Independent Reading & Freebie!

Do you incorporate independent reading into your daily or weekly schedule? It's always been in our schedule, but is also often the first thing to get squeezed out when "something" happens (like all those snow days!). Several teachers use that odd amount of minutes between breakfast and morning meeting/message and some teachers use the last few minutes of the school day when it can be total chaos a very busy time. 

A couple months ago, we starting making a push on the first grade team for building our independent reading stamina. 

Our goal is 30 minutes by June!  

Does that amount of time seem too low, high, or just right?

I have to admit, I felt a bit doubtful at first. Don't get me wrong...

I was definitely going to give it 100%. I was a little concerned though, so I took a baseline of where my reading intervention group was at:

Single. Digits.

Yup. And not like 8 or 9, more like 2 or 3!!!

I back-tracked a bit and explicitly taught what real reading entails (vs. "fake" reading). Then we practiced, practiced, and practiced tracking our stamina with this (freebie) chart:

It's not the greatest chart and I will be reflecting on it this summer to tweak it. I color in a box for every 2 minutes of independent "real" reading. We use egg timers and if they stop reading, they could start again by flipping over their timer. It took a few tries with students staring at the timer or "fake" reading. But soon they got the hang of it! Students averaged 4-6 boxes at first (I'm stingy), but really showed grit to stick with it and earn more! I color using a variety of Scentos so it looks (and smells) enticing. Students being involved in tracking their own data also makes a BIG difference!

It also doesn't hurt that I spent my paycheck on a huge variety of engaging books. I use a lot of the Step Into series, National Geographic for Kids, and Dr. Seuss. The majority of these books are slightly above my students' level., so I also mix in Levels A-D Guided Reading books from Scholastic. I put 6-8 books in canvas bags and my students selected one bag for independent reading during Power Hour. 

Side note: students have books at their current reading level in their homeroom seat sacks, too. 

Fast forward a few months and I can't believe the success we're having!

Check out these pictures from today:

I wish I could have taken a picture of the entire room. There were children spread out everywhere completely absorbed in their books. It was one of those moments I'll always remember!

Thanks for letting me brag about these firsties :)

For more freebies, please check out one of my absolute fave blogs: