The Studio Course

1
The Studio Course

• Comprehensive and Scaffolded Instruction in
  Reading, Writing, and Thinking

2
Features of the Studio Course

• A double-block period for literacy instruction
  divided into two parts
• Writing Studio
• Reading Studio

3
Features of the Studio Course

• Classroom library composed of 10001200 texts,
  including books, graphic novels, magazines,
  writing resource texts, and picture books

4
Features of the Studio Course

• Classroom materials, including chart paper and
  writers notebooks

5
Features of the Studio Course

• Course of StudyReading and Writing Studio Course

6
Investigations and Units of Study
7
Investigations

• Focused Inquiries into Aspects of the Writing
  and Reading Life

8
Writing Investigations

• Introduction to the Writing Life
• Moving from Writers Notebooks to Writing
  Folders
• Revision

9
Reading Investigations

• Introduction to the Reading Life
• Word Study (Word Recognition)
• How to Talk about Books

10
Units of Study

• Integrating the Work of Writing and Reading
  Studios

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Unit of Study 1The Magazine Study

• The Magazine Study is the first unit of study in
  the Studio Course.
• Collectively, the four units of study in the
  course are part of a larger design that aims to
  develop each students reading, writing, and
  problem-solving abilities.
• Units are sites of integration, the places where
  the learning of the Reading and Writing Studios
  during the investigations merge to meet the
  demands of a particular unit.

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The Magazine Study

• Designed to help students carefully consider
  characteristics and contents of popular
  magazines.
• Students think about issues of purpose and
  audience, including ways that individual
  articles, and entire magazines, cater to needs
  and interests of increasingly more specialized
  readerships.
• Considerations related to genre are central to
  this study.
• Students experiences with genre during the
  Magazine Study go wide and deep as they are
  exposed to the range of genres that appear in
  magazines and develop the touchstone text
  folders and features charts that serve as guides
  to their own writing.

13
The Magazine Study

• Builds on the work of previous writing and
  reading investigations.
• Students continue to work in their writers
  notebooks and use their writing folders.
• Requires students to practice and refine reading
  and thinking skills and habits established during
  the first reading investigation.
• Students produce two drafts of writing in
  specific magazine genres. These drafts will be
  revised and edited during upcoming
  investigations.

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Time in the Studio Course

• Focus Lesson
• Work Period
• Closing Meeting

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Teaching and Learning in the Studio Course

• Rituals and Routines
• Essential Tools
• Direct Instruction
• Guided Practice
• Independent Practice
• Talk
• Self-Assessment and Reflection
• Emphasis on Formative Assessment

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The Goals What All Students Need and Deserve

• To meet state and national grade-level standards
• To read, write, and speak for a variety of
  purposes
• To be curious and self-directed
• To work hard at reading and writing
• To use reading, writing, and speaking to
  describe, understand, and solve problems
• To be apprentices to experts
• To be active members of a learning community

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What the Studio Course Is

• Comprehensive literacy course that targets
  student apathy and compliance
• Carefully sequenced and scaffolded genre-driven
  curriculum shaped by a thinking about and
  doing things with notion of language studies
• Course of study tied to a larger social vision,
  that sees each student as a current and future
  participant in a variety of communities that
  require both celebration and critique