key in language workshop. Students need to be talking about and responding to text. We spend time teaching students conversational moves that they can use to share their ideas. These conversational moves are often sentence starters such as "I agree with you because..." "I disagree with you because..." "I still wonder..." "I have a connection to..." These sentence starters help students develop conversation and in turn, critical thinking. All my lessons include discussion prompts. My kids have "Turn & Talk" partners. I purposely pair certain kids together to create rich discussions and so that some students can model for other students what purposeful talk looks like. Purposeful Talk is essential in creating meaningful discussions. I'll post more resources for Purposeful Talk soon! 

Here are some great resources: