What is Workshop?

Workshop is a structure for instruction. The workshop model allows teachers to differentiate and meet the needs of all their students. In the workshop model, students are invited to become actively involved in their learning, and in the process learn more about how to read various kinds of texts (Atwell).

In workshop, teachers invite children to do all the things a reader and/or writer really does: research, explore, collect, interview, talk, read, stare off into space, co-author, and pre-write, draft, revise, edit, and publish. Katie Wood Ray and Lester Laminack have studied writers’ lives and habits and know that living a writing life includes a lot more than just always being in one of the stages of the writing process.

Workshop Structure

Videos

First Grade Reading Workshop

Websites

Teachers College Reading & Writing Project

Reading Workshop in the Primary Grades