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"Joyful Independent Reading:: Choice, Agency, and Engagement with Books" 

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"Joyful Independent Reading:: Choice, Agency, and Engagement with Books" 

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ASCD Express 13.03 - Joyful Independent Reading: Choice, Agency, and Engagement with Books

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"The Importance of the Classroom Library"

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"The Importance of the Classroom Library"

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March 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 6
Reading to Learn Pages 30-35

Donalyn Miller

"Well," I tell her, "scientists' study of infectious diseases like yellow fever has occurred over time, and years ago, we didn't know what caused many illnesses or how to treat them. There is a great nonfiction book called An American Plague by Jim Murphy (Clarion, 2003) that can give you more information about the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. Would you like to read it? We have a copy in the school library."

Emily agrees to read Murphy's book next and heads off to science class, where her newfound interest in infectious diseases will serve her well. During the 10 minutes between the first bell and the second, I discuss the Japanese invasion of Burma during World War II with Brian, who is reading Roland Smith's Elephant Run (Hyperion, 2007); debate the negative consequences of time travel explored in Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me (Wendy Lamb, 2009) with Hanna; and define and pronounce crenellated for Grant, who declares that Christopher Paolini overuses the word in Eragon (Knopf, 2003). None of these students is in my first period language arts class, but their books provoke questions that cannot wait. As a reader, I enjoy these conversations, but as a teacher, I appreciate the intellectual power these students are gaining through reading.

The Need to Read

Numerous studies prove that wide reading improves children's comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary, fluency, and writing (Krashen, 2004). Unfortunately, in many schools the poorest readers read the least, often as much as three times less than their peers (Allington, 2006). Many students identified as struggling readers early in their educations continue to receive reading intervention and tutoring throughout their school lives, never catching up with their peers. No matter what instructional methods we employ, students must spend substantial time applying the reading skills and strategies we teach before they develop reading proficiency. To become good readers, students must read and read and read.

The challenge for many teachers lies in motivating and inspiring students to pick up a book in the first place. Developing or struggling readers often lack the experience and confidence to choose books for themselves, read for extended periods of time, or consistently apply reading strategies across texts. Dormant readers, who possess the reading skills needed for academic tasks, see reading as a school job-not as an activity in which they would willingly engage outside school. How do we instill lasting reading behaviors in all our students?

Lifelong readers possess certain habits that we can explicitly model and teach our students. By redesigning our classrooms to support young readers as they practice and internalize the behaviors of avid readers, we can increase our students' engagement in reading and reap the benefits that prolific reading engenders.

Making Time

When I announce, "Ladies and gentlemen, come to a stopping spot," my students groan. Their complaints are music to my ears. I learned long ago that the only way I could guarantee that my students read was to dedicate time for them to read in class every day. The Commission on Reading's report Becoming a Nation of Readers (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985) recommends two hours of silent sustained reading a week, but increasing curriculum demands and the need to prepare students for standardized tests have made independent reading time a luxury in many classrooms. Knowing that voracious readers make time to read every day, how do we carve out more reading time for students?

I set aside as much as 30 minutes a day for my 6th grade students to read in class. During this time, I confer with students about the books they are reading, ask students to read to me while I assess their comprehension and fluency, and work with students in small groups.

If dedicating chunks of your instructional day for independent reading seems difficult, you can still find time for students to read more. In my own school, I realized that there was a lot of wasted time spent waiting in lines for picture day, field trips, the bus, and assemblies-time when my students could read. After all, adult readers carry books with us for those times when we must unexpectedly wait. We read at the airport, at the doctor's office, and on the train.

Teach students to carry a book wherever they go and to enjoy a few minutes of reading time. Those stolen moments add up over a year. Young readers learn what committed readers know- keeping a book with you alleviates boredom! My students have even learned to pull out their books whenever visitors at the door, phone calls, and technology glitches interrupt classroom instruction.

Maximizing wasted moments in the school day may garner as much as an hour each week of reading time for students, but we can allocate more reading time by eliminating warm-ups and "when you are done" activities. At a recent conference, I asked the crowd to identify the true purpose of warm-ups and bell ringers, those activities that we have ready for students to complete when they enter our classrooms. Embarrassed, most teachers admitted that these activities were designed so that they could take attendance or make sure students are working as soon as class begins.

Common warm-up activities in language arts classrooms, such as editing sentences, vocabulary study, or journal prompts, may yield limited instructional benefits; but none produce the same level of academic power as 15 minutes of reading time. The same could be said for "when you are done" activities and enrichment folders. I tell my students that they are never done: When they finish class work, they read. Students can gain as much as 20 minutes of extra reading in class each day when teachers designate reading as the only activity for any class time not used for instruction and practice.

Having time to read in class motivates my students to read more at home, too. Captivated by the books they're reading, they cannot wait until the next school day to continue their books. Recently, I received an e-mail from a mother who discovered the night before that her son had fallen asleep while reading Scott Westerfeld's newest science fiction epic, Leviathan (Simon Pulse, 2009).

Every morning and after school breaks, students swarm me to share how their love of reading seeps over into their personal lives. As teachers and parents, we know that people who read when no one requires it are truly readers.

Giving Freedom

Although providing my students with more time to read dramatically increases the amount of reading they do, no single practice inspires my students to read as much as the opportunity to choose their own books. Learners who lack input into decision making feel powerless and unmotivated-this is true for adults, for teachers, and for our students (Cambourne, 1995).

We may spend weeks designing the perfect novel units, carefully selecting interesting texts and crafting meaningful activities, only to discover that our students merely plod through the book and our assignments. In addition, no one text or activity can possibly meet the needs of the diverse range of reading levels and interests found in the typical classroom.

So how can we accomplish our instructional goals and ensure that our students will be engaged? I have done away with whole-class novel units and allowed my students to choose their own books. A recent conversation I had with students about Suzanne Collins's futuristic novel The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) confirmed my belief about whole-class novels. I never assigned The Hunger Games to my students, but after I mentioned it in book talks and offered it to my afterschool book club, the book's popularity spread like wildfire. Of my 93 students, almost 60 of them have read or plan to read this book.

When I asked one student, Adam, why this book was so popular, he told me, "You made the book sound so exciting, and I decided to read it because I thought I would be missing out. The book was amazing! I loved the action and terror of the Games, and I thought that Katniss [the protagonist] was a great character. When she volunteered to take her sister's place in the games, I thought it was so brave."

Curious, I asked, "Adam, knowing that this book is worth reading, with lots of topics we could discuss in class, what would you think about my assigning this book to the entire class? Most of you are reading it, anyway. Obviously, many students would enjoy it."

My question sparked a wave of head shaking and protests from Adam and his classmates who were discussing the book with us. "No, no, please don't! When teachers tell us we have to read a book, we hate it. We like it that we get to choose what we read." Even though I could use heartfelt recommendations, thought-provoking discussions, probing questions, and many other techniques I was using in book talks and small-group discussions when teaching a novel to the entire class, my students' reactions revealed that the most important factor for them was having the choice to read the book. (See the list on p. 33 for some of my students' favorite books.)

Options and Requirements

Asking some students to read devolves into a struggle to get them to pick up a book in the first place, so I don't provide students with the option of not reading. Instead, I ask students what book they will be reading today. I move the opportunity for choice to book selection. Allowing students to choose what they will read gives them power and removes the opportunity to refuse to read at all. That will be enough to motivate some students.

I require my students to read 40 books each year, in a mix of genres from nonfiction to fiction to poetry. Requiring my students to read widely exposes them to more genres, authors, vocabulary, and background knowledge than I could ever accomplish by teaching a few texts each year; and it helps students discover and develop their own reading tastes.

My instruction is focused on the knowledge and skills students must learn to meet state and district requirements. All students learn how to infer a book's themes, predict resolutions, identify figurative language, and so on, but each student chooses his or her own books to practice and perfect these skills.

For students who lack reading experience and confidence in choosing books, I introduce a wide range of books and authors through readalouds and shared reading, where all students follow along as I read. Shared reading provides support for developing readers because the teacher scaffolds texts that students may not be able to read on their own. By following a more fluent reader, students can focus on comprehension instead of decoding. Students frequently seek out books and authors that we share in class. I often use the first chapter of a book as a teaching piece, then place the book on the chalkboard rail for students to enjoy. The book rarely lasts the day before a student checks it out to read.

When students select books on their own, I condone their choices. Books like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and the Bone graphic novels are popular with young readers, but teachers often denounce such books because they are short, are said to lack literary merit, or contain too many pictures. But consider that any girl who reads the entire Twilight series has read over a thousand pages of text. Surely, this is a powerful reading accomplishment! I celebrate any reading my students do.

When students see that I value their reading choices, they begin to trust themselves to select their own reading material and trust me to suggest more books. I tap into this relationship to move students toward more challenging, meatier books over time. For example, when I noticed that Shayla loved books about animals, particularly horses and dogs, I used her interest in Laurie Halse Anderson's Vet Volunteers series to suggest more challenging books like Anna Sewell's classic Black Beauty.

