Reading response groups give children the opportunity to explore a single book with a group of their peers over a period of several weeks. This enables children to gain an awareness of the different and similar interpretations or meanings a particular book might have for different individuals. Each group considers ways to share their responses with the rest of the class. Every other week children make trips to the library where the librarian reads and discusses different literature genres and teaches the children how to use the library. The children have notebooks in which they record personal or class-related ideas.
Children use writing to explore and synthesize their learning about curriculum and class trips.
They are encouraged to use writing for block signs, reminders, and all kinds of everyday occurrences. During writer's workshop, children write on topics of their own choosing. Children are encouraged to write in a variety of genres including personal narrative, fiction, and poetry. Through the process of sharing their pieces with other children, teachers, and the whole group, children work towards finding what they want to say as writers and how best to communicate that to their audience. The culmination of this process in the spring is the publication of writing that has been shared, revised, and edited.