Reading/Writing Workshop

I've never had a literature focus unit because my teachers always expected us to read some on our own and discuss the reading the next day. Some of my teachers have had class read-alouds, but I think it was to kill time or get us interested in different authors or reading subjects.
In eighth grade, I had a thematic unit on the holocaust. We learned about WWII in history and read the book "Night" in my Language Arts class, but I never had any math or science teachers try to integrate lessons from social studies or language arts classes.
I've been in multiple literature circles, but the part where my teachers have broken the rules is that they didn't let us choose what books to read. We still had different roles we were in charge of and certain pages we had to read at once. Also, our roles didn't switch after each meeting. It wasn't until EDU 255 that I learned the roles were supposed to switch after each meeting. It makes a lot more sense to do it that way, because every group would always find lots of ways to not read and still do well on the assignments.
In writer's workshops, my teachers usually assigned us prompts to write. Some of them had a lot of flexibility, and others did not. I usually hated the ones that didn't have much flexibility if I couldn't relate to the situation given. We rarely ever got to choose what to write until I was in 8th grade. We were finally allowed to write about whatever we wanted in my 8th grade LA class, but it was usually only for ten minutes, so it couldn't really be called writer's workshop, since it was less than an hour in duration. However, we were able to continue a piece if we wanted to, or start a new one, and when we finished, we had the option to share it or not share it after each writing period.
I've done a lot of reader's workshops. I remember in 4th grade it was called SQUIRT. It stood for Super Quiet Uninterrupted Reading Time. We also had SSR. Every so often, we took class trips to the school library to pick out new books to read, and when there was a book sale going on at school, we always went as a class to make up wishlists or buy books if we had money on us.
I really enjoy doing thematic units because they're interdisciplinary and they help reinforce what I'm learning in other classes and I remember the information better if I can relate it to something. I don't think there are any disadvantages to using this method for students, but it does make it a little more difficult on the teachers to try to integrate lessons from other areas.
I would use writer's workshop in my classroom, but I would try to give more flexible prompts so that my students wouldn't dread writing for the rest of their lives.