Writers Workshop, Readers Workshop, Literature Circles, Literature Focus Units, Thematic Units

I remember doing Literature Circles in elementary school. I remember very little about it but when we discussed it in class and we talked about the different roles each student plays that sparked my memory. I would not say that I did not enjoy literature circles but obviously I remember very little about them from school. I do not remember doing much with writer’s workshop or reader’s workshop. I do not have any similar memories of a writer’s workshop like the one we viewed in class. I can recall in elementary school a teacher would let us brainstorm and we would have to write for thirty minutes or so. However, there was not workshop leading up to this as I can remember.

I really like the idea of a writers workshop and would definitely like to implement it in my future classroom. It can be time consuming but I think there are many benefits to doing writers workshop. I also see the same benefits for having a reader’s workshop. I also can see myself doing literature circles but would hope to be able to make them fun and more memorable than my past experiences are.

What I really like about Literature Focus units is that it incorporates all five stages of the reading process. I think that Literature Focus units are very beneficial for students. They are being challenged by the text they can not read independently and also using all stages of the reading process over a span of 1 to 4 weeks. Also, I like the idea of Thematic Units because it wants more than just a text book learning and understanding style. It wants to incorporate all different types of text to develop an understanding. I do not think text books should ever be the only books in a classroom that the students have access to.