Tips for Successful Independent Reading Sessions
Enjoy these wonderful tips on gaining success in Independent Reading sessions adapted from the work of accomplished educator, Diane Snowball.
- Regular sustained Independent Reading sessions, ideally 15-30 minutes (longer for older students), improve students' reading skills.
- Access to various texts at school and home is crucial, organised libraries facilitate this.
- Students should have multiple reading materials available to choose from.
- Silent reading is beneficial, but occasional reading aloud or thinking aloud aids comprehension.
- Students should engage in 'quiet Independent Reading time' with opportunities for discussion.
- Teaching self-selection of 'just-right' materials fosters independence and value in reading.
- Rereading texts benefits beginners and ESL students, modelling helps.
- Independent Reading follows demonstration or explicit teaching, part of primary school reading block.
- Writing conferences complement reading conferences to understand students' literacy.
- Sharing sessions at the end of reading blocks enhance understanding and foster book clubs.
- Reading and writing development are linked, projects can follow up on reading, not limited to book reports.
- Writing may be inspired by Independent Reading, such as research or modelling after mentor texts or genres.
'Just Right' books
- Independent Reading means reading with 95%+ accuracy and understanding.
- Even with lower accuracy, understanding is key.
- Choose 'just right' texts for Independent Reading to grasp content easily.
- Factors affecting comprehension:
- Knowledge of the topic.
- Vocabulary understanding.
- Reader's fluency and comprehension strategies.
- Author's style and genre familiarity.
- Layout, visuals, text length, and purpose.
- Teach students to judge difficulty using these factors, not just by unknown words.
- Understanding grows as one reads further, so don't dismiss a text too quickly.
- Teach text difficulty throughout school years via modelling and discussion in Shared Reading.
- Consider personal experiences' impact on text difficulty for different people.
Questions about reading easy and challenging texts
- Students should read both easy and challenging materials with purpose.
- Reading selections depend on time, mood, and personal goals.
- Enjoying easy reading is beneficial.
- Trying challenging texts boosts vocabulary and interest.
- Rereading helps improve fluency and comprehension.
- Comprehension often improves with multiple readings.
- Knowing when unknown vocabulary affects understanding is crucial.
- Personal interest in a topic, author, or genre can motivate tackling more challenging texts.
Tips for beginning readers or ELL students
Beginning readers and ELL students can develop English language concepts and word knowledge with these activities:
- Matching sentence strips to full text or sequencing them.
- Matching words to a sentence strip and reading it.
- Reading class poems and rhymes.
- Reading print in the classroom.
- Rereading enlarged texts from Shared Reading.
RESOURCES
- PDF: Independent Reading - PDF Reading
- PDF: Importance of Independent Reading: Statements from Research - PDF Reading
- PODCAST: The Value of Independent Reading - Podcast
IN EASY LANGUAGE FOR A CHILD TO UNDERSTAND
- Reading by yourself every day for a little while, like 15 to 30 minutes (a bit longer for older kids), helps you get better at reading.
- Having lots of different books at school and home is important. When books are in neat places, it's easier to find them.
- You should have many books to pick from.
- Reading quietly is good, but sometimes reading out loud or talking about what you read helps you understand better.
- Spending time reading quietly with a chance to talk about what you read is called 'quiet Independent Reading time.'
- Learning to choose the right books for you makes you better at reading on your own.
- Reading the same books again is helpful, especially if you're just starting or learning English. Watching someone read can also help you.
- After teachers show or explain something in class, you'll get to read by yourself. It's part of the time we spend learning to read in school.
- Talking about writing and reading together helps teachers understand how good you are at reading.
- At the end of reading time, we share what we learned or liked. It's fun and helps us find books we might enjoy together.
- Learning to read and write go together. Sometimes, after reading, we do writing related to what we read. It's not just about writing book reports!
- Sometimes, reading can give us ideas for writing. We might write about what we learned or pretend to be like the authors we read.