Anchor Charts

Strategies for Solving Challenging Words
"We talked about strategies to solve challenging words, and let me just say, this was a powerful discussion. The kids came up with most of these ideas. Then we practiced some with our article of the week because nonfiction has some tricky words. We'll continue to review these strategies next week." -Erica, Out of This World Literacy Member
Management Lessons for Reading Workshop
It definitely pays off to take the time to do some management mini lessons for both reading and writing workshop. The first month of school is the perfect time to set routines and expectations. Take the time to review lessons as needed throughout the year so that your reading and writing workshop time is like a well oiled machine!
A lesson on asking questions as readers
This is such a simple, yet powerful mini lesson. Simply grab a few mentor texts you've already read to the class and practice asking questions that you might ask yourself as a reader before, during, and after a lesson!
Teach Students to Identify Their New Learning
"In Lesson 2 of Launching Readers Workshop, students got comfortable beginning to talk about what they are thinking while they are reading. They loved sharing their thoughts about different texts were reading." -Kim, Out of This World Literacy Member
Reading is all about thinking!
"We used ENEMY PIE as our text for our mini lesson 3 in Launching Reading Workshops. Using a picture book and one we had read before, provided them with a familiarity of the book to really examine how they felt and pinpoint the evidence." -Kim, Out of This World Literacy
A Lesson on Finding Just Right Books
"We had a great discussion about choosing “just right books” last week. It was interesting to hear them determine and explain their thinking as to why a book would or wouldn’t be a good fit. Now as I see them choosing their books for the week, they are going beyond just choosing a popular book. They are analyzing the cover, skimming the words to determine if it’s a good fit for them." -Kim, Out of This World Literacy Member
Try a FREE Week of Mini-Lessons!
Now you can try a free week of mini lessons and have everything you need for a complete week of reading workshop instruction. Simply choose your mentor texts, grab the one-page completed lesson, make your anchor, and GO! You'll also see TEKS and CCSS, reteaching support, independent practice pages, assessments, and more. Check it out!
Make Writing Personal
Back when I first started teaching writing I really didn't know what I was doing. I used to have the class all write about the same topic. I knew I wanted to make their writing more personal, but I didn't really know how to make that happen. When I was in graduate school I started to learn new strategies for teaching writing, and that's when everything changed! My post-graduate degree helped me take the new writing skills and turn them into effective mini lessons. Check out more lessons!
Identifying Reading Genres
Check out this reading workshop mini lesson on identifying reading genres. 1. Before the lesson begins, write the title and mini lesson statement on the chart. 2. Invite the class to help you name types of fiction and NF texts. 3. Have mentor texts ready to analyze whether they are F or NF and which genre they fall into.
Why Readers Abandon Books
Part of teaching students to find just right books is helping them learn when is the right time to abandon a book. Check out this mini lesson statement and student responses to why readers give up on books.
Generate Prewriting Seed Ideas with This Lesson!
"We talked about planting seeds and how not every seed will grow but that writers often write their "seeds" down to explore what they could write about at a later time. We generated a list of ideas that writers could write about. Then I had students go back to their desks during independent practice and choose 3 topics and make lists under those topics....each on a separate page in their WNB." Erica, Out of This World Literacy Member
Fiction v. Nonfiction
"During our mini lesson we discussed what makes a book fiction vs nonfiction and then determined what our read alouds were. This is a working chart and we will go back and change or fix ideas that were written down initially. Then students went back to their desks to determine if their independent reading book was F or NF and to list text features to support that." -Erica, Out of This World Literacy Member