Supporting Independent Reading Time for Early Readers

Getting early readers to meaningfully engage in independent reading or Read to Self in the classroom can be difficult. They have limited sight words and need support decoding. Difficult is not impossible and if you use these suggestions, then you'll set your students up for success.

Before you can use these effective strategies, it is vital to establish a learning community in the classroom. This is accomplished by clearly outlining a code of conduct. In addition to clear expectations for what reading independently looks like, students need to strengthen their stamina. We build stamina slowly. The first step in setting the expectations for the time and then engaging in reading until the expectations have been broken. We should only keep practicing when we're doing it right! So when it starts to go wrong, stop! You can build stamina every day and move in minute or two minute increments until you get to a manageable length of time. Build expectation and stamina first so that the other strategies can take root.

Here are some simple and effective actionable steps to try:

If you use the Daily Five structure then you already have book boxes. These gems are like differentiating your library and giving students mini libraries that are specifically designed for them and their needs. Students can have a variety of good fit books at their fingertips.

Rereading familiar texts is a great way to strengthen fluency skills and reinforce decoding strategies. These books should not live in a student's book box for long. Books should turn over between every one to two weeks.

Using decodable texts is critical for the success of early readers, period. Students need the opportunity to exercise sound/symbol relationships as the key strategy for reading. By providing multiple opportunities for students to engage in using sounds to decode words, we strengthen their understanding of how to read with results.

Need some resources? Visit here and grab some decodable books for early readers. These sets are complete with lesson plans, word cards, word hunts, and writing activities.

Thank You!!

Kristin

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