Anne and her K-6 colleaguse make time every day for students to curl up with books they love and engage in the single activity that consistently correlates with high level of performance on standardized tests of reading ability: frequent, voluminous, self-selected reading.

Reading workshop gives children pleasure with minimal strings attached. This can drive middle-class Americans crazy. One legacy of our Purital heritage and Protestant work ethic seems to be an unhealthy skepticism about any pedagogy that doesn't involve drill, self-discipline, and learning how to tolerate boredome and postpone gratification. But pleasure isn't immoral. Pleasure includes the enjoyment we find in artistry and beauty, in empathy and understanding, in thinking and learning and teaching.

All that quiet time reading stories chosen for me by an adult who loved me changed me forever. Suddenly I had all these narratives inside me, all these people, and all this knowledge, not to mention a passion for books and the ability to read fast and with feeling.

Anyone's achievement, child or adult, is driven by interest.

… because the teacher understands that enthusiasm for reading and volume of reading are the keys, and everything is a frill, boondoggle, interruption or hurdle.

… recommendations of books from friends and the teacher and a special bookshelf for the kids favorites.

When Anne circulates among readers during the workshop, one of her whispered queries is, 'What page are you on?' She records the title and page number on the status-of-the-class form she carries with a clipboard.