SUMMER BLAST #7 – Reading Workshop Q&A with Jacob Chastain (pt.1)

Hello everyone and welcome to Teach Me, Teacher's SUMMER BLAST of inspiration! I cannot express how excited, pumped, and inspired I am right now for next year, and I want you to join me and my AMAZING guests in our quest to bring some positivity into the teaching world. ...but today is a little different. Today, I AM THE GUEST OF THE SHOW! Yes, you read that correctly! A few weeks ago, I received an email from a listener of the podcast who asked me tons of questions about reading and writing workshop. I usually answer these in email, but I had the idea to record a Q&A with her instead, where I let her ask me questions for about TWO HOURS. Luckily, she agreed! In this part of the discussion, we cover: How my workshop is setup Why I moved independent reading from the beginning of the class to the end How I use standards How I approach conferencing and guided reading ...plus MUCH MUCH MORE!  The full two hour workshop Q&A will be live for Patrons tomorrow, August 3rd, and the first hour will be split across Monday and Thursday's episodes on the free podcast feed. If you want the full talk now, it is available on the Patreon page at the $5 tier and up. This includes the two parts you will get on the free podcast feed, and an extra hour of content.       This episode is sponsored by Heinemann and their book, Classroom management. After decades of teaching, Nancy Steineke passionately believes this much to be true: a collaborative classroom environment is essential for student learning, and for teachers' well -being. In this guide for every teacher, Nancy makes a powerful argument that we can dramatically reduce the stress of classroom management and improve student achievement when we cultivate classroom communities built on student-centered collaboration. Laying out a plan for collaborative classroom management across a semester or a whole school year, Nancy offers teaching moves and student activities that: build strong relationships between students and teachers, and between each other help students develop, invest in, and uphold positive classroom norms show students the importance and real-life value of soft skills, including what those skills look and sound like in action. Nancy's strategies can easily be integrated into your classes as you teach required content. "By threading community-building work through your schedule," Nancy explains, "you show your students that they matter as individuals, and that social skills are intertwined with academic success." If you're wasting precious class time addressing classroom management issues and want to foster a more meaningful, productive place to learn, give Nancy's time-tested moves and activities a try. There's never been a more important time to create collaborative classroom communities where every student is seen, heard, and believed in. Get it now.