Helping Students Select Their Own Novels for Independent Accountable Reading

PART ONE: student-selected texts for independent reading

Read-alouds with students and to students are IMPORTANT.

A whole-class literature analysis from a reading and writing perspective with a quality text is NECESSARY.

Opportunities for independent reading are FUNDAMENTAL. 

We look at this from two perspectives:

1. We help students intentionally choose their own texts to read (this blog post) 

1. We appropriately set up independent reading conditions with accountability and responsibility  (part two of this blog post coming soon) 

Supporting students to select their own texts to read independently requires careful consideration, planning and implementation. It isn’t a ‘free for all’ or a ‘time-filler’, but focused on the accountability and responsibility of students as readers (and as writers) with their self-selected texts.

We know that the reading research around The Big 5 (or 6) in upper primary focuses more on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. 

FLUENCY

The first thing to consider when having students select their own texts is the word-level knowledge and their ability to decode and read words. When reading their own texts and independently, we want students to be reading the words fluently, without the need to stop and decode more often than not. Most of the words on each page of their self-selected novel need to be accessible and read accurately.

THEORY: Konza describes fluency as 'requiring readers to read accurately, quickly, and expressively.'

PRACTICE:

• Ensure students are familiar with the definition of ‘unfamiliar words’ for the purpose of this activity. 

• Students read the first few pages of their self-selected text and identify any unfamiliar words. 
  

VOCABULARY

At mid-upper primary and lower secondary,  students’ vocabulary knowledge is expanding and deepening with the sophisticated words they’re exposed to. The study and exposure of base words, prefixes, suffixes, so morphology and the study of etymology, the study of word origins and roots of words. 

THEORY: Beck, McKeown & Kucan (1985) suggest 'vocabulary instruction can be considered in three tiers- Tier 1: the most basic words; Tier 2- words that are of high frequency and are found across a variety of content areas; Tier 3- whose frequency is quite low and specific to content area.'

PRACTICE:

• In order for us to support the explicit teaching of new words in isolation and in context, students identify Tier 2 words in their own novels. 

• These are the kinds of Tier 2 words (3-4 words per page) students are looking for when searching for their own novels and when exploring vocabulary. 
  

This example is used with the text, Blueback by Tim Winton.

COMPREHENSION

When selecting their own texts for independent reading, students need to ensure they’re making meaning of what they’re reading. We are aware that fluency and vocabulary contribute to comprehension and the understanding of a text. 

THEORY: Serravallo (2023) states: “Reading strategies have been shown to improve all areas of reading, but not limited to:

- students’ motivation and engagement (McBreen and Savage, 2021).

-word-level reading (Steacy et al., 2016).

-vocabulary acquisition (Wright and Crevetti, 2017).

-comprehension (Samuelstuen and Braten, 2005).

-fluency (Stevens, Walker and Vaughn, 2017).”

PRACTICE:

• Use a range of comprehension skills and strategies before, after and during independent reading, check for understanding and provide students with opportunities to Question the Author (QtA, Beck, 1997).
  

START HERE

Perhaps this reading survey might be a starting point to gather reading data about your students, their habits, their likes and interests and who they are as readers.

Part two of this blog post is coming soon to help you appropriately set up independent reading conditions with accountability and responsibility.