1. Set Expectations and Stick with Them
Many teachers, at the beginning of the year, set strict expectations for independent reading. Some expectations might look like daily/weekly reading logs, quarterly conferencing (link to my Book Life Reading Life conference forms here), or even just 20 minutes of daily reading homework outside of class. While it is awesome to start the school year strong with those expectations, you cannot experience true growth in your classroom without explicit follow-through and consistency in these routines. Building those expectations into your daily routine and modeling them in your own habits will show your students that you value reading and see it as a worthwhile use of your own time.
Show your students that you value reading and see it as a worthwhile use of your own time.
In my classroom, I build ten minutes into our daily routine on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for my students to take out their independent reading books and just read. During this time, I will take their reading status, using a class roster, asking them to tell me the title and page number they are currently on. Simple, right? I keep these rosters in my records and use them to investigate growth and encourage accountability for their reading habits. In the face of distance learning, I have created Google Forms for my students to document their independent reading status instead of the class rosters I typically use. In these Google Forms, I ask my students for the title and author of their current choice book, the number of pages they have read that day, as well as a brief summary of their reading. If I have the time, I will make a separate copy of the form for each student and link them all in a spreadsheet, so I can individually assess their data. However, it is also efficient to simply separate each class period. You can pick up your exclusive, free copy of these forms here.
After I finish taking status, I, too, will take out my independent reading book and read alongside them. By reading, I am modeling the value of books, and I take the opportunity to share any meaningful or entertaining passages with them during this valuable reading time. This approach makes reading a social experience where we recommend, discuss and share as a community of learners. I also leave my choice book accessible at the front of the classroom where students can check it out and read the back cover should they so choose.
2. Introduce Book Talks
To promote independent reading, book talks are a great way to highlight different, diverse, and engaging titles for your students to check out. The trick with book talks is to introduce them and utilize them frequently during the beginning of the school year with occasional maintenance throughout. This way, students will have a plethora of specific options to proactively check out instead of feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of books available to borrow and wandering blind through the stacks for their reading choices. This is also a great opportunity for cross-curricular teaching. For example, during our science fiction unit, I asked the science teacher on my small group teaching team (with all the same students) to begin sci-fi book talks at the beginning of her classes for a couple of weeks. She would choose books that had plots or themes relevant to their studies in science class and share a bit about them and the characters. This cross-curricular strategy built up anticipation in the students for our ELA sci-fi unit AND modeled how our reading skills are useful in other settings/content areas as well. She was a huge asset to our sci-fi unit's independent reading goals, and the students absolutely loved hearing her recommendations for new choice books.
Students will have a plethora of specific options to proactively check out instead of feeling overwhelmed, wandering blind through the stacks.
Another trick with implementing book talks is to make sure you introduce a variety of genres, reading levels, and types of novels (Don't forget graphic novels!) to accommodate the very unique mix of students in your classrooms. Librarians are a tremendous help with this! As an English teacher, I cannot recommend enough getting to know your media center attendants and working closely with your librarians. They often know about newer YA/Middle grade novel options, where to look for richly diverse literature, and, sometimes, are even open to doing their own book talks that will interest your students and help them find engaging choice books.
If you are interested in some FREE, ready-to-go book talks to use in your classroom, check out my YouTube Channel where I record new book talks each and every Tuesday at 8:00 am EST (link available here). In these book talks, I share new and diverse Young Adult and Middle Grade novels that you and your students are sure to sink your teeth into. I also share a bit about the characters and personally read some engaging excerpts of the books themselves. These book talks can be used as a model for which students can create their own book talks about one of their choice books. By encouraging students to create their own book talks, you can further foster a classroom community of sharing, discussion, and literacy as they find their own love for literature.
3. Host Book Tastings
Book tastings are fun activities that allow students to sample or "taste" different novels and/or experiment with new genres. Hosting book tastings in your classroom will help you provide students the opportunity to explore new books for their independent reading/literature circles as you continue to foster their book love. You can use these activities to guide your students as they try out new books, testing the water with different genres. Book tastings are even awesome to preview whole class novels for the school year, getting them excited and hyping up the class before you start your latest anchor text. If you wanted to even implement a bit more choice with your anchor texts, hosting a book tasting and allowing the students to vote on which whole class novel they want to start with can be a great idea.
An exciting part about book tastings is the freedom with which you can implement and design the activity. I have used a Starbucks cafe theme for my book tastings with themed menus, posters, and table toppers (link available here). I have also used cat-themed and puppy-themed book tastings with fun designs and images (link available here). You can even go a step farther with this activity by playing ambiance music to fit the theme and/or bringing in table cloths or other "props" that can be bought pretty cheaply at the dollar store. These "homey" touches make all the difference in engaging your students as they sample different novels.
Even with the challenges imposed by distance learning, we can still host book tastings for our classes. You can host a VIRTUAL book tasting with customizable Book Tasting Google Slides (including the Book Tasting Menu available digitally embedded in the slides), using pre-recorded book talks for the genre "courses" that will help you provide students the opportunity to explore new books for their independent reading/literature circles as you continue to foster their book love even in the face of distance and/or online learning. Use this ready-to-go digital Book Tasting Activity (link available here) to guide your students from afar as they try out new books, testing the water with different genres. The slides are embedded into the theme of the Google Slides so you can edit them with ease to include your own Bitmoji, making it more relatable to those kiddos. Plus, the digitized menu is customized so that you can easily interchange and differentiate your chosen genres for each Book Tasting Session. This virtual book tasting is almost like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" game of the book tasting world.
I hope these tips and teaching strategies will get you started as you kick-start your independent reading curriculum this year. Remember, as English teachers, we often serve as literary matchmakers for our students and books they will, hopefully, love! Keeping these tips in mind, I hope we can all better encourage choice in our classrooms and foster book love in our students. Thanks for reading and please comment your thoughts below! How have you kick-started independent reading in YOUR classroom? Is there anything we might have missed?
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