That is unfortunate. Getting students engaged with print is critical to their reading development. I would also suggest you look to Richard Allington. He talks so logically about the importance and necessity of independent reading. I heard him in person 4-5 years ago and have been a believer in his work ever since. He also has some podcasts available that are very helpful.
I completely understand the accountability issue and used reading logs, as well, when I was in the classroom. The Daily 5 (Read to Self component) has been a huge influence in the building that I now work in. Teachers have studied this aspect in depth and spent much of the first semester last year working with our literacy coach in directly teaching students the expectations of independent reading time (which they called Read to Self), took time to model (just like in the Daily 5 book), practiced, worked on building stamina and then (this is critical) revisited and retaught the expectations/procedures on a periodic basis. Teachers who did not do this as often, found that things didn't go as well! No surprise to anyone, I'm sure. The students were also taught the critical importance of finding appropriate books and were held accountable for doing this. Getting this whole operation up and running took some time on the front end, but had huge pay off in the end! Good luck! Beth Bonner Language Arts Resource Specialist/Title 1 Reading -----Original Message----- From: cccatho <[email protected]> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, Aug 7, 2010 10:28 am Subject: [MOSAIC] Independent Reading I hope you can help! I need some sources (preferably current research) I can print off regarding elementary age kids independently reading during reading. My principal extremely dislikes seeing kids just reading. Accountability is huge. Last year I had the kids journal to me . . that was very enlightening! I had no problems with that. Independent reading seems to be a dirty phrase. Please help .. and ... thank you! Kathleen _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
