Planting the Seeds of a Reading Culture: Books and Time

Blinding flash of the obvious: If I want students to find a book they’ll be able to sink into, I need to give them books to explore and time to explore them. Here’s how I learned that, starting with 2 scenarios from last November.

• Period 1: Every student is settled into an independent reading book before the bell even rings. That silence? The sound of 6th and 7th graders reading. 
• Period 6: The bell rings and a few students are diving for their seats shouting, “Safe!” while others are proclaiming, “I’m ready!” I remind them that it is independent reading time. Some open their books and begin to read. Some jump up to dig through backpacks. A small, predictable group gathers around the book baskets to find a new book. Again. That chaos? The sound of 4th and 5th graders getting ready to read. Flow? Elusive. 

What is the difference? Mostly time and focus. Mine first, not theirs. First, it was 1 and 2/3 years ago that I moved into middle school and dove into reading, collecting, and sharing good middle school books. When we returned to in-person class in late spring of 2020, I began giving independent reading time. Since then, I’ve accumulated a small but powerful middle grades classroom library (see here, here, and here) and grown a culture of reading in my combined 6th and 7th grade class. 

When I moved into 4th and 5th last April, I had less familiarity with lower level books and less class time to invest. Due to Covid-19 adjustments, I had a shortened class period in which I focused on writing with short mentor texts, and I continued the pre-existing class protocol of independent reading for homework. 

Late in the fall, we returned to a full class period, and I hoped to just expand the at-home reading that was happening, giving additional time in class. It worked…for some students…and clearly not for others.     

My New Year’s resolution: See if I can make independent reading in 4th and 5th as successful as it is in 6th and 7th. This was sparked by participating in an online ed camp focused on choice reading. (See here for the content of Camp Choice Reading by Betsy Potash of Spark Creativity. What you missed was the incredible interaction of 300+ educators on the private Facebook group where Betsy asked me what the difference was between my 6/7 class and my 4/5 class, giving me the opportunity to think all this through.)

The first day back after Christmas, I held a book tasting. Not one of those Pinterest-worthy ones where teachers have set up a coffee shop ambiance. Just a pile of books on each row of student desks. Each pile included some higher-level reading ransacked from my 6th and 7th grade classroom library and some lower-level reading snagged from the school library—Magic Tree House, Encyclopedia Brown, Beverly Cleary, Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, Geronimo Stilton… I gave students 2 minutes to browse the books stacked on their row of 3 desks. Then they rotated to the next row. They could take one book. If they found another, they had to trade—leave one, take one. 

It took half the period. The next day, 13 students settled immediately into their independent reading book. Two asked if they could get another book. Sure—that’s part of the deal—if you finish, or don’t like your book, or find it too difficult, of course you can change. That’s what readers do.

The next day, as I want around and noted the book and page number for each student (something I do once a week for monitoring), I saw that 2 students were reading the only 2 books I have from Jason Reynolds’ Track series: Ghost and Patina. I told them there were 2 more books in the series, and if they were interested, I would get them. The way their eyes lit up. The incredulity in their response, “Really??!!” Enough to melt any English teacher’s heart. 

Then Covid. We’ve been online for 2 days, with at least 1 more to come. I’ve moved the independent reading to the last 10 minutes of the period and release them from the Google Meet to do it. I can’t monitor their engagement the way I can in person. But I’m encouraged. It doesn’t take that much—just a little time and focus—to plant the seed of a reading culture.