How and why do young children, especially those making their first foray into formal education, become readers and writers? With this book, the author answers this question and more as she shows kindergarten teachers and administrators how to help young children become readers and writers through a workshop approach. Keeping in mind the limitations of a kindergarten teacher's time, the author has provided the current research and best classroom practices teachers need to implement writing workshop in their classroom. Chapters are rich with student writing samples and offer a daily kindergarten schedule, a description of the stages of kindergartner's written language development, outlines and lesson plans, writing workshop minilessons and assessment tools. Plus, the appendixes offer a wealth of information to supplement your instruction, such as phonemic awareness activities, recommended booklists, word lists, sample letters, and reproducible forms. Although this book focuses primarily on kindergarten students, it also is appropriate for preschoolers and first and second graders. This book can be used to help emergent writers and readers to become early writers and readers. It is divided into the following eight chapters: (1) Writing and Writing Workshop in Kindergarten; (2) Developmental Letter Formation and Developmental Stages of Spelling; (3) Developmental Sequence of Learning Written Language and Understanding Genres; (4) Planning a Comprehensive Literacy Program; (5) Getting Ready and Writing Workshop; (6) Minilessons for Writing Workshop; (7) Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting; and (8) Reflections on Writing Workshop in Kindergarten. The following are appended: (1) Phonemic Awareness Activities and Additional Minilesson Topics; (2) Booklists; (3) Letters and Charts; (4) Common Lists and How to Teach Them; and (5) Reproducible Forms. A list of references; and an author and subject index are also included.