Baby Steps - the workshop model

Dear Bloggers,

As an in-class support teacher, I am lucky in the fact that I get to see the variety of instruction that happens in various classrooms. Additionally, I can also act as a bridge between different teachers. Being in my particular counter part’s classroom, I begin to take for granted just how hard “flipping” your classroom can be. She makes it look so easy and transitions are almost seamless. It’s almost hard to believe that when we began our training it seemed nearly impossible and utterly overwhelming. However, in small, calculated steps, with careful planning, the classroom almost seems to run itself. She is the quintessential “highly effective” educator on the Danielson Model.


With that being said, it’s not necessarily for everyone, nor does a more traditional classroom model take away from another’s effective status. In fact, it’s such a rare skill to implement such techniques so seamlessly and effectively that it really ISN’T for everyone. I’ve just sort of accepted that different teachers have different styles. Yes, my other classes have cooperative grouping, and I do have the opportunity to work with small groups and 1:1, but it is a very different environment, because ultimately each student works on the same standard and the same objective.

I was recently reminded about how overwhelming the whole workshop model seemed when we first began. I was reminded of this when I found one of my 8th grade student’s reader’s notebooks in my 7th grade classroom last year. I started paging through it and showed it to the other teacher. This prompted a bunch of questions, with each answer leading to more questions.

How do you motivate your students to read independently? How do you keep up with individual goals? How do you build up your classroom library? How do you know all of their levels? Where do the students get their reading levels? All of these questions can snowball like an avalanche burying a teacher - and student - in doubt and frustration.


My advice to you is, breath!…. Relax! It takes time. And if rules and regulations are not clearly outlined and demonstrated before attempting to implement them, you will not be able to watch it take form. The key is the slow and steady setup, where eventually it becomes second nature for both the teacher and the students. What I’ve learned is that the most important factor is not to take for granted that your students, no matter how old, have the common knowledge, nor stamina to independently work and analyze text. If you want it done right demonstrate it first and give various options.

And remember one size does not fit all. Some of our student prefer the traditional notebook and post-it methods of tracking their thinking. Some keep a digital "writer's notebook", while others fill their independent reading books with post-it's. Whatever the method allow it to be their own, as long as there is evidence of critical thinking taking place.

Yours truly,



The (not so) frustrated teacher