Creating Enthusiastic Independent Readers

As I was doing my Personal History for reading, I learned a lot about myself and my outlook as a reading teacher. I have grown up an enthusiastic reader, and I want to instill that same love of reading into my students. This chapter focuses on methods to excite and involve kids in Independent reading.

One of the most important aspects of reading education is assessing your students view on reading as a whole. One suggestion is giving the kids a status check, asking them about their feelings toward books, their favorite books, and more. While I like being able to see progress throughout the year, I would be wary of making kids feel like their being tested over their enjoyment of reading.

Another important aspect of reading is teacher Read-Alouds. I was always read to as a young child, and I remember being very excited about my teachers reading in our classrooms. I found it interesting that females prefer fiction while males prefer information books. I really think it is important to read a variety of materials from all different genres as well as offering these different types to kids for independent reading time. I also think it is necessary to encourage parents to read aloud to their kids as well at home. Not only does this give kids more opportunities to read and hear more words, but also the encouragement from parents is a huge factor in success at school. 

I also think that reading books in a series or an author with more books is a great idea. It makes sense that kids want to read the books that their teacher reads, and giving them other materials similar to the read aloud is a great way to get them excited about reading. 

In order to keep a balanced and interesting read aloud schedule, I think it is important for teachers to plan their readings for the year and keep a record of what they read. I also think that it is a great idea to journal about the experiences during the read aloud sessions and what books kids particularly enjoyed. I really like the idea of having a "book wall" in which kids can rate how well they like or didn't like a book. I think it would give me feedback on what they enjoy and what's working while giving my kids a chance to express themselves. 

Another great way to encourage reading is the Buddy System. When a child is falling behind in reading, they often don't want to be seen reading "baby books". In order to keep them reading at their level, and hopefully get them to move forward, introducing a Buddy System seems like a great option. I think getting them to read to kindergarten kids is a great way to 1) motivate them to read more at their level and 2) set a good example for the little kids on how fun reading can be! 

One of the most important parts of creating good independent readers is giving them time to read independently in class. Allowing kids to choose the books they want to read and giving them ample time to read them is key to getting kids excited about books. I learned about the "no wandering" rule, and I found it very interesting. It makes sense that when kids wander around looking for a books 1) they aren't reading themselves and 2)they are distracting others who are trying to read.

I really liked the idea of the "book crates" system with other teachers. As a new and young teacher, it is hard to have an extensively large library that will interest and keep up with my students all year long. As my career continues, I do want a large classroom library, but it is hard to buy a large amount of books at the beginning. I think the book crates system makes a much larger selection of books for the classroom while creating excitement for students. 

Another interesting subject I learned was Independent Reading Conferences. The idea is to give the kids a chance to share their favorite parts of the books they are reading while assessing how the are improving, encourage their interests, and help them pick out new books to read. It is important not to make it feel like an interrogation, and keep a positive attitude. The idea is to put the responsibility of preparing for the conferences on the students.  The books gives me these kind of instructions for students to complete before conferences each week:

1. Choose the book or magazine you want to share.
2. Pick a part to read to me and practice this part.
3. Write the title and page number on a bookmark and put the bookmark in the right place. 
4. Think about what you want to talk to me about. Some possibilities are:

• What you like about this book
• Why you chose to read this part to me
• What you think will happen (if you haven't finished the book)
• What you are thinking about sharing with me next week
• Who you think would also like this book