Book Club

My post is going to be very similar to Sammi's because we are both in 4th grade at the same school where collaboration is heavily relied on. Our students also focus on reading and writing independently. We begin with writing workshop where we either practice for MEAP or they have time to write in their writing notebooks about a prompt they are given. We then move on to Read Aloud where my CT models what she wants them to work on when they are reading independently. It may be predicting, inferring, questioning, reasoning, etc. She also models a chapter grid and a stop, think, and jot page (STJ). For each chapter the students need to write a short sentence for the beginning, middle, and end. The STJ page is for them to write questions they may have or a prediction they come up with. Our reading workshop continues into the afternoon as well. I have been somewhat frustrated during these times because I have no experience conferring with students. My CT is trying to get me involved, but I don't really know what questions to ask the students, or what to specificially listen for. She is going to give me some books to read, but I'm worried I am just going to get more stressed out with that time committment as well. I feel like in the past more time has been spent on book club and centers, and wish we would have had more experience with reading and writing workshop.