From Heinemann's website

The Teacher Tip

Help Students Grow As Independent Readers

August 22, 2016

Adapted from Not This But That: No More Independent Reading Without Support by Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss.

For students to achieve the skill levels we hope for, their independent reading needs to be supported by a collection of effective practices. What are these practices?

To grow as independent readers, students need:

·         Classroom time to read. If our goal is for students to read independently, then we have to make it a practice that happens during class.

·         To choose what they read. It is important that we balance school reading opportunities with choice reading opportunities. Self-selected reading is twice as powerful as teacher-selected reading in developing reading comprehension.

·         Explicit instruction about what, why, and how readers read. Have students read one book from a bunch of different genres, including fantasy, mystery, science fiction, folktale, poetry, realistic fiction, biography, informational, historical fiction, and fairy tale.

·         To read a lot: a large number of books and variety of texts. By increasing reading volume, students can improve reading achievement.

·         Access to texts. Host independent reading time in the library. Literacy knowledge develops from different literacy experiences. For children to find things they want to read, they need access to lots of materials.

·         Teacher monitoring, assessment, and support during independent reading. Confer with students during or after reading time. Have your students share their reading in some way.

·         To talk about what they need. Text discussions can enhance critical thinking, metacognition, and the ability to structure arguments.

Student growth happens when these practices exist together.

From Not This But That: No More Independent Reading Without Support by Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss.