Are you looking for independent reading activities to hold students more accountable? Do you feel that independent reading isn’t a beneficial use of your time? You are not alone! This time can be extremely valuable for you and your students, if done correctly. Keep reading for tips and activities to improve student accountability.
Tips for Accountability
The reality is it can be tempting to check your email or work on another task as students read quietly. But hold yourself accountable to make it an effective use of your time! When students realize you’re not paying attention to them and there is no accountability, they will not be actively engaged in reading. These tips for student accountability will help make your independent reading time more beneficial.
Set a Purpose for Reading
If students do not know what is expected, they will not be as productive. They need to know their purpose for reading. It could be practicing the focus strategy from the minilesson or just reading for fun. (Keep reading for more specific ideas) You can hold students accountable for these tasks with a simple exit ticket at the end of reading workshop. They can write what they learned or rate their productivity that day.
Check Their Work
There is no point in assigning something if you’re never going to look at it. This sends students the message that the work you assign during independent reading isn’t valuable. They will think it doesn’t matter so they won’t put in the effort.
You do not have to assign a grade to it but have some way of holding them accountable. It could be as simple as providing time for students to share their thinking about their book at the end of reading workshop. Give students a few minutes to share something they learned with a partner. Or every so often look in their readers notebooks and provide a comment about their written reflections.
Offer Choice
Students should be given choices during independent reading. They should be choosing the books they read, how they respond to the text, or where they sit. You may want to change up the type of activities they complete to maintain their interest.
Introduce students to new books they can choose from through book talks. Simply offering choices, instantly improves students’ engagement and motivation.
Confer with Readers
Independent reading is the perfect opportunity to confer with readers. This is your time to check in with individual students to learn about them as readers. During this time you can talk about their reading, establish a goal, and provide a quick teaching point. Anecdotal notes are a great way to keep track of your reading conferences.
Independent Reading Activities
These independent reading activities will provide student accountability. Plus they’ll also improve student engagement and motivation during that time. Win-Win!
Plan For Reading
Hold students accountable by having them make a plan for their reading that day. They can work on the reading goal established in your reading conference or practice the focus skill from your minilesson. You may want to have a recording sheet for their goals or just dedicate a page in their readers’ notebooks to quickly jot the purpose for reading each day.
Reading challenges are a fun way to change up the daily plan for reading. Students’ goals could be to read a variety of genres, try a new author, or read about a distant location.
Think about Reading
We need to help students actively think about the text as they read. Because if they’re not thinking about it, then what’s the point in reading? These are the students you’ll see walking around the room, talking to a buddy or staring off into space. They need reminders of strategies they can implement to keep them more accountable during independent reading. There are reading posters you can use to help remind students to actively monitor comprehension as they read.
See, Think, Wonder is my favorite way to get students thinking about their reading. Students can also use retelling strategies to think while reading: Stop Think Paraphrase, Stop and Jot, or Stop and Sketch. Students can keep small copies of reading posters in readers’ notebooks or use bookmarks as a reminder of the thinking they should be doing as they read.
Write about Reading
Having students write about their reading is a great way to visually hold them accountable. You can easily see at the end of reading workshop just how much a student accomplished. Keep in mind the ultimate goal is for students to be reading, so you want to assign writing tasks sparingly. Or at least make sure they don’t take too much time.
Quick written responses work best for independent reading time. They hold students accountable but yet still offer plenty of time to read.
You can provide reading response prompts that students can record in their readers notebooks. Graphics organizers are easy way for students to record their thinking and practice the reading focus from your minilesson. You can also provide choice boards that offer various writing options such as writing a book report or letter to a friend about a book they read.
Talk about Reading
Provide students with time at the end of reading workshop to talk about their reading. Tell a buddy what they learned about themselves as a reader that day or an interesting fact they discovered. Students are instantly held more accountable when they know they will have to tell someone about their reading.
Book Talks and book reviews are fun ways to get students talking about their books. Dedicate a few minutes each day/week for students to share about books they’ve read!
What other tips and independent reading activities have you found that hold students more accountable? Share in the comments so we can learn together!
You can also get started using the Monitoring Comprehension Posters in your classroom! Or download the free Good Fit Books Reading Posters below!
Want to Learn More?
Check out the other blog posts in the independent reading series!
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