Launching Independent Reading With Connections to Future-Ready Skills
This post is about launching independent reading in the classroom. You will find:
Factors to consider when planning for independent reading.
Tips for getting ready to launch independent reading.
Connections between independent reading and future-ready skills.
Making time for students to choose books for independent reading and to revamp their reading lives at the start of the school year is some of the most important work you will do in your reading community all year. It is one of those first experiences that paves the way for many more alike.
Launching independent reading and making sure that all students have a book in hand during the first days of school signals to students that:
Reading is a priority in your school and class community.
Their personal choices about reading are important.
Time for reading in school is valued.
Bodies of research suggest that the most important factors in a child’s reading life are choice and access - the power to choose what to read and access to high-quality, high-interest books that are relevant and interesting.
Fostering an independent reading routine can offer a myriad of benefits to students’ identities and habits as readers, writers, and learners:
Readers grow in their abilities to make meaning and analyze appropriately complex texts by practicing reading.
Readers can discover their own opinions, perspectives, and ideas about issues presented in fiction and nonfiction texts.
Readers can learn about perspectives that may be different from their own.
Readers make choices about what they read and how they read, leading them to develop agency and self-efficacy.
Readers create personal reading plans that they monitor and reflect on to grow in how they manage their time and academic work.
Readers learn by reading. They build schema about the world and its complexities.
Readers can make recommendations to other readers through discussions and creating posts in physical and virtual space to help foster a reading community.
In addition to developing literacy skills, participating in an environment that values independent reading gives students opportunities to practice developing competencies and traits that are increasingly valued in careers and pathways beyond high school highlighted in the Future of Jobs Report 2023:
Analytical thinking: Readers apply analysis skills and thinking routines that they learn during instructional time to independent practice with their own reading material. Practice within a choice text invites readers to make authentic connections between what they are taught and what they choose to read.
Resilience and flexibility: Making time for reading is not an easy task. Adults often share with me that they wish they had more time to read since there are many life responsibilities. I share this sentiment. Students may face similar challenges. Whether they enjoy reading or not, there may be obstacles to making time for reading and writing about reading. Through independent reading routines, students learn personal planning skills, time-management in the context of their own lives, and ways to set goals and monitor progress.
Motivation and self-awareness: This is perhaps the most prominent challenge we face with independent reading: How do we motivate those who consistently say I don’t like reading or I don’t want to do this? We put supports in place, of course, through conferring and coaching. We exercise our own perseverance and resilience as educators to not give up on being a reading cheerleader for kids. Having structures and expectations around independent reading in the classroom provides a supportive environment for readers to productively struggle through finding the right reading material and routines that fit their needs. It’s ok to be challenged; the important part is problem-solving and working through what is difficult.
Curiosity and life-long learning: Reading is a natural response to curiosity. Whether watching a video or reading print or digital text, people engage in literacy experiences to find information and to learn new things. Do you want to know who won the big game that you may have fallen asleep during? Read about the final score and highlights the next day. Do you want to know what the best places to visit are on a trip that you are planning? Read sample itineraries. Do you want to know more about beach erosion? Wildlife? Read about it. If students internalize a relationship between reading and curiosity, it may authenticate reading for them.
Empathy and active listening: Part of a reading culture within a classroom or school is time for conversation about reading. Discussions with reading partners or reading groups give students an opportunity to share about their thinking, their reading habits, and any recommendations that they think others should read. Discussion time is also a space for kids to offer advice to one another about what is working for them in terms of reading habits and routines.
Below are tips for getting ready to launch independent reading:
Organize your classroom library:
For emergent and early readers, classroom libraries may be organized with sections like:
Storybooks
Concept books
Pattern books
Decodable books
Complexity groupings (phonics and comprehension)
Alphabet books
Popular characters
Favorite authors
Topics (of interest and that are representative of curricular areas)
Class Favorites or Recommendations
Teacher or school community member recommendation: Principal ____ recommends…, Nurse ______ recommends…
Ask students to create categories and involve students in designing labels for library shelves or bins
In upper elementary and secondary classrooms, classroom libraries may be organized with
sections like:
Specific genre (think book store): realistic fiction, thriller/suspense, mystery, dystopian, action/adventure, humor, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, informational nonfiction (by topic or mixed topics), literary nonfiction, memoir, biography, autobiography, how-to books
Author
Theme or topic: Books for Dog Lovers, Books That Will Leave You Inspired, Mental Health Awareness, Sports Fans
Format: prose, graphic novel, highly illustrated, in verse
If…Then…: If You Liked _______, Then You’ll Like These
Series
Reaction: Grab A Tissue!, Get Ready to Belly Laugh!, Books That Make You Wonder
Class Favorites or Recommendations
Teacher or school community member recommendation: Principal ____ recommends…, Nurse ______ recommends…
Ask students to create categories and involve students in designing labels for library shelves or bins
