Independent Reading: Making Every Minute Count

Every minute counts during independent reading.

Independent reading offers a chance for effective reading practice. It allows students to put into practice what they have learned, interact with related texts, improve their fluency and endurance, encounter new vocabulary and ideas, and, step by step, assume greater responsibility for their reading.

Just because an opportunity exists doesn't mean that it will lead to successful outcomes.

Just allocating some time for independent reading does not guarantee that students are successfully applying what they have learned or that all the students benefit equally from those minutes. There is good reason for us to draw that distinction.

It has always been known that those who read more tend to be stronger readers. The National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) provided ample evidence of this connection. Nevertheless, the panel also warned that this does not necessarily imply that giving students more independent reading time will result in them becoming stronger readers.

The panel, when it looked at the research designed to address that question, was unable to find enough evidence to conclude that programs involving a large amount of minimally guided independent silent reading reliably led to an improvement in reading achievement.

Over two decades later, Erbeli and Rice (2022) looked at the research again and arrived at a conclusion just as cautious: the evidence currently available still does not strongly support the idea that increasing independent silent reading on its own consistently leads to improved reading outcomes.

It by no means implies that independent reading has no value. That shows that spending time by oneself is not sufficient.

Instead of asking only:

How long do students spend reading?

Perhaps we should also ask:

What is taking place during those minutes?

Are students having successful reading practice?

A Quiet Classroom Doesn't Tell the Whole Story

Picture yourself walking into a classroom while engaged in independent reading. All students have a book. The room is quiet. It seems that everything is functioning exactly as intended when viewed from across the room.

But if you look a bit more closely. A student has remained on the same page for several minutes. When one comes across a word they do not know, they make a guess and continue. Another person has changed their book three times. A student sitting in the back is turning the pages at regular intervals yet would not be able to explain what is happening in the text. A different student is so absorbed in a book that they hardly notice what is going on around them. They are all taking part in the same independent reading period. That does not mean they are having the same kind of reading practice.

Engagement Is More Than Compliance

This distinction matters. Compliance is something that we can observe when someone is sitting quietly with a book. However, it is much more difficult to observe reading, thinking, problem-solving, monitoring comprehension, and constructing meaning.

Which is why we must take care not to confuse compliance with engagement.

To be productive when reading on their own, students have to do more than just stay quiet and turn the pages. They must successfully take part in the process of reading—which involves reading the words accurately, keeping the meaning of the text intact, realizing when their understanding fails, applying what they have been taught, and continuing even when reading becomes difficult.

For certain students, a great deal of this can be carried out on their own.

For others, it cannot—yet.

And that yet matters.

Independent Reading Is Not Equally Independent for Every Reader

What might a skilled reader's experience of spending thirty minutes reading on their own be like? That student will spend a great deal of time reading connected text successfully, coming across new vocabulary, gaining knowledge, improving his or her automaticity, and increasingly applying the skills that have already been learned on his or her own.

What about the same thirty minutes for a striving reader? If the material is too difficult, or if the student hasn't yet acquired the word-reading or comprehension skills necessary to successfully navigate it, then those minutes will appear very different.

The student may:

• Guess at unfamiliar words.

• Skip words or passages.

• Ignore the lack of meaning and keep reading.

• Keep rereading without resolving the confusion.

• Frequently abandon books.

• Or find out how to seem busy even though you are reading very little.

The two students each got thirty minutes of independent reading. That does not mean that they got 30 minutes of practice that was equally productive. This difference is particularly important for those students who are already falling behind.

The National Reading Panel advised against basing reading instruction solely on independent silent reading, especially for students who have not yet acquired the necessary critical alphabetic and word-reading skills. The Institute of Education Sciences (Foorman et al., 2016) provides research-based advice that underscores a key issue: while students need frequent opportunities to read connected text, practice on its own does not take the place of instruction. For students who are still developing their basic reading skills, effective reading practice will often need to include teacher modeling, scaffolding, feedback, and direct instruction.

Excluding our striving readers should not be the case. Quite the opposite.

• They need chances to feel that they are successful readers.

• Independence does not mean that there is no support.

• The goal remains independence.

• The path towards independence might well appear different for each reader.

• What Happens at the End Matters, Too

• There is another part of independent reading that deserves our attention:

• What takes place when the reading time ends?

• Accountability can become complicated.

It is natural for teachers to want to know if their students have actually read and understood what they have read; in that case, the usual approach is to ask them to keep a reading log, complete a worksheet, write a summary, record how many pages they have read, or give a response to the material each day.

But before assigning a product, we might first ask:

• Exactly what are we attempting to discover?

• Did the student successfully engage with the text?

• Did the student apply something that had been taught in class?

• Did the student know what to do when the text wasn’t making sense?

• Did the student think deeply about an idea they encountered while reading?

A finished reading log cannot answer those questions. Forcing students to produce a written response after each time they read independently may inadvertently shift the emphasis from reading and thinking to carrying out the required task.

Accountability doesn’t need to prove that the student was reading. Accountability can instead offer students the opportunity to make their thinking visible. This could occur as a result of a short conversation between partners, for example by discussing an interesting passage, explaining how they dealt with a difficult word, reflecting on a reading goal, recommending a book, or sometimes giving a written response to a deliberate question.

