Time to read what they want

In chapter 4 of Reading Essentials, Routman lists the top five things she does to ensure her students become excellent readers. On this list is, “Let students choose books they want to read and give them time to read them.” I saw the power of this with a group of first graders I worked with last year.

These students were below grade level and were pulled out for a reading group. At first, another paraeducator and I worked with the kids on phonics activities and guided reading groups in leveled texts. The kids spent half the time working individually on things like picture sorts. The other half was spent in their reading group. They didn’t seem to be making great progress so we decided to change our tactic.

We gave the students one book at their instructional level, which we introduced in a small group. Then we had them to read the book two times to themselves as we listened in a little to each child and offered support as needed. Next the students had to read the whole book to an adult. Before and after we worked with their small group, we let the kids choose whatever books they wanted from tubs of books at their independent level. Some of these were books we had read in the small group before. Again we had them read these through two times themselves before reading them to an adult (thank goodness we had a volunteer!). For each book they completed they got a sticker on a chart. After ten stickers they got an eraser or pencil. Some kids made it through two or three books self-selected books during our reading time. The kids got to take home both the book that was read in the small group and one they selected themselves. They read these to a parent and brought them back the next day.

Suddenly the kids reading started taking off. They were having the opportunity to choose their own books and were finding ones that interested them. They spent more time engaged in their reading, both because they liked picking their own books and because they liked the individual adult interaction. And the stickers didn’t hurt. It was amazing! So why does Put Reading First advise against giving students lots of independent reading time? But that's a whole other conversation...