I had two very different experiences teaching reading. My first year, with first grade, the school did something that resembled reading instruction. Lots of phonics work, sight words, spelling, etc.  Kids read from copies of the same text and then answered comprehension questions. They were bored to tears. At the time, I didn’t know anything about readers’ workshop, but I knew they needed something different. I began some small reading groups and got kids talking about their reading. The kids got so excited about this reading time and I felt successful as a teacher.

When I taught fifth grade, the district had implemented readers’ workshop. Each classroom had a library of at least 1000 books, labeled by genre and level. Reading instruction involved a teacher-led “mini-lesson” about reading and comprehension strategies and then independent reading while the teacher met with kids - either individually for conferences or in small groups.  I was amazed at how well this worked. It was great to see kids reading on their own and really getting into their books.

Setting up Readers’ Workshop is hard work, especially if students do not have experience reading independently. They have to build stamina in order to read quietly for an hour (or even a half-hour if they are younger). But there is a ton of research about the effectiveness of kids reading at their own level, so there are resources everywhere to help you set it up.

Here are two sites that outline some of the basics: 

Readers Workshop
Pacific Center

I’ll focus here on some of the specifics since that’s where teachers usually want help.  See all posts about readers’ workshop.