The Architecture of a Mini-Lesson (adapted, as always!)
Connection:
- Explain how today’s learning fits within the current unit of study
Teach:
- State your teaching point. Literally, say “Good readers……..”
- Teach just one thing
- Choose just one way to teach — there are always multiple ways to show kids something. For a mini-lesson to remain “mini”, you need to select just one way of teaching.
Active Engagement: Try it out
- Give every student the opportunity to quickly try or discuss what has been taught.
- Do not call on individual students. Everyone must have a go at this.
- This is NOT an assignment. This is students talking and sharing together, right there on the rug.
- Students do NOT go off and do something. Everyone is trying this out together, right there in front of you.
- Listen in on student conversations and comment/provide feedback.
Link
- Restate the teaching point and connect it to ongoing independent student reading work. This only takes 2-3 sentences
- Students may or may not immediately apply this teaching point during their independent reading time.
Our Expectations for implementing the Minilesson portion of the Reading Workshop:
- record the teaching point of your mini-lesson each day
- plan book is fine
- some kind of a log works too
- some other daily record keeping
- maybe even have the kids keep notes!!
- reflect after each mini-lesson and rate the lesson
- how “mini” was it?
- was your teaching point crystal clear?
- did it stick to just one tiny thing?
- did you model it?
- did all students try it out?
- did you restate the teaching point?
- did you encourage students to apply the teaching point during today’s reading
