Book Selection for Independent Reading: Reading Conferences "Yes"—Book Shopping Days "No"

Let me state right off that while I’m a huge fan of shopping—for clothes, shoes, cosmetics, etc.—I’m not a fan of book shopping days where young children go off to select books for independent reading from a basket of leveled texts. Quite often the results don’t match our expectations. Even though the books are “at their level,” children often have trouble reading them “cold” with the recommended 98 to 99 percent word accuracy. And the teacher misses the opportunity to guide students’ selections and help them work out some of the books’ more challenging aspects. Words, organization, or design, for example. This absence of teacher guidance and feedback is unfortunate.

That’s why I build book return and selection into our reading conferences. If children are emergent and early readers I either go with them to the leveled pots or bring several baskets to the conference table. Then I direct the child to select a couple she might like to try, and I also select a few I think might be a good match. From these pre-selected titles, the child selects three of four she’d like to have in her bag. Then she might have a go at reading several pages of one of them. This gives me an idea of how challenging or supportive the text in fact is. When children are transitional or fluent readers, they anticipate that they’ll be exchanging books that day and come to the conference with several titles in hand.

During the reading conference, we also discuss nonfiction topics the child is interested in learning more about, or I refer to the book preference notes I’ve already recorded in her reading notebook or to the reading inventory which accompany the child to the conference via the reading folder. Children can select “look” books that, while too difficult to read word-for-word, can provide interesting information through pictures and other text features.

The ability to independently choose books that are a good match to ability, interest, etc., is a skill that develops over time with teacher guidance and feedback. I have more input into children’s selection when they’re just starting off and gradually hand over more of the responsibility to them. (Please recall from my post on April 26 that during the first independent reading time of day children can read any book they want, regardless of level.) In addition, I teach students how to select books throughout the year during mini-lessons, and I excite them about the possibilities through the book talks I provide.

Independent Reading—Balancing Choice and Just-Right Reading Materials

We know that choice is an important component of independent reading. And so is having children read just-right materials. But how do we find the balance between the two, especially when we consider the challenges of children who are just learning to read?

Years ago, one of the ways I found the balance was by having two distinct independent reading times of day. During the first independent reading (the first 20 minutes at the start of the day), children were allowed to select and read any texts their little hearts desired. Too easy, too hard, just right—it didn’t matter. Then to counterbalance that, during the second independent reading time, children could read books from their book bag, most of which were just-right texts that I helped them select during their one-to-one reading conference. That worked just fine and both choice and just-right materials were accounted for.

More recently, I encourage teachers to consider this balance within the reading workshop itself since so few are able to make time for two independent reading times each day with all they have to do. This means that children will need to have a mix of easy, just-right, and “look” books in their bags.

Easy books: Since only half of the books in children’s bag are returned each time we confer to be replaced with new selections, the “older” half are ones they love and want to hang onto or those they need to get better at reading. At times they may be individual titles that somehow speak to children personally (we all have those kinds of books, right?) or they’re on topics they can’t quite get enough of.

Just-right books: These are books that children can read with 97-99 percent word accuracy. (Allington says 98 to 99 percent but I find that 97 percent is sometimes even hard to pull off.) Quite simply it’s difficult for children to practice skills and strategies they’re trying to acquire when texts are more difficult than this.

“Look” books: These are books that are too difficult for children to read on their own, but ones they can glean a lot from by simply looking at the pictures and reading snippets of text. Most often (since you can’t read snippets of a story and come away understanding it) these are informational texts.

[Considering the types of books children need to have in their bag to balance opportunities for choice and just-right texts, my next post will address reading conferences as the opportunity to provide for both.]

Turn the Tables and Put Independent Reading "First"

All too often we try to fit independent reading into our schedule once all the other parts of our balanced literacy program are in place. We reason that since we're working with small groups of readers or conferring with students one-to-one, we'll simply let the other kids read and provide literacy centers to engage them and keep them busy. But we often don't buy into the important role that in-school independent reading can play in children's reading lives. Independent reading often becomes just something we give kids to do to fill the time. It's time, however, to turn the tables and put independent reading first...

Understanding the valuable contribution independent reading can make in children's reading lives is the first step in giving it the center-stage attention it deserves and improving its effectiveness. Independent reading allows students to practice the skills and strategies you've demonstrated throughout read-aloud, guided reading, and shared reading. It exposes them to background knowledge of new topics or deepens their knowledge of topics they're already passionate about. It exposes them to vocabulary and literary language they're not likely to hear during oral language exchanges. It shows them possibilities they have for their own writing. If an author of an informational text has included a scale drawing to compare the size of something they're learning about to something they already know, then why not try the same in their own writing. Opportunities to improve children's reading lives abound...and the first step is acknowledging they're there and then figuring out ways to actualize them.

Over the next couple weeks, I'll take a close-up look at various aspects of independent reading. In addition, if anyone has specific independent reading-related questions, please send them along.

Kids Have to Read a Lot to Get Better at It

As the school year draws to a close, it’s time to consider which areas of instruction we want to reflect on over the summer months and refine for the coming year. If I were asked this question, improving the quality of children’s independent reading times of day would be at the top of my list. Whether my students were emergent and early readers just starting out or more proficient readers who were refining their reading skills and strategies to embrace more complex text, providing them with opportunities to read voluminously under my guidance and direction would most definitely be a top priority.

Two books I highly recommend to support your thinking in this regard are Terry Young and Barbara Moss’s Creating Lifelong Readers Through Independent Reading and Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. The first, Creating Lifelong Readers Through Independent Reading, lays out the basics of why independent reading is vital to children reading success and how to set up a classroom environment to make it happen. It helps us consider all the teaching and learning possibilities that independent reading offers students and demonstrates how to incorporate strategy work and content-area learning into the mix.

Although many of you may have already read Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer, it’s certainly a title to pull down from your shelf and revisit. Its subtitle “Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child” just about says it all. Miller, a sixth-grade language arts and social studies teacher, reveals how year after year she moves her students to choose their own books, read voluminously, and acquire a passion for reading. However, it’s for sure not a “go read and I’ll see you later” approach. Miller shares with her students what she does as a reader, invites them to bring their own ideas to the table, and is intensely involved in every step of their journey. Her passion for reading and her empowerment of students make all the difference in the world.