I work closely with students who struggle to select books or commit to a reading plan; I help them set short-term goals, such as reading so many pages per week or finishing one book. I encourage and praise these students for every step they take toward their reading goals. For students who resist trying anything, I have assigned a book as a last resort, choosing a title that I think the student might like and be able to read.

The Gift of Reading

The more students read, the better readers they become. By dedicating reading time, recommending books, exposing students to a variety of texts and authors, and validating their reading choices, I've seen students' interest and motivation to read increase. Students' background knowledge, understanding of text structure and features, vocabulary usage, appreciation for authors' craft, and performance on a wide array of assessments improve tremendously because of the reading they do. For it is only through volumes and volumes of reading that many students internalize the comprehension skills and gain the reading experience they must acquire for academic success.

Of course, hours and hours spent reading and the freedom to choose their own books also leads many children to discover a love of books and reading-a path to enjoyment and learning that lasts long after schooling ends. This is an immeasurable gift.

References

Allington, R. (2006). What really matters for struggling readers: Designing research-based programs. Boston: Pearson.

Anderson, R. C., Hiebert, E. H., Scott, J. A., & Wilkinson, I. A. G. (1985). Becoming a nation of readers: The report of the Commission on Reading. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education.

Cambourne, B. (1995). Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry. The Reading Teacher, 49(3), 182-190.

Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Donalyn Miller teaches 6th grade language arts at Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Bedford, Texas. She is the author of The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child (Jossey-Bass, 2009); thebookwhisperer@gmail.com.

KEYWORDS

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March 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 6 Reading to Learn Pages 30-35 Donalyn Miller "Well," I tell her, "scientists' study of infectious diseases like yellow fever has occurred over time, and years ago, we didn't know what caused many illnesses or how to treat them.

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ASCD Express 13.03 - Accelerate Learning Through Independent Reading

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"How Important is Teaching Literacy in all Content Areas"

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"How Important is Teaching Literacy in all Content Areas"

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How Important Is Teaching Literacy in All Content Areas?

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Students do plenty of listening in our classes, but what about reading, writing, and speaking?

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Dr. Margaret Mary Policastro is a professor of language and literacy at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois, where she directs the language and literacy program and is the founding director of the Summer Reading Clinic for children. Dr. Policastro has more than 30 years of experience teaching both undergraduate and graduate students in language and literacy at Roosevelt University. She has worked more than 10 years on grant funded literacy projects in Chicago Public Schools and is currently the principal investigator of the Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), funded by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Dr. Policastro grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and attended Indiana University where she received her B.S. in art and elementary education and her M.S. in reading. After teaching art and reading in Indiana, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, and earned her Ph.D. at Northwestern University in reading and language. Dr. Policastro's research interests currently focus on access to books for parents, children, and teachers and ongoing professional development for teachers and what effects these have on student learning. She has co-authored The New Balanced Literacy School: Implementing Common Core and Formative Assessment in the New Balanced Literacynbsp;School and authored Livingnbsp;Literacy at Home: A Parent's Guide.

Dr. Becky McTague is an associate professor of language and literacy at Roosevelt University. She has over 30 years of experience, ranging from elementary schools to the university level. She holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Southern Illinois University, a master's degree in reading from Northeastern Illinois University, and an Ed.D. from National-Louis University. Her teaching experiences include trainer for Reading Recovery; primary teacher in Illinois, Oklahoma, and England; and reading specialist/coach for several public school districts. She has written several articles and chapters that have been published in professional journals. Over the past 10 years, she has directed many local grants as well as worked on federal grants focused on school improvement. Her current research interests include teacher development, struggling readers, best practices in literacy for all students, school change especially in urban settings, and supporting English Language Learners.

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Create a new approach to balanced literacy grounded in research-based best practices. This book infuses best practices of the new balanced literacy model through the lens of Common Core, with support on read-alouds, guided reading, language and literacy centers, word walls to language walls, independent reading and writing, and classroom libraries.

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Uploaded by Linda Lawrence on 2017-05-21.

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During a past professional development workshop, the consultant informed us at one point to end independent reading in our classrooms. "It doesn't work." (discrete sideway glances at each other) "Really. Have students read with a partner or facilitate choral reading. Students reading by themselves does not increase reading achievement."

I think I know what the consultant was trying to convey: having students select books and then read silently without any guidance from the teacher is not an effective practice. Some students will utilize this time effectively, but in my experience as a classroom teacher and principal, it is the students that need our guidance the least that do well with silent reading. For students who have not developed a reading habit, or lack the skills to effectively engage in reading independently for an extended period of time, this may be a waste of time.