The word in question is purposeful.

It is not necessary for every reading experience to result in some written output, and accountability needn't take the same form every day. Over time, students should be able to talk about themselves as readers with discussions that answer these types of questions.

• What am I reading?

• What am I thinking?

• Where did I struggle?

• What did I try?

• What am I improving at?

• What should I focus on now?

It is quite a different kind of accountability.

It shifts the emphasis from:

Have you finished reading?

to:

What is going on as you are reading?

The Conference Helps Us Know the Difference

The good point is that there is no need for yet another worksheet, reading log, or complicated accountability system when assessing whether independent reading is productive.

We need to pay attention. As we looked at in week 3 of this series, purposeful reading conferences provide teachers with the opportunity to do precisely that. When we sit next to a student, listen to them reading, ask them a deliberate question, or ask them to explain their reasoning, we start to understand independent reading from the point of view of the reader.

• A student who seemed to be paying attention might in fact have lost the meaning several pages earlier.

• A student who keeps on changing books might need some assistance in finding a text that is both accessible and engaging.

• A reader who is determined to read yet appears to be unwilling may in fact be putting so much effort into identifying words that very little attention is left for understanding the meaning.

• A student who seems to be getting on just fine might show that the skills and strategies which have previously been taught are being successfully applied to independent reading.

It enables us to understand the difference. When we know that, then we can react.

An immediate response can occur in the form of a prompt, the model, another text, or with a bit of guided practice.

We sometimes notice that a student needs extra instruction in small groups. At times, a number of conferences show that it is necessary to go over the point with the whole class. This is where the ideas we've explored throughout this series begin to come together:

It allows the student to get some practice through independent reading.

Observing and discussing allow us to find out what is actually taking place during the practice.

Responsive instruction enables us to determine what the students need next.

When Independence Isn't Quite Independent Yet

For readers who are still developing the skill, the solution is not necessarily to give up independent reading altogether. However, it might be unrealistic to expect them to use the entire independent reading time in the same way as students who can already read successfully by themselves.

Instead, consider asking:

How could independent reading help this student be successful today?

For a single student, it could involve 10 minutes of successful independent reading rather than 30 minutes of struggling with inaccessible text. In other cases, it could involve reading a text that one is familiar with in order to improve accuracy. Another student could find it helpful if the teacher explained a few difficult words before they read on their own. Yet another student might require a carefully chosen text that allows the application of the decoding skills that have recently been taught successfully.

A striving reader's independent reading time might be limited. Before independence, there was support in the form of practice, a brief preview of the text, or preparing the student for a likely challenge.

• Instead of having the student struggle repeatedly when reading independently, give them text that they can actually read with a high degree of success.

• Build up your student’s stamina bit by bit because twenty or thirty minutes of frustration is no more valuable than ten minutes of successful and attentive reading.

• Carry out purposeful teacher check-ins early on before the student has had the whole period to develop ineffective habits.

• Set one specific and achievable goal; ask the student to concentrate on one aspect—such as checking for understanding, reading through the whole word, rereading for fluency, or pausing to summarize at the end of a section.

• Follow up by going back to the student, noting the changes that have occurred, recognizing the successful implementation, and then deciding on the kind of further support that is required.

What we aim for is not to make independent reading easier indefinitely. The aim is to give sufficient support so that successful practice may take place today while at the same time working towards greater independence tomorrow.

We don’t have to wait until the reading period has ended to realize that a student had been struggling for 30 minutes.

• We can notice.

• We can respond.

• We can adjust.

Making the Minutes Matter

The study does not provide a simple equation stating that more independent reading minutes automatically lead to higher reading achievement. What it does provide is a basis for us to think carefully about the circumstances surrounding those minutes.

One should not assess independent reading merely by the quietness of the classroom, the number of pages that students have read, or the fact that all students have filled out a reading log.

Instead, we might ask:

• Are the students managing to put into practice what they have been taught?

• Are they really reading and constructing meaning?

• Are they gaining independence over time?

• What evidence is there to show that this practice is enhancing their reading?

• And perhaps most importantly:

• Are the students who have the greatest difficulty with reading having successful reading practice, or are they merely spending more time working on it by themselves or even avoiding the process of reading altogether?

The questions aren't intended to make independent reading seem like one more thing the teacher has to do. Instead, this serves as a chance to examine the time we already possess.

Often, the first step is simply asking: What does this student need to participate in successful reading practice today?

• The solution could be another text.

• A shorter goal.

• A short amount of guidance.

• A teacher conference.

• An opportunity to reread.

• Or just a person realizing that the student needs some assistance.

It is not necessary to give up independent reading just because it is not working perfectly for every student. We can help it work better. Independent reading should give every student—not only our best readers—opportunities to know what it is like to read successfully. The support should appear different, and the degree of independence might also appear different.

But the ultimate destination remains the same: A reader's need for our support will be a bit less tomorrow than it is today.

Intentional teaching helps turn that opportunity into growth.

References

Erbeli, F., & Rice, M. (2022). Examining the effects of silent independent reading on reading outcomes: A narrative synthesis review from 2000 to 2020.Reading & Writing Quarterly, 38(3), 253–271.

Foorman, B., et al. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). U.S. Government Printing Office.