I know I’m a little late to the party when it comes to really committing to independent reading. It’s my 9th year of teaching, and this is the first time we’ve done it for more than one unit.

My students are doing independent reading three times a week this year with books of their choice. We read on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as a warm up. (On Tuesdays, we work on arguments-writing claims, finding arguments in the world, working on logic and reasoning, and more. On Thursdays, we write creatively.)

I try to always model reading for my students while also monitoring their reading progress. Then, we talk about our books for a few minutes. So far, we’ve been mostly doing whole class discussions, but I’m not hearing a lot of different voices. I think I’ll try smaller group discussions and maybe two-person dialogue journaling next card-marking to engage more students in the discussion.

I am loving independent reading time. I look up from my book, and of course I see some fake reading and some blatant non-reading, but for the most part, I see students absorbed in stories that interest them. So far, I’ve read All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely and Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli, and my students have finished quite a few books, including The Hate U Give, 8th Grade Bites, The Fault in Our Stars, and many others. I have one particular class that is always asking for more time to read, and I have students bringing me suggestions of what I should read next. A student just brought me three books to read. They’re based on Disney movies, but they retell the story from a different point of view. Right now, I’m reading The Beast Within, which is Beauty and the Beast from the Beast’s side of the story.

So, why did it take me so long to get on board? I’ve tried before, and it just hasn’t worked well for me. I think a lot of the success this year has to do with my new school. Here are some things that have made it easy to finally make independent reading a consistent part of my teaching practice:

• My school has a library. This year is the first time that I have ever taught in a building with a library, and it makes such a difference. I have a pretty extensive classroom library, but there is no way that it could rival a well-stocked school library with a full time librarian. If a student can’t find something to read in my room, they aren’t out of luck. They have hundreds more options and I have a great ally to help them find something they’re interested in.
• My evaluating administrator values independent reading. He came in for my first unannounced observation, and students were reading like they do at the beginning of class three times every week. Then, they journaled about what they read for a couple of minutes. In his comments, he told me that he thinks giving students time to read books of their choice on their own is one of the best ways to help them improve their reading stamina, word recognition, and comprehension. I already know that, but it is so validating and encouraging to hear it from an administrator.
• My whole department has already built a strong culture of readers. I teach 10th and 11th graders, so before they come to me, they’ve already had at least one other teacher who requires independent reading and who encourages them to read in class. All of us have extensive classroom libraries. Many of us use strategies like book passes (or “speed dating with books”) and book talks to raise awareness of books and interest in reading them. It is so easy to step in and start with independent reading when everyone else is already doing it.

If you’re struggling to get independent reading going in your classroom, don’t give up. It took me 9 tries to get it to go this well, and I’m glad that I kept trying. I will continue to support and advocate for the culture of reading that we have built in my building, because I know how much of a difference it has made for me as a teacher and I know how much of a difference it makes for our students.