The problem with stating that students should not be reading independently in school is people confuse silent reading with independent reading (IR). I could see some principals globbing onto this misconception as fodder for restricting teachers from using IR and keep them following the canned program religiously. The fact is, these two practices are very different. In their excellent resource No More Independent Reading Without Support (Heinemann, 2013), Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss provide a helpful comparison:
Silent Reading

Lack of a clear focus - kids grab a book and read (pg. 2)

Teachers read silently along with the students (pg. 3)

No accountability regarding what students read (pg. 8)

Independent Reading (pg. 16)

Classroom time to read

Students choose what to read

Explicit instruction about what, why, and how readers read

Reading a large number of books and variety of texts through the year

Access to texts

Teacher monitoring, assessing, and support during IR

Students talk about what they read

You could really make the case that independent reading is not independent at all: it is silent reading with scaffolds, and independence is the goal. The rest of the book goes into all of the research that supports independent reading, along with ideas and examples for implementing it in classrooms. The authors also cite the Common Core Anchor Standard that addresses independent reading:

Maybe this information will be helpful, in case you ever have a principal or consultant question your practice. 🙂

Assessing Independent Reading

The challenge then is: how do I assess independent reading? Many teachers use a paper-based conferring notebook. If that works for them, that's great. My opinion is, this is an opportunity to leverage technology to effectively identify trends and patterns in students' independent reading habits and skills, which can inform future instruction. Next is a list of tools that I have observed teachers using for assessing independent reading.

This is an iPad application that allows the user to draw, type, and add images to a single document. The teacher can use a stylus (I recommend the Apple Pencil) to handwrite their notes. Each student can be assigned their own folder within Notability. In addition, a teacher can record audio and add it to a note, such as a student reading aloud a page from their book. This information can be backed up to Google Drive, Evernote, and other cloud storage options.

In my last school, one of the teachers swore by this tool. "If you don't pay for it," she stated one day, "I'll pay for it out of my own pocket." Enough said! Teachers who use the Daily 5 workshop approach would find CC Pensieve familiar. It uses the same tenets of reading and writing to document student conferences and set literacy goals. Students can also be grouped in the software based on specific strategies and needs.

Teachers can set up a digital form to capture any type of information. The information goes to a spreadsheet. This allows the teacher to sort columns in order to drive instruction regarding students' reading habits and skills. Also, the quantitative results are automatically graphed to look for classroom trends and patterns. We set up a Google Form in one grade level in our school:

I've written a lot about using Evernote as a teaching tool in the past. It is probably the tool I would use to document classroom formative assessment. Each note can house images, text, audio, and links, similar to Notability. These notes can be shared out as a URL with parents via email so they can see how their child is progressing as a reader. Check out this article I wrote for Middleweb on how a speech teacher used Evernote.

The previous digital tools for assessing independent reading are largely teacher-directed. The next three are more student-led. One of my favorite educational technologies is Kidblog. Classrooms can connect with other classrooms to comment on each other's posts. Teachers can have students post book reviews, book trailers, and creative multimedia projects from other applications.

Whereas Kidblog is pretty wide open in how it can be used, Biblionasium is a more focused tool. It can serve as an online book club for students. Students can make to-read lists, write reviews and rate books, and recommend titles to friends. Like Kidblog, Biblionaisum is a smart way to connect reading with writing in an authentic way.

This social media site is for book lovers. Although 13 is the minimum age to join, parents need to provide consent if a child is under 18. Besides rating and reviewing books, Goodreads allows readers to create book groups with discussion boards around specific topics - an option for teachers to promote discussion and digital citizenship. Students can also post their original creative writing on Goodreads by genre. Check out this post I wrote about how to get students started.

What is your current understanding of independent reading? What tools do you find effective in assessing students during this time? Please share in the comments.

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Silent Reading vs. Independent Reading: What's the Difference? (plus digital tools to assess IR)

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During a past professional development workshop, the consultant informed us at one point to end independent reading in our classrooms. "It doesn't work." (discrete sideway glances at each other) "Really. Have students read with a partner or facilitate choral reading. Students reading by themselves does not increase reading achievement."

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The Reading Coach

"The policy of having large classroom libraries was found to be 'one of the most important differential policies between high-scoring and low-scoring countries' . . . a powerful indicator for both nine-year-olds and fourteen-year-olds." So says an international study by the Australian School Library Association ( Report on the Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement).

