What makes the workshop model an inclusive pedagogy?
Inclusive pedagogy has the definition in its name. All students benefit from a certain style of teaching. The pedagogy is that we teach to all learners by working their areas of improvements to become their strengths, without making the content simpler. The workshop model is an inclusive pedagogy because it is not a “one-size fits all” style of teaching. It encourages whole class instruction for a shorter period time, individual practice, and one-to-one conferencing with EVERY learner. Having the mini-lesson not only allows for the teacher to provide the content but to also make formative assessments as to which students are grasping the content and who may need more assistance. The individual practice allows for students to work on different activities at their own pace. The conferencing allows for the teacher to take time with one learners and to really work their needs or cater to their strengths. The workshop model is an inclusive pedagogy because it provides frequent, intensive support as students need, as Dudley, Marling, and Paugh write. In the workshop method, the teacher pushes all students in the way that they can be pushed to do so.
With the writing workshop, students are taught to write something purposeful, targeted at a wide-range of audiences. Dudley, Marling, and Paugh say that this is not a linear process. Students are allows to write out their ideas and edit their work as they see fit. Some students don’t necessarily need to brainstorm or prewrite. On the other hand, some students definitely need more individualization where the assignment is broken down into further components that aren’t as open-ended. It is depended on the student need. With reading workshop, the workshop method is the same, but now students are to focus on reading to their level, but also pushing their perceived limitations. The goal is to improve and not only pick the readings that they want to read but what will improve their skills. Again, the workshop method is inclusive because it doesn’t tell the teacher to take the students who are struggling and to merely simplify or cut out content. It tells the teacher how to work on their level and to give them the challenges appropriate for them. It includes all learners. Dudley, Marling, and Paugh talk about how Mr. Garcia really understood his students by using the workshop method. He knew that some students, during conference time, needed one-to-one read alouds to remove some of the decoding and to allow for her to work on reading comprehension. He also sets an example for his student, Melissa, by reading in a slowly and fluently because she usually reads in a more halting manner.
“Pivotal Pausing” is a strategy whereby teachers freeze a video at important moments in the lesson. This helps the teacher to prioritize important events in a lesson. Use this strategy to identify two pivotal moments that demonstrate Rick's ability (from the Teaching Channel video) to differentiate to meet the needs of all of the learners in his class. For each moment: record the time, describe why this moment is "pivotal" and how it is evidence of inclusive literacy.
Pivotal pausing is very important when teaching students. It gives time to have the students take in a video in chunks and reflect upon moments as opposed to taking the entire video all at once. It also prioritizes important events in a lesson. I use this strategy when teaching math to my resource room kids. Firstly, they love the videos. It gave my students opportunities to hear someone else talk or to see a different perspective on a topic. But it also gave them the opportunity to talk about the video between my pauses. It helped them get to the point of the lesson when I opened with a video without my direct instruction. Rick says is that reading workshop is the most natural form of how we read; sitting and taking time with the book. So this video partially shows how he does that.
That being said, one of the first pivotal moments that demonstrates Rick’s ability to differentiate to meet the needs of all the learners in his class is at 1:47. This moment is pivotal for a lot of reasons. One, we can see that previous to this, Rick has already explained that we make theories about characters. He reads the book as an example to start a theory about the grandmother and her granddaughter are very close. But the most important part is that Rick pauses to explain the joke that the grandmother said because he wants the student to understand that the girl didn’t literally grow in one week. This could easily be missed my students who struggle with this kind of language. It is important that he explained it so that all the students can actually practice creating a theory about the characters. Every student is being taught to think for their own.
That being said, one of the first pivotal moments that demonstrates Rick’s ability to differentiate to meet the needs of all the learners in his class is at 1:47. This moment is pivotal for a lot of reasons. One, we can see that previous to this, Rick has already explained that we make theories about characters. He reads the book as an example to start a theory about the grandmother and her granddaughter are very close. But the most important part is that Rick pauses to explain the joke that the grandmother said because he wants the student to understand that the girl didn’t literally grow in one week. This could easily be missed my students who struggle with this kind of language. It is important that he explained it so that all the students can actually practice creating a theory about the characters. Every student is being taught to think for their own.
