5 Things You Can Do When Students Can’t Find An Independent Reading Book

Right from the start of the school year, I work to create a culture of reading. I am fortunate that the sixth graders coming to me have had independent reading as a part of their reading instruction since kindergarten, so I usually don’t how much work to do in convincing them of the importance of independent reading or in establishing expectations for behavior during this period of class.

But there are usually a handful of students each year that just aren’t into reading and need to be won over. These are the students that can’t find a book they are interested in, even after you’ve already talked with them and tried to help them find books. These are the students who are constantly browsing the bookshelf for a new book when they should be reading. 

Here's five things you can do when students say they can't find a book they want to read. Or better yet, five things you can do to prevent students from ever saying that they can't find a book for independent reading.

Assess Your High Interest Texts And Topic

There are some topics that are always popular with students, such as sports, animals, and video games. Over time, I’ve built up the number of books on each of these topics, in varying lengths, as the size of a book can often be intimidating to students who don’t identify as readers.

For students who don’t have strong reading stamina, nonfiction books like Guinness World Records or National Geographic’s Weird but True can be highly engaging. Even better, these types of books frequently show up when I am book thrifting, and can be an inexpensive addition to your classroom library. 

I also have a stash of comics that I found one summer at my local Salvation Army and a collection of Scholastic Scope magazines. I keep both in plastic sleeves in binders for easy browsing. All of these have photographs or images to break up the text and grab reader’s attention.

Consider Offering Different Formats of Texts

Graphic novels can be appealing to students who don’t identify as readers, but manga, short story collections, verse novels, and even newspapers, magazines, and audiobooks may be of high interest too.

1. Utilize your school library. You may not have a wide variety in the formats of texts in your classroom library, but there may be more of a variety in your school library, and if there isn’t your school librarian may have a budget to order these items.
2. Utilize your public library. One of the first things I do at the beginning of the school year is get all of my students public library cards and introduce them to the free digital resources that they can access with their library card. Besides e-books, students can often access magazines, manga, and audiobooks. 

Enlist The Help Of Others

You are not the sole person responsible for a student being able to find a book that interests them.

1. Reach out to the student’s family and ask about what books they have enjoyed in the past. Do they have books at home that they would rather bring in to read? Would a family trip to the library or a bookstore to help them choose something of interest be possible?
2. Ask the school librarian (or your public librarian if they do school visits) to put together a book tasting on high interest topics and themes for those students who struggle to find books.
3. Make time for peer recommendations. Group students based on genres of interest and have them share their top recent reads in that genre. A peer recommendation can carry more weight than one from an adult.
4. The internet is an endless resource. Have students browse best seller lists. There are a ton of bloggers with list of recommendations based on topic or read-a-likes for popular books.

Build A To Be Read List

What opportunities do students have to explore books at times that aren’t disruptive to learning? Besides book speed dating and genre sorting at the start of the year, which get lots of books off my shelves and in students’ hands, I do a variety of things weekly and throughout the year to expose students to new books. With each activity, students are encouraged to add titles of interest to their TBR list, which is located in the back of their ELA notebooks and kept in our classroom for safe keeping.

1. Students have a choice of five book trailers to watch at the start of the week.
2. At the end of each week, I introduce an author from our classroom library and books that they’ve written.
3. At the end of each unit, I hold a book tasting for students with many titles connected to the themes of our most recent whole class read. Over time, I’ve built up my collection of books by the same authors as our whole class texts and other read-a-likes.
4. At the beginning of the year, I put out mini posters for each genre in my classroom library labeled with the name and a definition alongside three concentric circles: love it, like it, and don’t like it/haven’t read much. Students rotate around the room adding their name to each genre in the appropriate circle. I have out stacks of books to go along with each genre poster so students can see some of the books in my classroom library within that genre. Later in the year, I can do this activity again, but have students create the stacks based on books they've read so far this year and want to recommend to others. 
5. Sending students off on a book scavenger hunt is a great way to have them explore books beyond their favorite authors and series. Items on the scavenger hunt might include finding a book with a three word title, a book set in the future, and a book whose author's last name starts with the same letter as yours.

When a student is hanging around the bookshelves when they should be reading, I always start by asking them if there is a book on their TBR they are looking for.

If students have exhausted their TBR, I will ask them if there is a topic or theme they are interested in, what the last book they read and enjoyed was, etc. and then pull a stack of books for them to browse. I encourage students to pick a book to start with and jot down a few other possibilities on their TBR. I’ll leave the book stack out for a few days so the student can go back to it if they decide their first pick isn’t actually the right book for them.

Balancing Choice Reading With Assigned Texts

Throughout the year I alternate between choice reading and assigned reading, which connects to the themes of our units. We start the year with choice reading and then read a whole lass novel during the first trimester. The second trimester also starts with independent reading and then students have a choice of 6 titles for literature novels. Finally, in the third trimester we begin again with choice reading and then students have a choice of two novels. Alternating between choice reading and assigned reading takes some of the pressure off of constantly helping students find an independent reading book. Many of the assigned texts that students read or choose from have sequels  or the authors have other books that I can recommend to students. I also have read alikes that connect to the topics and themes of the assigned novels that I can suggest to students.