Teachers frequently read aloud as a part of writing instruction so that children's book authors can serve as mentors for students' writing. Despite extensive anecdotal reporting of the significance of reading aloud children's literature within writing workshop, the intertextual connections students construct between interactive read alouds and their writing within writing workshop has received little attention. This descriptive, naturalistic study conducted in a third-grade collaborative learning environment examined how interactive read alouds at the beginning of writing workshop influenced students' writing. Specifically, this study examined how the dialogue occurring among the teacher, students, and the children's book authors during the interactive read alouds influenced students' writing. Over six months, multiple data sources were collected including observational field notes, transcriptions, informal and semi-structured interviews, and student and teacher artifacts. The data sources were analyzed according to the process of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding and by the constant comparative method. A grounded theory of "reading like a writer and writing like a reader" emerged from the data and addressed the social construction of intertextuality and literary understanding within interactive read alouds at the beginning of writing workshop. This grounded theory was composed of seven conceptual categories which included: "noticing," "examining," "guiding," "explaining," "understanding," "mentoring," and "crafting." The literary understanding socially constructed by the teacher, students, and children's book authors during the interactive read alouds significantly influenced students' writing. Within each sentence of their writing, students made intertextual connections to multiple texts. The content and ideas within students' writing were intertextually connected to a wide variety of texts they had previously experienced; however, the students consciously crafted their writing based on the socially constructed understanding of the purpose of author's craft which intertextually connected their writing to the interactive reading and examining of the mentor texts. The teacher facilitated the social construction of literary understanding and intertextuality during the interactive read alouds by guiding the discussion and explicitly discussing the interconnected nature of reading and writing. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]