Rational:
Teaching students to read voluntarily is extremely important!  Voluntary reading is an indirect way to work on fluency in the classroom and fluency is a top goal in reading instruction as a whole.  When students read voluntarily, they increase their reading volume and thereby increasing fluency.  It is important for each student to accomplish the goals of this lesson in order to know that reading can be enjoyable and personal to everyone.

Procedures:
o The teacher allows the students to have time each day reading a book of their choice.  Their will be no grade taken or assessments for these books.  This is done strictly to allow the students to read for enjoyment and read uninterrupted.

o The teacher will give weekly book talks or author talks in order to give the students some ideas about books they might want to read.

o After a student completes a book they will do a book review in the format of the “Critic’s Corner” sheet.  Every Friday the students will get together in groups and discuss the books they have read and are currently reading at that time within their groups.

o At the end of each month, each student will pick their favorite book for the “Critic’s Corner” bulletin board and display their favorite book review.

 References:
Wilson, Paul. (1992).  “Among Nonreaders:  Voluntary Reading, Reading
Achievement, and the Development of Reading Habits.”  In C.
Temple and P. Collins (Eds.), Stories and readers: New
perspectives on literature in the elementary classroom (pp. 157-
169).  Norwood, MA:  Christopher Gordon.
 
 

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