ABSTRACT
The community is built on mutual respect and a willingness on the part of each participant to listen to and consider the merits of each member's ideas and interpretations. Developing a sense of safety is fundamental to a community of readers. In a safe place, readers understand that their ideas, thoughts, and questions have a place in classroom conversations. Listening is the gateway to understanding in classrooms, work relationships, and personal relationships. It is one of the critical communications skills along with reading, writing, and speaking. Classroom conversations allow community members to grow in new ways because they develop a knowledge base grown from ideas shared by all the children, helping them to imagine new ways to solve problems, think about and share literature, and respond with curiosity and empathy. In reading workshop, students learn how to have real conversations and establish doable guidelines for a respectful exchange of ideas.
