Excellence with Workshop Approach
“Nothing matters more than the mission of giving all young people access to the beautiful, important work that happens in reading and writing workshops.”
Lucy Calkins challenges all of us to take inventory of our own passion toward literacy instruction. She raises expectations of what teacher-student interaction should be turning classrooms into a supercharged, interactive learning environments! The Units of Study workshop approach was Pioneered by Lucy Calkins and her TCRWP colleagues. It’s been refined over decades of research and piloting with thousands of teachers, and the Lucy Calkins' 5-part workshop framework offers the perfect combination of whole-class, small-group, one-on-one instruction, and independent practice. We are blessed to be a part of Lucy’s team through Heinemann.
Video: Units of Study by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Units of Study
Phonics Units of Study
Units of Study
K - 2
Phonics instruction supports children’s reading and writing: to be useful, phonics must be transferred. To see more principles undergirding the Units of Study in Phonics, click the button below.
Reading Units of Study
Units of Study
K - 5
Instruction in the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, K–5 is organized around four grade-specific units of study at each level and a book of suggestions for adapting your teaching based on your students’ abilities and needs. Overview is at:
Units of Study
Middle School
We want our students in grades 6-8 to become flexible, resilient readers, we want them to have a toolkit of strategies for dealing with difficulty, and we want them to read broadly and deeply, alert to the intricacies of texts and to the power of language.
Study Guide
RUOS Study Guide
Here is a helpful Study Guide can be used for your all-school meeting, cross-grade meeting, PLC, or grade-level planning sessions.
Writing Units of Study
Units of Study
K - 5
Lucy Calkins and her colleagues have drawn on their work from more than three decades to develop a state-of-the-art curriculum in writing. Download the overview for Units of Study in Opinion, Information and Narrative writing for grades K-5.
Units of Study
Middle School
The 6-8 series not only provides a coherent, systematic curriculum in the three types of writing mandated by the Common Core—opinion/argument, information, and narrative writing—it also reflects the latest research on data-based, responsive instruction. Download your overview here.
Study Guide
Up the Ladder
Up the Ladder books are designed to help upper-grade students who are new to writing workshop instruction or who are currently working below benchmark levels in writing. The Up the Ladder units are designed to be absolutely engaging for students in grades 3–6, but the primary goal has been to ensure that students make rapid, dramatic progress toward grade-level writing work.
More About Lucy Calkins
Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
TCRWP Classroom Libraries
The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project has developed state-of-the-art classroom libraries for each grade level, K–8. Curated by Lucy Calkins and TCRWP colleagues along with a team of literacy leaders and children’s literature experts, these libraries contain 400–700 leveled books at each grade level—all organized into collections and shelves based on level, genre, topic, and available in versions for students reading both at and below benchmark.
Scheduling
Overview of A Day's Workshop
For a closer look at this powerful framework, download this handy chart (PDF) featuring a quick summary of key workshop components including suggested time frames, logistics, and teacher and student roles during workshop.
Collaboration
Join the Facebook Groups!
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