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Specifically, I describe the belief system and practices that inspired us as teachersin the US Midwest. In addition, I summarize our view of workshop and thepeople who have made a difference in our thinking about literacy.In Chapter 2, Amanda Angle begins the presentation of teacher researchstudies. As a kindergarten teacher concerned with the reduction of time availablefor play in the kindergarten schedule, Amanda sets out to observe, document,and describe the ways in which children use play as a tool across thecurricular structures of project work and workshop to develop literate capacityand skill. In her study, “Project Work Meets Workshop through Play in a KindergartenClassroom,” Amanda uses developmental play theory to understand theimportance of play and imagination to provoke the uses and practices of literacywithin project work. She asks the question, “In what ways do kindergarten childrenuse play to develop understandings and become literate beings?”In Chapter 3, Karen K. Goldstein tells the story of a five-year-old English languagelearner who navigated his way to literacy in a monolingual kindergartensetting using blocks as a context for meaning making. While narrating his journeyof becoming part of this English-speaking community, she also tells us ofEric’s influence on her own journey, in which she becomes a teacher-researcherand political advocate for all children. Karen documents and describes theseparallel journeys in her study of language learning, “Building Identity as a LanguageLearner: How Reggio Foundations Inspired Workshop Flexibility.”In Chapter 4, Patty Durbin Horan describes her use of teacher research andthe practice of reading aloud to build a peaceful community during a difficultyear. Inspired by the work of our Italian colleagues, Patty set out to view herclassroom as, first and foremost, “a place of relationships,” and to investigatethe ways in which reading aloud might strengthen and bring children together.“Navigating Rough Waters with Read-Alouds” tells a story of transformationfor both teacher and children as they used stories to develop more peaceful relationshipswith one another.In Chapter 5, “Thinking across the Curriculum: The Importance of Children’sConnections to Peers, Materials, and Home,” Alyssa Hildebrand examines theways in which children’s thinking becomes visible in her Reggio-inspired workshopsettings. Informed by the Italian educators’ focus on relationships, thenegotiation of curriculum, a supportive social atmosphere, and a pedagogy ofthe environment, she describes three kinds of relationships that her kindergartenchildren draw on as “thinking tools” as they develop as thinkers and authorsin writers workshop.In Chapter 6, Jennifer Wheat studies the ways in which relationships supportliteracy learning in her multiage K–1 classroom. In “The Power of Relationships,”she explores this idea through observation and “layers of writing,”Introduction D xv