We know that teacher support during independent reading can greatly impact the growth and development of beginning readers. However, the rapid conversion to online learning in the 2020-2021 school year required teachers to rethink and retool traditional strategies to meet the needs of their online learners. This teaching and learning guide…

This study explores the relationship between the books students select for independent reading and their motivation to read. Instructional recommendations based on key findings are presented. To gather data, study participants completed the Motivation to Read Profile-Revised. They also shared information about the books they had selected for…

If you were to walk into this second-grade classroom during reading workshop, you would notice students reading books specific to their reading level and interest. You would also notice students using different tools to support their reading development. One of the teacher's goals is to help students become independent readers who are able to…

Enjoyment of reading books is related to reading proficiency, and fostering students' enjoyment of reading is imperative to support continued reading engagement. However, not all students understand that reading is important, and not all students are regularly engaged in recreational reading. Children typically read for pleasure less often as they…

In this article, I focus on three areas of reading assessment that I believe to be crucial for students' reading development: developing comprehensive formative assessments, assessing the wide array of factors that contribute to students' reading development, and fostering student independence by helping students learn to use reading assessment on…

This article explains how to create and use a daybook in the literacy classroom. Readers learn what a daybook is, how the daybook in one fourth and fifth grade classroom is structured, and how students in this classroom use that daybook during reading instruction to engage, record important information, and discuss a text.

The author, a veteran second-grade teacher, has spent the past three years developing a system to help her students find appropriate books to read during independent reading time. The article describes how the CLICKS system evolved and how to introduce it to a classroom of young readers. (Contains 7 figures.)

This teaching tip manuscript demonstrates how picture book illustrations can be used as an inquiry tool that facilitates one's connecting of visual investigations in a picture to the process of generating self-questions. Techniques suggested to promote self-questioning are (1) introducing young readers to an interactive picture book read aloud…

Since Emmett Betts first devised a framework of independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels in the 1940s, these levels have played a large role in classroom assessment and instruction. It is important for teachers to have a deep understanding of the research that supports the reading level framework. This article identifies four key…

It is common for many students with developmental disabilities to demonstrate characteristics of emergent readers beyond kindergarten and first grade, even if they are members of classes that offer many rich literacy opportunities. This article proposes a lesson frame for intensive reading instruction for students with developmental disabilities…

This article summarizes conclusions reached regarding the independent reading perspectives and practices of eight elementary teachers, acknowledging the significant role teacher understandings and practices play on the literacy learning process and specifically on classroom independent reading. The commonalities in beliefs and practices regarding…

The author discusses how FitLit, children's literature that spotlights the multiple aspects of health and well-being, offers a vehicle for integrating reading and fitness into existing classroom routines such as guided reading, read-alouds, independent reading, and reading and writing workshop. Sample FitLit titles are provided as well as a…

Since the National Reading Panel presented its 2000 report, systematic and explicit strategy instruction has been featured in the scope and sequence chart of basals, the lesson plans of guided reading groups, and the headlines of workshop brochures. Sticky note responses have become a classroom staple, and teacher read-alouds are now synonymous…

The reading workshop approach has been found to successfully improve students' reading comprehension and attitudes toward reading. "Reading workshop" is a term that initially referred to reading sessions that encouraged and supported the independent reading of literature, and it traditionally included reading minilessons, independent silent…

The struggling second and third graders in this mixed methods study increased their reading comprehension after a 10-week Readers Theatre podcasting project. Podcasting made the students aware of a wider audience, which enhanced the authenticity and social nature of the strategy, and made their performances permanent so they could be stored and…