2. Contact your school librarian.
If your school has a librarian, plan to collaborate throughout the year. Make appointments to bring your class to the library. I used to schedule my first library visit during the first or second week of school so my students knew the library was a place of access for them. Plan to integrate library visits into your reading routines throughout the year.
3. Develop a system for students to manage their reading materials.
Teacher and student management are essential to how independent reading functions in a classroom. Choose a system that works for you and students. In my classroom, students brought their book and a reading notebook in a gallon-size bag to school and home each day. Keeping the two items together in a bag was helpful for my students. The material management system was highlighted in my welcome letter to families and caregivers and a priority conversation item at Back to School Night.
4. Make a plan to share about independent reading and the reading culture in your classroom with parents and caregivers.
It’s important to value parents and caregivers in developing reading culture. They are partners in fostering success for kids. Is there a time when parents and caregivers visit the school and meet teachers early in the school year? Do you have a conference schedule? Is there a time when the building leader addresses parents and caregivers and can share the commitment to independent reading? Do you send home a welcome letter or introductory material that independent reading routines can be included in?
5. Read books that your students read.
The more you read, the more you’ll be able to:
Recommend books.
Book talk books (like a salesperson!).
Engage students in dialogue about reading. Sometimes just 2 or 3 minutes in class can build over time to create a community of readers.
Organize books in your classroom appropriately since you know the content.
6. Prepare to learn the identities of your students.
Knowing about your students’ identities may impact how you support them while engaging with text throughout the year. Some identity components are: interests and hobbies, first language and languages learned, race, ethnicity, national origin, culture, community, family structure, abilities, disabilities (Miller and Sharp, 2018). Consider having students create identity webs, culture maps, or personal collages to share with you about who they are and what is important to them. This information will also help you in organizing your classroom library to ensure that students are represented in the space.
7. Plan a series of read alouds to help establish reading time and routines.
No matter the age of the readers, read alouds can serve to coach students for independent reading. Teachers can model ways to think about ideas, information, and perspectives. Consider the skills, thinking routines, and curricular topics that are in your scope and sequence. Choose picture books and/or short excerpts to serve as mentor texts in a series of mini-lessons to launch independent reading at the start of the school year. After each mini-lesson with a mentor text, students can practice what was taught in their independent reading books. Structured time early in the year allows for all students to begin their new reading journeys in a supportive space together before they venture off on their own independent reading journeys. A structured beginning also helps the teacher to manage learning about a new group of readers through reading conferences, small group meetings, and assessment conferences.
This is no easy task. Facilitating independent reading requires planning, patience, and flexibility. It may not look the same each year or even in each class during one school year if you are a secondary teacher. Independent reading forms and grows in response to the readers in the reading community.
Share the literacy leadership:
Teachers: It is worth writing again that launching and maintaining independent reading in your classroom is no easy task. It is something that takes shape as you get to know your students and can change from year to year based on the interests and needs of your class. You can do it. I’m cheering for you! Stay tuned for sample lessons and ways to support readers with independent reading.
Administrators: Consider sharing this post with your team. Also, reflect on how you are supporting teachers with prioritizing reading in the classroom. Is there a school culture to support this work? Are their systems in place to indicate that reading time is valued and important? Is there time for teachers to collaborate and share practices that are working in their classrooms? Is leadership involved in communicating with parents and caregivers about the importance of making time for and choices about reading?
References:
Miller, D. & Sharp, C. (2018). Game changer: Book access for all kids. Scholastic.
World Economic Forum (2023). Future of Jobs Report. World Economic Forum.
https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/in-full/4-skills-outlook/