Reading is EVERYTHING!

Independent reading is everything. I will be addressing this all year, as I embark on another year with 5th grade readers. I find inspiration in many places, and the past couple of years I’ve leaned into Donalyn Miller’s work, most notable Reading in the Wild.

I wrote an article on independent reading a while back for Heinemann Digital Campus that I will share:

Reading Is Not Optional

Helping Your Students Commit to Independent Reading

Lucy Calkins, Dick Allington, Donna Santman, Cunningham and Stanovich, Randy Bomer, and Walter Dean Myers are just a few of the informed voices who remind us how essential independent reading is to student success. Yet it can be a struggle for teachers to translate this information into a classroom of thriving independent readers. We know what doesn’t work—requiring parent signatures on fifth graders’ reading logs, publicly posting nightly reading requirements, withholding recess for noncompliance. All these are actions that have little to do with the relationship between our students and the printed word. So we ask ourselves, What are the behaviors of independent readers, and how can we support students in owning these behaviors as part of their identity? How can we help them know that reading is not optional but instead is essential, not just to them but for them?

Read the rest of the article here on Heinemann Digital Campus.

Share your thoughts….what’s working for you? How do you support independent reading with your students?