Blast from the Past: First released on September 21, 2019; re-issued January 22, 2019. 

This blog entry was met by a great deal of controversy with some teachers agreeing with me and others arguing that you can deeply engage a text even if you haven't read it. Of course, since this was released we have been immersed in a COVID crisis that has greatly reduced the amount of reading instruction that children are receiving. The reading conference method might seem more useful to some in this unfortunate climate. We definitely want to encourage kids to replace some of that lost schooling with independent reading but it is essential that teachers and parents find ways to guide students reading efforts so that they take on books that are sufficiently challenging and that they receive sufficent guidance so they don't miss important and subtle content and craft considerations. I hope this re-issue encourages responses from teachers who may have found some ways of accomplishing that in our seriously disrupted educational system). 

Teacher question:

I saw you make a presentation recently, and I was surprised to hear that you did not like the conferencing that is provided in Readers Workshop. That is the method that our district requires. Isn’t it research-based?

Shanahan responds:

No, it definitely is not research based.

I can’t find a single study that supports its use.

I can’t even find any study that supports programs that include this approach.

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