Who's doing the work?

Who's Doing the Work? explores how some traditional scaffolding practices may actually rob students of important learning opportunities and independence. It suggests ways to make small but powerful adjustments to instruction that hold students accountable for their own learning.
Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris examine how instructional mainstays such as read-aloud, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading look in classrooms where students do more of the work. 
Who’s Doing the Work? offers a vision for adjusting reading instruction to better align with the goal of creating independent, proficient, and joyful readers. 

Who's doing the Work?
​Lesson sets
In this groundbreaking classroom resource, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris provide everything teachers need to implement the ideas from their bestselling book, Who's Doing the Work? How to Say Less So Readers Can Do More. The lesson sets map out a systematic approach to helping K-5 students grow into independent and proficient readers, and serve as a professional development scaffolded, supporting teachers who want to say less so students can do more. The 30 lessons in each grade level work well in conjunction with any reading program and do not require on-site training. They provide an accessible introduction to four key instructional contexts: read aloud, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading, and also offer a fresh perspective on prompting, using wait time, and reducing scaffolding so that more responsibility is shifted to the student.  

Who's doing the work?
​Guided Reading books

This set of fifteen, fiction titles were created by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris, who are committed to giving students texts that offer opportunities for deep thought. As separate tools or used in conjunction with the Who's Doing the Work? K-2 Lesson Sets, these guided reading books are available as free e-books on this site.

Who's doing the work?
​3-5 Lessons sets

In this much-awaited classroom resource, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris provide a roadmap for 3-5 teachers interested in implementing the ideas from their bestselling book, Who’s Doing the Work? How to Say Less So Readers Can Do More. The lesson sets map out a systematic approach to helping upper elementary students grow into independent and proficient readers. The 30 lessons in each grade level work well in conjunction with other reading programs and provide teachers a scaffold for bringing the ideas from Who’s Doing the Work? to life in your classroom. These lessons provide an accessible introduction to Next Generation Read-Aloud, Next Generation Shared Reading, Next Generation Guided Reading, and Next Generation Independent Reading.

Preventing Misguided reading

There seems to be much confusion surrounding guided reading—the term even means something different from school to school.
In Preventing Misguided Reading, Jan Burkins and Melody Croft present personal clarifications, adaptations, and supports that have helped them work through the tricky parts as they guide readers. The book’s six chapters each clarify a misunderstanding about guided reading instruction, including the teacher's role in the gradual release of responsibility, instructional reading level, "balanced" instruction, integrated processing, and assessment.

Reading Wellness: 
​lessons in independence and Proficiency

Built around a framework of four intentions—alignment, balance, sustainability, and joy--Reading Wellness offers teachers a series of lessons that help children read closely and carefully while still honoring their interests, passions, and agency as readers. The lessons here, which have been field-tested in grades 1-5, are interconnected and empower classroom communities, are filled with anecdotes and insights, and are practical, sustainable, and frequently joyful.