Kelli Donald's Blog Post #4: Routman Chapter 6--Plan for and Monitor Independent Reading

I especially wanted read Routman's chapter on planning for independent reading because I have been working at fitting in productive independent reading into my routine each day.  The end of the introduction caught me right away when the author says, "just adding more time and space...is not enough" (83).  I have always heard throughout my career that to become a better reader, one must read.  I firmly believe that to be true, and the research is there to back up that statement as well.  As a teacher of all subjects, I have been struggling to implement meaningful IR time.  We independently read as much as we can, but I feel it is sporadic and often not long enough.  I have really made it a primary goal to make a more structured and routine IR block.  The most important take-away from this chapter for me was to make sure that students aren't just taking out a book and reading (or fake reading).  It is my job to instruct students what proper independent reading looks like, and to make sure my students have just right books they want to read and enjoy.   I am so excited about my growing classroom library, and my students are too.  I want them to be able to have access to books they enjoy and understand.  This chapter also emphasizes that partner reading not only counts as independent reading, but is also great to help them grow as readers.