 Hey guys, I'm Tori Winske and I am a second grade teacher in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Today I'm here to tell you guys about an activity I do in my classroom. It is called Playwright Read and I use this activity during workstation time. Playwright Read is something I started about a year ago and it wasn't my original idea. Some teachers at my school went to go look at another school and see how they did workstations and they brought back this idea called Playwright Read. I don't know who it originally came from but it changed my life forever and that's why I want to share it with you guys. Now this is my first time doing a vlog so hang in there. Hopefully it goes okay and you want to come back and hear more about different things I do in my classroom. So to start with Playwright Read it is exactly that. The kids are expected to play a game, they're expected to write and they're expected to read. And like I said I use this during workstations and how I do it is I've got four drawers and each drawer stands for phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and grammar. And throughout the week the kids are expected to complete each bin, the little three drawer bins, and I'm going to show you guys what it looks like. And so what I do is I put a timer up on my board and they all start at a certain color and then throughout the week I just let them choose which one they want to go to. And how I do it is my rotations are 30 minutes long so the kids know when that timer gets down to 20 the play needs to be over. When it gets down to 10 the write needs to be over. And when it gets down to zero well the whole fit game needs to be over. I love it because it keeps me organized, it keeps the kids organized, and it's just a really fun and engaging activity which we all need during workstations. You know it's hard to keep the kids engaged independently without bothering you, without coming up to you and interrupting your group. So I found that Playwright Read is one of the best tools for workstations because there's plenty for them to do. And it is like everything else, it's going to take time to put those procedures in place. It probably took my kids about a month or two until I was finally like, okay I can leave you guys alone, let you guys be. So before I go any further let me kind of show you guys what the drawers look like and how I store them in the classroom, how the kids are able to access them and all of that stuff. So I will show you guys that now. Okay, so over here I've got this little bookshelf. And I store all my little stair light bins, you know, got them through the three drawer, got them from Target. And they store everything perfectly. So like I said I've got phonics, reading comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary down there. So basically you can tell that some bookshelf isn't very tall, so the kids are able to access it. So basically what they do, if they see their names at the pink playwright redor, they come, they grab it, and then in the play I usually do some task cards and a response sheet. The response sheet, sometimes I laminate it and I'll actually put it at the right part. It just kind of depends on what I want my kids to do that week. So for this one you can see it wasn't laminated, so this one they would just do with the task cards. For right, like I said it varies from time to time. This one I wanted them to actually write the main idea, what's the detail, and all that stuff. So they kind of read this quickly. You can see it's not very long. This is it. So it doesn't take up too much of their time. And then they had to write that part. Like I said, sometimes I laminate these little game responses and I put that in there. I always try to keep a whiteboard marker in here. I also will try to keep counters, dice, all that stuff, because depending on the game, I think that's in the play part. Yeah, so I keep that in there. Pencils even, that way there's minimum disruptions during workstations. So usually all those supplies are in there, but you know, it's the end of the year. All right, Reed, I put a book. That's because I haven't had enough copies of this one book for my groups. So they could each have one and this one focuses on main idea. So this whole drawer for reconvention was main idea if I didn't tell you that already. So yeah, sometimes if I have enough books, I'll put a book in there. If not, I'll sometimes do a passage like this. And if I do that, then I'll definitely make sure the game piece is in here that they write with, that they respond on. Because I try not to do too many worksheets in it. So yeah, that's kind of how it goes. Kids come over here, they pick one, and then basically they get it, they clean it up, and then they put it away. So yeah, that's kind of how I store the Playwright Readers in my classroom. I mean, I've seen other ways to do it, but that's just kind of what's worked best for me because the kids can pick it up, go put it back. And like I said, I like to keep those materials in there throughout the year just for minimal disruptions during a small group. Then I like to also store them a certain way for my organization. I think the drawers, honestly, it helps with the students organization. This way that you don't have game pieces going everywhere. You know, we spend so much time laminating and cutting. And