Reading Workshop Bulletin Board

This past spring I went to one of the best workshops for reading (By Smekens Education).  It was a 2 day event, with the first day being Reading Workshop and the second being writing.  Since I paid my own way I only went to the reading conference.  After a ½ hour I was kicking myself for not signing up for both days. The ideas I was getting was amazing!    If you ever get the chance to see Kristina Smekens I would go. (You can click on her name I have the link to the site with lots of information!)  I know she does a lot of workshops in the Indiana/IL area. 

Well needless to say I signed up for the writing workshop in Aug.  It’s in the northern suburbs of Chicago (I’m from the southwest burbs), but I don’t care about the traffic.  I can deal with the commute for one day.  I’m sure I will be blogging about many of her ideas this school year.

For starters I love her yearlong bulletin board.  In the past I have read the Sisters “Café” which is a good book, but I love how Kristina Smekens has her bulletin board by comprehension strategy.  For me this makes so much sense.  Here’s a picture of one that I found on the Smekens site. (Hmm I don't know why it went sideways on me.)

At the conference she showed us a picture of an umbrella which had each of the comprehension strategies on them.  Under the umbrella were raindrops that had skills taught during a “mini-lesson” in kid friendly language. 

That got me thinking about how I wanted to do my bulletin board.  In the past I had a Hollywood theme, but I’m changing my boards and I don’t necessarily have to have a theme.  However, our school theme is construction this year since our school is getting an addition of 2 more classes and some other updates to the outside.

A couple of years ago I bought this set from Toy R US .  Sorry I couldn’t post the picture, but click here to see it.  Click here.

I bought it and for a reading tool kit.  Each  tool being one of the comprehension strategies.  That’s when I decided on the Hollywood theme and never used it.  So my plan is now to use the toolkit but in a different way.

I’m thinking my bulletin board will have a toolkit for each of the comprehension strategies.  The right below the toolkit can be the tools with kid friendly skills from our “mini-lessons”. 

I want to do the same for writing but have a different theme.  Kristina Smekens has more ideas just like that for the 6 Traits on her site as well. 

I’m really excited about this idea and I still can incorporate the ideas from another book I like “Comprehension Connections”. 

Does anyone have any other great reading workshop ideas to share?  Comment below if you do.  We all love getting new ideas. 

I will be back late in the week for my Blog's B-day celebration.  So be sure to come back and check it out.