The second moment is when the students start to do their silent reading, or as Rick calls it, “buried in a book.” He says that this is important because in the workshop method, it allows for time for students to pick their own book at their own level and read to themselves. He describes it as his learners having a “war” going on in their heads so it really isn’t silent. Dudley, Marling, and Paugh write that the classroom should have inviting literature for all readers so that they are excited during this independent reading time. This is what they call “immersing the classroom in print.” Because of this, students are really used to what it is to read all of the time. That being said, during Rick’s lesson at 12:20, this is when he says that this is the time for him to conference with his learners. This is when he gives them individualized work to help them become better readers. All of the other students are still being productive. But sometimes, the one students needs that work to improve their skills. He understands his learners and he differentiates for them accordingly because of this time. He talks to one of his students about “Beezus and Ramona” because that student isn’t monitoring her reading well. Rick has her practice reading for her so that she can monitor her reading right in front of him so that she can comprehend better. This is at around 14:00. He asks her questions so that she can continue to comprehend her reading and explain when she isn’t sure and what she should do when she doesn’t know what to do. Rick pairs her with a friend who has high vocabulary skills so she can just ask quickly in a non-threatening way. It is very effective and he records all of his findings. Rick says that this is the best method for his teaching pedagogy because he feels that he is reaching all of his learners, which is the definition of inclusive literacy.
Explain how the workshop model could be used in conjunction with Lupiani-Farrell & Matthews' "multisensory approach to language-based comprehension instruction."
Explain how the workshop model could be used in conjunction with Lupiani-Farrell & Matthews' "multisensory approach to language-based comprehension instruction."
The workshop model can be used in conjunction with Lupiani-Farrell and Matthews’ “multisensory approach to language-based comprehension instruction” because it provides a space for the multiple means of representation and engagement. The multisensory approach uses various senses, auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc., to reach students where work the best. For example, in the chapter about attaining vocabulary with a student named Billy, it is suggested that Billy had difficulties with decoding and articulation. Because of this to promote retrieval, they suggested that he visualize a situation that the word reminded him of because he needed to connect with the term on a personal level. This way, he would be better at saying and reading the word. Lupiani-Farrell and Matthews give a lot of examples on how to reach struggling readers through various methods and case studies. Right in the introduction the write that their goals are to gain higher levels of reading skills in students, have teacher learn classroom approaches to teaching these readers, and show teachers how to pick the right methods for their diverse readers. The multisensory approach is all about learning who the students are and that’s what Dudley, Marling, and Paugh prove when writing about the workshop model. By using the method, teachers, like Mr. Garcia, are better equipped with a class environment that encourages learning who the students are and how we, as teachers, can better improve their skills.
I used to use the workshop method in my Math class and I’ve used it for 2nd grade learners in my reading resource room as well. The workshop method is useful in both the inclusive classroom as well as the resource room and it works in both content areas. In my Math class, I started with an Anticipatory set, went into a mini-lesson, allowed for some guided practice, and then let the students work independently on different activities. Either that, or they could work in stations that are created based on the lesson and based on difficulty. I don't think the students need to reach every station, because they work based on their own pace and based on if I'm conferencing with them. I would usually have the students try to finish all of the activities, but if students were thriving, I would let them go to the next level, and if the students were struggling, I always had extra work catered to them to help them practice those particular skills. It removes me directly instructing and puts me in a facilitator position where students can learn how to get over their struggles on their own and really make meaningful experience with the curriculum. I don’t have to directly tell them that it has to be meaningful. It is very different when doing it with 6th grade math students as opposed to with 2nd grade readers. The 2nd grade readers had a lot more time with me because it was just two students in the class. With the larger class, and with older students, the students were really getting the grasp of following the structure but also being autonomous with their learning choices. By giving them choices, they were much less reluctant to learn.
This video here is an example of the Math workshop method. It explains its importance as well as its usefulness. I find it very useful for my own teaching needs as well.
References
Images:
Text:
Dudley-Marling and Paugh (2009) Chapter 1
Lupiani-Farrell, M. & Matthews, F.M. (2010). Ready to Read: A Multisensory Approach to Language-
Videos:
Reading Workshop lesson on the Teaching Channel: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/student-reading-workshop-lesson (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. TC Reading and Writing Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyhY-SLf-38