Classroom libraries provide books to those who have none. They extend and reinforce curriculum, foster independent discussions, encourage exploration into unknown genres and areas of high interest. They include not just print volumes, but also computers and audio books. And they certainly are not limited to elementary school classrooms. I recently visited Dr. Reba Wadsworth, a Decatur, Alabama, principal, and went away inspired. Her library overwhelmed her desk, her bookcases, and her windows. With volume and variety, she proclaimed: "Reading is important and informative, fascinating and fun." What does your library say to its visitors?

An effective library collection contains more than "should" reads. It also holds the most intriguing, intoxicating, invigorating fact and fiction, rotated and revitalized regularly.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR LIBRARY?

Getting students to use a classroom library is critical to its success. Several times a year, place a box of index cards (Try Oxford Extreme Color Index Cards in lavender, orange, and chartreuse!) on a nearby shelf. When students use a resource, ask them to give it the one-two-three:
1. Write down the title and author.
2. Score the resource on a scale of 1-5; with five being the highest.
3. Compose a one to two sentence review. (How helpful was it? What was the best/worst part?)

The comments will help you cull out the duds and confirm the keepers. Set up a simple reward system to make the review process fun, and to encourage everyone to participate.

The questions below will help you evaluate the contents of your classroom library:

Do you have a library?
Elementary, middle-, and high-school classrooms all benefit from a library. Do you have a recommended reading list? Include titles from that list as well as complementary titles. Are certain areas of your curriculum sparse? Fill in gaps in the curriculum with books in your library. Students aren't engaged? Find titles to aid understanding (fiction on the Civil Rights movement or artists of the Renaissance, or theGuinness Book of World Records). Include high-interest or fun materials (like magazines or e-books).

What materials are in it?
Many young people have a limited view of reading that's reinforced when all they have to read are books. Include such magazines asNational Geographic or Sports Illustrated, how-to handbooks (on PowerPoint, word processing, and so on), and comic books. No money? Solicit small donations from local businesses or parents. Write a mini-grant. Start an inter-classroom cooperative, rotating materials to keep each library fresh. Collect menus from the newest pizza shop in town, and user manuals for basic software programs. Don't simply duplicate what your media center already has. Ask your media specialist for additional suggestions.

Do the materials match your students' independent reading levels?
Evaluate in the fall and reevaluate periodically as students progress. Do your students need predictable text? Books with sight words or decodable text? Challenging text, with such supports as graphs, pictures or sidebars? More engaging, complex reading? Match the range of readers inyour classroom.Always include picture books (some are appropriate for middle and high school). Investigate such genres as multi-cultural (Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun's Kung Fu, by Emily Arnold McCully, Levine Books, 1998); historical fiction (When Jessie Came Across the Sea, by Amy Hest, Candlewick Press, 1997); or biography (Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein, by Don Brown, Houghlin-Mifflin, 2004).

Does your library contain high interest materials for both boys and girls?
Include books written by women and men. For 9th and 10th graders, add your state's driver's license study manual. Find fiction that displays believable characters facing real issues (bothwithin and outside your students' experience).

Do you have supplemental materials to reinforce four major curriculum themes you teach each year? Does your library offer opportunities to explore further into areas of greater interest?
Connecting your library to major classroom goals promotes clear expectations. Some students need to hear information more than once, or in different formats, for it to "click."

Is the space inviting?
Ask a teacher or student from another class for an opinion: Can students reach the books easily? Are there enough materials with enough variety? Ask yourself and your students "How can I make our library more appealing?"

Have you set expectations and opportunities for students to use your classroom library?
Take 5-10 minutes daily or weekly to promote the collection and student selection. Use the library yourself (for research, read alouds, and book talks) so students see its value. Even the best classroom library is worthless if it just gathers dust.

With the above guidelines, you can create a classroom library students will turn to for information, research, pleasure, and comfort. Let the ideas expand your collection or create a new resource for your students. Most importantly, use your library to increase opportunities for student learning and engagement, and to turn them on to the power of reading.

MORE RESOURCES

See the following for more help choosing appropriate text for your classroom library:

For a more unique, appealing collection, also try books from small regional publishers, such as Peachtree of Atlanta, Georgia, Sleeping Bear Press of Chelsea, Michigan, and Rising Moon, of Flagstaff, Arizona.

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"The policy of having large classroom libraries was found to be 'one of the most important differential policies between high-scoring and low-scoring countries' . . . a powerful indicator for both nine-year-olds and fourteen-year-olds." So says an international study by the Australian School Library Association ( Report on the Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement).