The article explores the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation, reading amount and the comprehension of narrative and expository texts in lower secondary school students. In addition, we intended to verify the effect on these variables of an educational programme, the writing and reading workshop (WRW), aimed at promoting students' love of reading and useful reading strategies. The sample included 149 children attending the first year of lower secondary school. A longitudinal design with two steps of data collection was used. In five classes, teachers applied the WRW; the same number of classes were enrolled as a control group and the teachers applied the Italian traditional teaching programme. The experimental group achieved better results in narrative text comprehension and in reading amount after 1 year. Reading amount was found to mediate the relationship between the instructional method and reading comprehension. No effects of the teaching method were found on either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation.