Making the Most of Independent Reading

greetings my name is Laurie Jamison and am the education director for high interest publishing publisher of fiction for struggling and reluctant readers in grades 4 through 12 and beyond also create the weekly hip tips because we at high interest publishing believe we should support not only our struggling readers but the teachers who teach them those of you who have subscribed for hip tips for the last few years will know that just can't let the startup school go by without mentioning how to make the most of our independent sustained silent reading programs what most of you won't remember is that about 20 years ago huge meta-analysis of the research on literacy instruction reported that it could find no evidence that independence sustained silent reading helped make our kids better readers well needless to say this shocked the reading world and many scholars questioned the parameters of the research however it gave all of us pause to revisit our independent reading programs and take look at whether or not they were doing what we hoped they were doing and that is to help our kids become better readers well what we found won't surprise any of you it we found that too many kids simply were not reading during reading time they were faking it they were flipping through books they were looking at pictures they were standing at the bookshelf picking book for the whole of reading time anything but actually engaging with text so Reacher researchers are telling us that if we want our independent reading programs to be successful and make difference we need to make our students accountable for actually reading during reading time for me there are there are three ways that do this and one is to help my kids find books that they're interested in and can actually read another is to help them record their ideas in reading log now have never been big fan of using reading time to be writing down titles of books and let's face it nobody ever became better reader making the diorama but find quick and simple reading log that is just what were you reading how many pages did you finish it did you like it was it easier hard gives me such useful information about what my students are doing in reading time that think that it bears implementing this you can find simple reading log on our website that's chai - books comm under the teacher section look for making the most of your independent reading program and the third thing that is my new favorite thing to do actually is what just call two minutes to talk and it's exactly that provide the students with two minutes at the end of reading time to talk with partner about what they read whether they enjoyed it or didn't what they're wondering was something difficult are they going to continue reading you can find information about this and much much more on our hip website IP - ebooks.com go to the teacher section for more information my name is Lori Jameson have the great privilege of speaking at conferences and teacher professional development events all over North America if you're interested in talking to me about coming to your district please feel free to contact me at info at hip - books comm or simply through the contact on our website wishing you wonderful school year and happy reading