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You're right. It's not easy. Just try to get a class of 7th graders to read To Kill a Mockingbird right off the bat. It's all good and well to sing the praises of the Great Books, but that doesn't do much of anything when the kids are unmotivated to read.

I teach 7th grade and use reading workshops all the time. They don't have to come at the expense of books in the prescribed curriculum. I let my kids choose what they want to read , but I also have them read the required books. It works well, but it requires the teacher to do a lot of work. I make sure I read the books kids voluntarily choose, and then I work to draw connections between those books and the required books. You have to give kids the first spark of enthusiasm and use that to kindle a bigger flame. Just forcing them to read the greats doesn't do them much good.

ReadingWorkshopper--

I think we're in agreement. In my view, the problem with the New York Times story was that it presented reading workshops as some kind of miraculous answer to student reading issues: Just get them to choose their own books! Golly, who ever knew it was so easy?

Simply throwing the great books at children probably won't do. Your approach--give students some choice and see how it dovetails with required reading--makes a lot of sense.