Bringing Independent Reading Back into Schools and Classrooms
Establish a Culture of Reading
I believe that successful schools demonstrate a visible commitment to literacy, valued by all stakeholders. This commitment begins at the school board level and trickles into the homes of readers. The catalyst being the classroom and interventions. To create a culture of reading, the prerequisite for other core content, a school department or district will ensure that:
●All students will be entitled to grade-level core instruction.
oAt a minimum, all classrooms will have one hour, fully inclusive, uninterrupted reading blocks that include instructional and independent reading, daily.
oClassrooms will maintain consistent, accountable, and documented reading expectations, and progress monitoring of daily reading engagement.
●Thirty to sixty minutes will be provided time after school and resources, daily, for students who demonstrate:
○Marginal reading engagement beyond the school day
○Deficient access to a wide range of text
●The school district will allocate a minimum of $1000 towards independent reading materials per classroom, per grade level, annually.
●Establish a children’s literature team to review trade books, audiobooks, classics, curriculum canons, newly published books, #weneeddiverse books, and appropriate online reading platforms.
●Provide professional development time to determine how children’s literature is best used, including new titles and appropriate content.
●Develop a “Reading Community Relations” committee and liaison to orchestrate monthly school-wide reading themes and parent nights.
Establish A Community of Readers
On most occasions, students are expected to read independently, alone. However, reading is a private act, learned socially (Beers and Probst, 2021; Stygles, 2022). When students belong, a part of a community, the likelihood is, they will be more inclined to read. Within the “Right to Read” proposed here, it’s my contention that a school community should include an array of activities contributing to a school-wide, sustainable culture (Table 5).
●Book Awards Wide Reading - Annual participation in the state’s Book Award and inspires an opportunity to read unfamiliar books. Books are purchased for classrooms and the school library from the lists published in April. Classroom (and perhaps school-wide) reading commences in January of the year of voting.
●Monthly Reading Themes and Parent Nights - Every month, the school-wide reading community will focus on a particular aspect of reading. Results will be shown through displays and parent nights. At the parent nights, students, teachers, and parents will read together as a community around these themes. A volunteer committee will be developed to carry out such tasks (See Table 5). The schedule will be published with the student handbook and various reminders throughout the year.
●Targeted Intervention for Wide Reading and Voluminous Reading - Through data collection such as oral reading, reading logs, reading conferences, and/or status of the class, students’ wide and voluminous reading will be regularly monitored to determine what students need additionally and/or in regard to supporting independent reading periods.
●Public Displays of Books Read- Presentations such as door posters and locker posters (Felt, Guerrette, and Stygles, 2015) will display the books children and staff are reading, creating conversation points with the community of readers.