then the last thing you want to do is find all these workstation pieces all over the place that you've spent so much time doing. So I love it because, okay, does everything end up in the bag perfectly every time? No, but it does end up in the drawer at least. So when I go to put it away, I know I can put it real quick in that zippy bag. And like the Play drawer I had, I keep that stuff in zippy bags that way it's easier for me to pull out and replace and all that stuff. So now I'm going to show you how I personally store it, how it's easy for me because like I said, Playwright Readers has made my life a lot easier. I feel like every day before I started using this, I was scrambling for what are the kids going to do for workstations? Okay, what game do I need to pull out? Where do I have this game? How do I keep this skill? So what I do is I like to teach this skill in whole group and then teach it in a small group for a week. And by the third week, that's when they're at the Playwright Reader drawer. So if I'm doing main idea, I would have taught it whole group then I would have taught it in a small group lesson. And then by the third time, that's when they have the Playwright Reader drawer. So that's kind of how I do it. And then I'm going to show you guys how I store it because I love these bins that I have. So yeah, I'm going to show you guys how I store it in my classroom to make my life a lot easier. So I have this lovely cabinet and I'm not going to show you the whole thing because it's not all this organized. This is my pride and joy, this top shelf because it is beautiful, colorful and organized. So I got these bins from Michaels. And then I got this, I cricketed all these out. So the ones that we teach mostly in small group are up here. Well, we teach it all in whole group too, but the ones that I use most often and some of them are kind of combined. I tried to do them like context clues and everything because I was going to hand in hand, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, this is kind of how I store them. And I'm going to pull one down so that you can see how much I actually fit in these, which is really great. So I'll show you guys that now. Okay, so if I open this up, you can see I've got some extra passages, this would be the theme versus main idea. So I've got that game. What's the main idea? More task cards, word sort, all stuff. And I save it so I can just pull it out next year like even if it's not a full set, all this stuff. So it just keeps me ready. More games, just all the games I could go on and on. It's crazy. So yeah, these bins actually work really nicely. Michael's and they're super cute color. Check them out. So that's just a little bit of how I personally store them and how it makes me more organized. And another thing that I do with them, whenever I'm pulling out that bin, I try to make one of those games a mini lesson in my small group when I'm teaching it that week. That way, when I put it in the, I'll play at your door the following week, the kids kind of know how to play the game because I don't go through every little detail with them, but they have an idea, they've been exposed to it so they know what's expected of them. So just kind of one of those procedures that I squeeze in there to make sure they know what to do because sometimes if you don't have those, those games can get really messy. But that's my organization for this playwright read game and I love it and I hope you guys try it out and if you do, let me know. You can get a lot of your games off Teachers Pay Teachers. That's where I've gotten a ton of mine so I can't take credit for the games because I didn't create them. But the games I do get from Teachers Pay Teachers, I have a book room in my school so a lot of the time for read, I do put the books in there and sometimes when I don't have books, like I said, I do those passages or I try to do a book in like a basic graphic organizer. So yeah, just some of the things I do with it. So I also want to tell you guys about how I hold the kids accountable because I'm sure you're all wondering, oh yeah, sure, these kids sit there and play a game and do the write and do the read. So I already told you how I do the timer and within 10 minutes they're expected to be done with play and the next 10 minutes expected to be done with write, next 10 minutes expected to be done with read. So how do I hold them accountable for the write and the read? Well, anything with writing, they have to take a picture on there I've had and upload it to C-sol for me to see. Same thing with the play. Usually there's that response sheet or a recording sheet of some sort and they have to take a picture of it, upload it. So I know if they're doing their work or not and the kids know too, I put little folders on C-sol and they upload it there and I check it and I'll keep my iPad with me at my back table while I'm trying to teach and I'll get those notifications and if I'm not getting them I'll say so and so. Why aren't you uploading your work? Don't forget, you know, if you've got that one group that sometimes gets distracted. So that's one way I hold them accountable for the games. Well, I guess that was my first vlog, so let me know what you think. If you use Playwright Read, if you have any questions at all about it, you can drop it in the comments and I hope you guys enjoyed it.