ABSTRACT
Reading workshop in September is less about teaching children how to read and more about modeling and teaching children what good readers do, setting the tone for the workshop and establishing its expectations and procedures, and engaging and motivating children to want to learn to read. When children arrive each morning, they select four or five books from the basket at their table, place them at their seats, chat a bit with their friends, and begin reading. Reading aloud comes into play throughout the day. At the beginning of the school year mini-lessons focus primarily on modeling and identifying reading behaviors, and teaching and learning the expectations and procedures of the workshop. Children don’t always know that they know something.
