Students also read independently; that is, they read more than the texts that are a part of
classroom instruction. To sustain the effort for reading both in class and outside of class, the
imaginations and interests of children and young people must be stirred. For some children and youth
novels and short stories may capture their attention, while for others, inspiration comes from texts
about rocks, animals, history, space, and more. Still others find poetry or drama especially appealing.
Whichever genres students prefer, it is critical that educators ensure wide exposure to a variety of text
types on a range of topics and content areas form the earliest years.
Although the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy focus considerable attention on the importance of
informational text, it is crucial to emphasize the vital role that fiction, too, plays in the education of
children and youth. Author Neil Gaiman (2013), who writes for children and adults, promotes fiction as
a gateway to reading:
The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going,
even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going
to end... that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new
thoughts to keep going, [and] to discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you
learn that, you’re on the road to reading everything.He also argues that fiction builds empathy:
Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks,
and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out
through other eyes... Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to
function as more than self-obsessed individuals.
Literary fiction, in fact, has been shown to have positive effects on the mind, specifically the ability
to detect and understand others’ emotions and to infer and represent others’ beliefs and intentions
(Kidd and Castano 2013). Regardless of the source—literary or informational text—the love of reading
should be instilled and nurtured from a child’s first moments of preschool through his or her last days
of high school.
Planning an Independent Reading Program
To ensure that all students have the opportunity to read in a variety of settings across a range of
genres, teachers develop a plan for independent reading as an essential component of daily language
arts instruction encompassing the current year and multiple years. Independent reading is planned
and structured while allowing students to choose selections and read for uninterrupted periods of
time. During independent reading, students actively engage in reading rather than aimlessly flipping
through books. Students are held accountable for reading, but they are not expected to produce an
assignment in response to every reading. Components of the plan include the following:
- Strategies for students to select books and texts in terms of difficulty, content, and interest
- Student choice
- Daily scheduled time in class and outside of class
- Clear expectations for in-class and outside-of-class reading
- Classroom library that includes a rich collection of books and other texts drawing from lists of
award-winning books and other sources (See the appendix of this ELA/ELD Framework.) - School library or large, shared, circulating collection of resources in a variety of formats and at
various reading levels (also drawing from sources cited in the appendix) - System for recording books and texts read during the year and across the years
- Opportunities for social interaction—book talks and reviews, book sharing, partner reading,
discussion circles, writing to the author, and more
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