9 Ways to Maintain Students' Enthusiasm for Independent Reading All Year Long

Key to a successful independent reading program is constantly exposing students to new books and celebrating students' reading.  It can be easy to want to do everything all at once, but I would recommend trying out one or two idea at a time. Sometimes what works for one group of students will not work with another group of students. Over time you will settle into what works in your classroom and is sustainable for you. Some of the ways I do this are through one time "special events," but most are established at the start of the year and built into our weekly classroom routines.

Creating A Reader's Bookshelf and Bookmarks

At the start of the school year, student set up their ELA notebooks (I prefer composition books) and paste a bookshelf graphic onto the last page for easy access (we start writing in the front and as the year goes on, we add grammar reference pages in the back). Throughout the year, students fill in the spines on the bookshelf with the titles of the books they've read. On the other side of the bookshelf page, students keep track of books they would like to read (a TBR list). 

I also have students make a bookmark, which I laminate in hopes of it lasting through the year. Students can create their own or color one of the bookmarks I have printed with quotes about reading on them. During our novel units I make themes bookmarks, but those I just print on cardstock rather than laminating since students use them for a shorter period of time. 

You can find both the bookshelf graphic and bookmarks as part of my back to school stations and other ideas for getting to know your students as readers at the start of the year in this blog post.

Recommendation Posters

Last summer I made posters grouping books from my classroom library by subject (World War II, dragons), by author's or character's identity (Black, Asian, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent), and theme (looking for a place to call home, standing up for what you believe in). As mush as possible, I included both fiction and nonfiction titles together and a mix of genres. This posters were great starting points for students who were looking for a new book and doubled as decor. You can find my recommendation posters here.

Showing Students What I Am Reading

The best $20 I spent last year were on magnetic spice racks (Amazon affiliate link) to put on my front whiteboard with signs that say "Last Read," "Current Read," "Current Listen," and "Next Read" to make my  reading permanently visible to my students. This display was easy to update and I always knew where my book was! You can find my signs here.

Daily Book Spotlight

During remote learning, I started spotlighting a book a day to fill the awkward few minutes of logging in to class. I kept a running slide show of these book talks which helped me to track the genres of books I was featuring as well as making sure students were exposed to authors and characters with a variety of identities and experiences. You could have students do book talks once you have modeled a few. You can find my book spotlights here.

Friday Five

This year, doing a book talk a day didn't fit into my classroom routines, so I switched to sharing my five most recent reads or five themed reads on Fridays, which is when students would do a reading check-in, update their reading bookshelf and TBR list, and check books in or out of my classroom library using Booksource. I post a running slideshow of my Friday Five on Google Classroom so students can reference it when they are looking for a new book. You can find that slideshow here.

Monday "Movies"

While I'm constantly reading books from my classroom library or reading books that I want to add to my classroom library, there are so many titles that I haven't read yet. To help expose students to some of those books, each Monday I pulled together 5 book trailers for students to watch as part of a weekly check in on Mondays during homeroom. Students added books they were interested in to their TBR list. These Monday Movies slides are part of the running slideshow with my Friday Five, which are posted on Google Classroom for students to look back at. You can find that slideshow here.

"Books We Love" Bulletin Board

Similar to the bookshelf students have in the back of their ELA notebook, I have a bulletin board with a bookshelf poster for students to fill in with their favorite books. Students can add to it at any time, but I also try to dedicate one day a month to filling it in. When one bookshelf gets full, we make another poster and hang the filled one around the room. You can find directions for creating your own bookshelf poster in this Instagram post.

Book Chains

Instagram is a great place to find inspiration for building reading enthusiasm. One idea that I saw and wanted to try out was making paper chains with each link representing a book a student read. I knew that wouldn't be something I could keep up with all year, but I did make them with my classes right before Winter Break to decorate the room and we left them up  or the rest of the year. Students loved the visual representation of our reading and working together to make the chain was a bonding moment for my students.

Book Stack Pictures

Another idea from Instagram that I loved was taking students' photos with all of the books they read throughout the year. I did this with my students this year, but next year need to start earlier because I didn't realize how time consuming it would be. Some books were still checked out to other students and often multiple students had read some of the same books, so only two or three students could pull books for their stacks at a time. Getting them put back on the shelves in the correct places also took time. 

Whether your independent reading routine has been going strong for years or you are just getting started, I hope you found some new ideas to try out in your classroom that will help your students fall in love and stay in love with reading.