Grades
1 - 7
When enthusiasm for reading is waning, these tips will have your class excited for more!
Keeping students engaged during independent reading time doesn’t always happen on its own — especially as we approach the tail end of the school year. By this stage, students may be re-reading books they read earlier in the school year, while other great titles may be left untouched.
Give your students’ independent reading a boost with these great strategies recommended by Alycia Zimmerman, a third grade teacher in New York.
For Zimmerman, one of the best ways to recharge independent reading is to reorganize the classroom library, making way for new titles and helping students re-discover ones they may have previously overlooked.
To start, Zimmerman recommends getting students involved in the selection process. She usually informs her students that they will be putting away books they are no longer interested in or have outgrown, before asking each student to note which books they would like to keep and which they would like to see go.
She then likes to make it clear to students that she is introducing new series or authors that she felt weren’t appropriate for them at the beginning of the year, but that they have now grown into.
“The excitement is incredible. Students shout out, ‘Whoa, check out this dragon series!’ and ‘Books about World War II! So cool!’ My students beg me to borrow the new books,” she says.
If you need to quarantine books after each student reading, class collections are one effective way to build your classroom library while putting a book in every student’s hands.
To get students excited about independent reading and their new classroom library, Zimmerman likes to ask her third graders to do their own book talks. She reminds her students how frequently she gives book talks to introduce a book or series, and then offers students the opportunity to sign up to give their own talks about titles they want to recommend to the class.
“I set out a sign-up calendar and pass out guidelines for giving a book talk. I also explain that I would give book talks for the next two days to give students a chance to read some of the new books and to prepare their talks,” she says.
After a book talk, Zimmerman sets out an index card for students to sign up to read the featured book. She also has students record the books they want to read on their own “Can’t Wait” list.
To keep the momentum going for the remainder of the school year, Zimmerman likes to continually add new titles to the classroom library. One fantastic way to add more variety is to implement a Basket Exchange with a fellow teacher, where both classes can swap a basket of books with each other (if this fits into your school’s current safety guidelines).
Another effective strategy Zimmerman likes to use is “Shop and Tell.” Under careful supervision, she allows her students to read child-appropriate book reviews once a month during independent reading time. Students then let her know which new books they are interested in adding to the class library. Each month, she will buy and add some of their suggested books to the library.
To get started, shop books that inspire independent reading below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.
A box of books at the best price! Take advantage of inventory conditions that leave some of our books without a permanent home.
Take advantage of inventory conditions that leave some of our books without a permanent home. The list of titles in this collection will change depending on availability.
A box of books at the best price! A super way to save money and send every child home with a book.
Because of an acorn, a tree grows, a bird nests, a seed becomes a flower. Enchanting die-cuts illustrate the vital connections between the layers of an ecosystem in this magical book.
An illustrated rhyming biography of the African American woman and first Naval engineer to design a ship using a computer.
A stirring, dramatic story of a slave who mails himself to freedom by a Jane Addams Peace Award-winning author and a Coretta Scott King Award-winning artist.
A little girl hears a rhythm coming from the world around her—from butterflies, to street performers, to ice cream sellers everything is musical! She sniffs, snaps, and shakes her way into the heart of the beat, busting out in an impromptu dance!
This boy visits friends in 13 different countries spanning all six populated continents. Along the way, he introduces readers to each friend's environment and customs.
Long before he became an All-Star professional basketball player, Michael Jordan imagined winning an Olympic gold medal, and with dedication and perseverance, that's exactly what he did.
What would happen if a polar bear and a grizzly bear fought each other? With this book, readers can study the stats, predict the winner, and then witness the imaginary battle!
Check out how these amazing real life creatures match up. Who's the strongest, fastest, biggest, and baddest—in a fight to the finish, who would win?
Dog Man is the crime-biting canine who is part dog, part man, and ALL HERO! This boxed set includes the first six books in the Dog Man series.
Tommy and Annika have always wished someone would come to live in the ramshackle house next door, and one day, someone does: Pippi Longstocking, an irrepressible nine-year-old girl with a unique way of doing things.
Ruby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family.
A cynic meets an unlikely superhero in a genre-breaking new novel by master storyteller Kate DiCamillo.
Inspired by the true story of a gorilla who spent 30 years alone in a cage at an indoor zoo in a mall, this beautiful book imagines what that gorilla might have felt and said about his life.
Joe and Ravi might be from very different places, but they're both stuck in the same place: school.
When a stray dog comes her way, eleven-year Charlie risks everything to give Wishbone the forever home she doesn"t have.
Chase Ambrose has a lot to learn, and that includes remembering who he is. As the eighth grade football star recovers from amnesia, his former reputation for bullying complicates his second chance.
Inspired by the author's own childhood experience of fleeing Vietnam as a refugee and immigrating to Alabama, this Newbery Honor Book and National Book Award winner told in verse is sure to capture young readers' hearts and open their eyes.
The author introduces her battle with chronic anxiety as a teen as well as her ongoing coping strategies in this honest, often funny graphic novel.
