Reading Workshop Book Recommendation

I have only about an hour to conduct Reading Workshop in my classroom and I have been finding it hard to squeeze in Independent Reading and Guided Reading groups, and still have time left over for individual student conferences. 

I am also noticing that several students are having a hard time completing their weekly letters and book recommendations on time. So, I decided to split the class and have half do their letters one week, and then the other half the next. That will give each group two weeks. I also don't have the time to be writing 20 letters each week...

Another change I decided to make today so that students are correctly completing book recommendations is to have students fill out a prompted sheet with information to fill in about the book they wish to recommend. I am also requiring that these be due every two weeks. Here is the book recommendation I created.

This is the first year our school is doing Reading Workshop so I have been learning an awful lot about what both my students and I can handle being that this is all new to everyone! The good news is that next year, students will already be familiar with the program! I am hopeful that it will really change the way our students think about reading while also improving students' reading! 

I would love any recommendations or ideas you may have for conducting Reading Workshop in your classrooms! Leave some love!