Seminar-Workshop Model

In a seminar-workshop schedule students are invited to seminars that meet their needs.  In their seminar a teacher leads them through a lesson depending on content area and other needs.  In reading it might be a small group guided reading lesson or large group comprehension lesson.  In math it could be problem solving or learning a new algorithm, strategy, etc.  In writing you might lead a large group lesson or pull a smaller group to focus on a specific strategy.  While students are not in seminar, they are in workshop.  During this time they work on personalized tasks.  Students might be working through our reading or math digital platforms on their iPads, using various iPad Apps, play a hands-on game, reading or writing independently, etc.  As our students become more adjusted to this structure they use their Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) in each subject area to guide their choices.  On their PLP they can find their target for the unit, learning targets, the final project they choose for demonstrating their learning and also what classroom activities they have selected to meet each learning target.  

We started using a seminar-workshop model around March of last school year.  After attending a Professional Development session I started thinking about how we could create this structure in a room of young learners.  I took some ideas from the presenter on having groups named things corresponding to the topic, such as our shape groups for math.  Then I started thinking of ways to schedule it and share the schedule with our students.  One teaching presenting discussed how they use the calendar on their iPads to send invitations to students.  While this sounded like a great idea, I thought it might not be as efficient with our age group.  We kept on thinking... 

After we got back to our environment we looked at this small, blank chalkboard our old space had in it.  Using painter's tape we created a 5x2 grid.  The 5 boxes going across were labeled with numbers and the 2 sections going down were for math and reading.  We created little cards to match the names of each group and put them under one of the 5 time slots.  Their group also goes next to the teacher that will be leading their seminar.  We always start in session 1.  Then after the seminar wind chimes cue the students to freeze and we call the group for session 2 to the seminar area 

This year we had a few minor changes with our new and improved environment, along with us evolving as educators.  We have 2 seminar areas rather than one with different technology tools in each area.  We have Apple TV in one location and our Mimio Board at the other in our space.  This allows us to use different things if there ever are 2 seminars happening simultaneously.  We also added a third content section on the schedule chart to include writing; last year we did not do different seminars for writing.

I will upload an example of a PLP and also a picture of our seminar schedule board soon!