Rationale:
 Students need to be able to read fluently and independently in order to become better readers. Students need to have a desire to read independently in order to be voluntary readers. This lesson is designed to promote voluntary readers. This lesson is designed to promote voluntary reading. Three ways that encourage voluntary reading are presented in this lesson. They are: students choose books on their own, integrating discussion groups in class, and silent reading time everyday.

Materials:
• Booklist with suggested books for students. Have plenty of variety and many award winning books. Examples would be: The Polar Express by: Chris Van Allsburg, Joseph’s Little Overcoat, and Where the Wild Things Are by: Maurice Sendak.
• Di and Mice and Pen Pals by Educational Insights.
• Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Procedures:
1.) Teacher will introduce lesson. Reading on you own can be so much fun. There are some things that you can do to make reading by yourself fun. The first thing we can do is choose books that interest us to read by ourselves.
2.) It is important when you read with the class or when you read by yourself to make sure that we are reading what the text says. (Review cross-checking). Teacher reads the beginning of Did and Mice. Teacher will read a sentence that has one key word mistaken with something similar. The sentence does not make sense. Ask the students why t he sentence didn’t make sense.
3.) The first part of reading on your own is choosing your own book. I am going to show you how to choose a book t hat you would like to read. First, we have to make sure that the book that we choose is not too hard for us. We are going to be sure that we can read the book by using the “Two Finger Rule”. We are going to read the first page and put up one finger each time we come to a word we do not know. If you have two or more fingers up when you are done reading the first page you need to pick a different book, that one is a little too hard. Teacher models using Pen Pals and holds up three fingers for the three words that she did not know. This book is too hard for me. I will have to try this other one. Teacher models reading with the first page of Di and Mice and only has one finger in the air when she is done. I only have one finger in the air so this book is okay for me to read.
4.) Now let’s go to the library and find out how to choose a book that we would enjoy. A very important part of reading is to do it because it is fun. When you are looking for a book anywhere, it is important to make sure you think that you are going to like the book. Sometimes a book will have a summary on the back or inside the flap. We can read that summary to see if we think we would be interested in the book. Other times, we should think about the topic of the book. Teacher will hold up Rainbow Fish. If you do not want to read a story about a fish then you should not pick this book. Do not look at the pictures to tell if that is the book you want to read. Pictures are like icing they make the cake taste better.
5.) While the students are in the library each one is given a chance to choose a book on their own which will be located within their reading level.
6.) Teacher will provide students with silent reading time on a daily basis. Both the teacher and the students should be reading during this time. The teacher will assess students by asking them questions about plot, character, and resolution. Students will also meet once a week to work in their discussion groups. They will do a book talk for each book they have read that week as well as discuss any books that they group may have read together.
7.) To assess whether children are reading independently, teacher will introduce Reading Logs. Student will keep track of the reading that they do on their own. Children will keep track of the number of pages they read, having a parent monitor and initial each day’s reading.

References:
Wilson, P. (1992). Among Non-Readers: Voluntary Reading, Reading Achievement, and Development of Reading Habits.
J. Lloyd Eldredge (1995). Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insights  Ashley Dulaney

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