Independent Reading

Independent reading is used to help students turn to reading for the purpose of pleasure, to find information, gain insight and for many other reasons.  

Students must be given time to develop into strong independent readers. They must be immersed in an environment that allows for many opportunities for independent reading.  

Teachers must provide books that include topics that are interesting to the teacher student.  They must also provide books with a variety of genres and reading levels.  These books must be organized in a way that allows students to easily pick a book that is the right topic, genre and reading level. 

Students will create some type of follow-up assignment after independent reading.  This can be a simple illustration of an important event or character from the story.  Students will given choice in the type of assignment they would like to complete after reading a story.  

I believe it is important for my students to set goals in their reading.  This goal may be to finish a certain amount of books, to have a certain comprehension score, to earn a certain amount of points or to read so many books from a certain genre.  This goal will look different for each student in my classroom.  I also think it is important to celebrate when a student has met a goal in their reading.  This is a great way to encourage other students to meet the goals they have set for themselves in their independent reading. 

Teaching Reading in the 21st Century: Motivating All Learners. 5th ed. / Michael Graves…[et al.].