Independent Reading at Home

I’m in a workshop about reading instruction, and we’re discussing independent reading.  I’ve come across a few ideas that I wanted to share with you!  One was this simple graphic (right) that shows the value of independent reading at home.  Another point was a simple quote:

“When you dismissal the book a child is reading, you are dismissing the child.”

I often hear parents share comments like “I want my child to read real books.  All he reads is Captain Underpants!”  When we criticize the topic, series, or rigor of a text that a child has chosen, we are communicating a vote of “no confidence” in that child’s judgment. I’ve seen countless times in which an adult’s seemingly off-hand comment deflates a student’s confidence in reading or love of reading.  Let’s all be sure to choose our words wisely.

Another important point worth sharing is the idea that we need a balance between giving students autonomy of choosing a book and ensuring that students are choosing a “just right” book at their independent reading level.  There is merit to both, certainly, and an ideal balance might involve students choosing a book within a set of books at their reading level.  Our school (and, in specific, our classroom) is focusing on improving reading engagement.  Reading engagement is the degree to which students enjoy and value reading.  There are different ways we support reading engagement, but no matter what, we want students to enjoy what they’re reading, when at all possible.

 

Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss