Independent Reading: Keeping Students Engaged and Accountable

Buried in a good book (Photo by Jerry Wang on Unsplash)

Friday morning I looked out over my room of 6th and 7th graders, heads bent over their independent reading books, brows furrowed in concentration, flipping pages at intervals…and it made me happy to see them all buried in their books. When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Auggie and Me by Patricia Palaccio. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Allies by Alan Gratz. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. Genius: The Con by Leopold Gout. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.

Several people have been asking online recently how to keep students engaged and accountable with independent reading. I go really light on the accountability—that sort of kills the joy and undermines the part of “independent” where we’re aiming at a lifelong habit. And I certainly don’t write book reports on every book I finish—though I do love talking about them! Research shows that external motivation may increase performance in the moment, but actually leads to a decrease when the external pressure ceases. So here’s what I’ve been doing: 

(1) Tying it into the big picture: I always start by referring to a poster of reading reasons on the wall and remind students why it’s worth spending the time doing this. Not only is reading fun and relaxing, but also it expands knowledge, increases vocabulary, strengthens writing, nurtures empathy, and much, much more.

(2) Teaching something: Yesterday I reviewed genres and asked students to turn to their neighbor and tell them the genre they were reading. While we were doing this exercise, a student said he’d finished his book and needed a new one. I asked whether he’d like a recommendation in the same genre he’s been reading, or whether he’d like to try a new genre. He thought for a minute and asked if he could look at one of each—a book in his usual genre and one in a new genre. (Love using the words we’re learning!)

(3) Setting a reason for reading: Yesterday, I reminded them that reading expands our knowledge, so at the end of the period I was going to give them a couple of minutes to turn and talk to a neighbor about something they’d learned from their reading this morning. (Last week I reminded them that reading increases vocabulary, and even more if you’re reading like a writer for interesting, powerful words and phrases.  I gave them each a post-it note, and asked them to write down at least 1 powerful, interesting, or unknown word or phrase they came across in their reading. One student said at the end, “This book is like a dictionary with a plot!”)

(4) Tracking reading: I do this—not the kids. I just keep a notecard for each student, and at the beginning of each reading period, I make the rounds and quietly record the book and page number they’re on. I note the ones who aren’t making much progress and the ones who are burning through the books. Yesterday I had a conversation with a student who is reading considerably slower this term than last. I wanted to let her know it was fine to abandon the book if she was feeling bogged down. She told me there were a lot of words she didn’t know, so she wrote them down and looked them up when she got home, but she liked the book and wanted to keep reading it.

(5) Reading voraciously—middle grades books: I’ve been working hard on this since moving from high school to middle school a year ago. (See this blog and this blog to trace that journey.) I have to do this to know how to match-make for the students—what books to recommend to who (“There’s no such thing as a person who doesn’t like reading, just people who haven’t found the right book yet!”), and to be able to enthusiastically make those recommendations. Book love is caught as much as taught.  

(6) Reading while students read: Studies show that this is the biggest predictor of whether an independent reading program will succeed or fail. Life experience says if I tell the students reading is important and they should do it, but I grade papers during reading time, they’ll believe what I do over what I say. Yesterday I wasn't reading middle grades fiction--I happened to be reading Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. But that's okay--I can model adult reading, too.

(7) Sharing reading: Students know that before the end of the term, they'll need to present 1 short book talk to the class about something they've read--like they did last term.

In the fall trimester we read for 10 minutes per class period. (See my reflection on that here.) For the spring trimester, for a variety of reasons, that wasn’t going to work, so I shifted all the time to Fridays: Independent reading Fridays. I told students I thought their reading stamina was up to it, and they’ve proven me right! We seldom read for the entire 40 minutes. We have beginning mini-lessons and closing turn-and-talks. Sometimes I’ve allowed students to use the beginning of the period to finish some class work that didn’t get finished the day before. Some students are reading less overall—but some are reading more. The scheduling is an experiment and a work in progress, and it will be interesting to debrief with students at the end of the term, but I’m definitely sold on the commitment to independent reading time.