When you hear the word workshop, what do you think about? What space do you envision? What tools would you expect to be surrounded with? How do you see the time being used?

How would that image change when you put the word "reading" in front of it? Reading workshop is a popular and widely accepted framework for instruction. And yet, the very core of its underpinnings are rarely discussed as schools. 

Teachers are urged to consider and implement the components, tools, and procedures of the workshop before they are given time to fully embrace and understand the importance of structure.

I feel very lucky this week, to have the gift of time with varying grade levels of teachers. Spending the day talking beyond the strategies and techniques and digging deeply into the reassons why the "Reading Workshop" is so powerful. One of the challenges about the conversation is helping teachers understand that reading workshop is not simply a framework for organizing and managing your literacy block. It is important that we see the framework as a complex set of interrelationships between teachers, student, environment, and materials rather than a schedule of reading activities.

Powerful literacy requires more than tools and techniques. It is not determined by or guaranteed with rigorous standards. It does not happen because teachers "adopt" a reading program, keep portfolios, or use the latest technologies. Creating a framework that supports excellence requires us to understand how the each individual "little" pieces influences and impacts the big outcomes.

To help us envision a new way of thinking about the interrelated parts (mini- lessons, guided reading, independent practice, etc… and the all important "whole" (creating lifelong, passionate, habitual readers and thinkers), we used the following analogy. I call it "Having our cake and eating it too."

If we think about the "big goals" of literacy as the "cake", and the "component parts" of the workshop framework as the "ingredients", we don't see our work with readers as an either or. You need the ingredients. There is no cake without eggs or flour. Yet, we don't consider cake to be "great" because it contains flour. I have never heard anyone, take a bite of this scrumptious treat and say, "WOW, that was a good ingredient;  I sure like the baking soda!" Readers workshop is not an either/or proposition. It is and AND. You need to know, label, and mix the right ingredients while never taking your eye of the end product.

That is the scrumptious part. the creative part, the real joy…watching readers rise to the occasion, and placing them in the center of the celebration for all to enjoy!  As the week progresses, I will lay out these ingredients and reveal the "secret" recipes from amazing teachers and classrooms.  I can't wait to see where the conversation takes us!!