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Workshop Wednesday – Sticky Note Training Time!

Welcome to Workshop Wednesday!!

Remember, since everyone’s start dates are so different, the topic for August AND September will be Getting Workshop Started in the Classroom. Please write about only one workshop in your post so that you can link it up accordingly below, and then please come back each week to share! (In other words, if you use Reading, Writing, and Math Workshop and you want to share about all three, please link up in three different weeks-or more if you’d like!!)

Today I want to share with you how I start using sticky notes in the classroom.

I talked about them not too long ago at the END of my school year last year here, but I can finally show you how I start using them in this post! I also teased you in my Five For Friday last week when I shared about reading The Raft.

It took me two days to read the book because I was showing them how to write their thinking on sticky notes by modeling and doing think-alouds. Most important, I showed them how we don’t need a sticky on EVERY page- only when my thinking is truly important to understanding the book… that good deep thinking.

Most of them are doing a really good job with it already! I gave them their bookmarks (which you can still grab here if you want!) to help prompt their thinking…..

At the end of each day, they need to take their sticky notes out of their book (to keep them from “forgetting” where they are) and put them in their reading notebook. They write the title at the top of the page, and stick all their notes on the page, staggering them so they can flip through them easier:

Once a week, they need to write a response. They should use their sticky notes to find a common theme- maybe about characters, or maybe it’s about events leading to a problem… there are lots of options. They should use those sticky notes to help them write their response in their second paragraph. I stress to them, they are not writing all of their sticky notes in their paragraph! Their first paragraph will always be a summary of what they have read.

This student chose to write about the character’s feelings in the book, and give evidence to support the feelings! :o) I was one proud teacher!

I will be introducing my BBB Joanne’s awesome reading response menus very soon to help them write their responses!

How do you have your students show their thinking in reading? I hope you’ll link up! I’m always eager to see and hear other ideas! If you’re not ready to share for Reading, you can link for Writing or Math, too! :o)