Have you seen those Instagram vs. reality videos and memes?
This is like that for how educelebs say independent reading should look versus how it actually looks. I am having a little fun with this post, but I really do appreciate an aspirational lens and am inspired by people who capture these perfect moments in their highlight reels on Instagram. But for anyone who may be seeing their own independent reading program and thinking it lacks or is not good enough because there’s such a gap, this one’s for you. For a video version of this post, check out my Instagram live.
Instagram: All students start and stop reading at the same time.
Your beautiful meditation timer chimes the start of reading time, books open and heads go down for 10 blissful minutes until the chime sounds again.
Reality: the students come wandering in late, take 8 minutes to settle down, and stop early. You hear their books snap shut before the timer goes off.
Instagram: All the students keep perfect lists.
Everyone knows what books they read all year. They can take before and after photos with the stacks of books they’ve read (a smaller stack for last year and a bigger stack for this year). The students even know which books they’ve abandoned. And how many pages they’ve read. Their records are as accurate as an accountant’s.
Reality: they rely on you to remind them what they read and find how many pages it has. They forget the titles and remember just a plot point or the cover. They lose whatever paper where they were keeping track of things.
Instagram: They take books home to read.
They actually check out a book, put it in their backpack, and carve out time to read each day.
Reality: they might shove the book back on “their spot” on your shelf and also keep their class papers in it, leaving your classroom unencumbered each day. When someone else actually checks out “their” book, they are incensed.
Instagram: They read one book at a time.
They read a book from start to finish and then they start a new one.
Reality: They are reading multiple books at once, and one of them is on Wattpad. You have to create a special sheet to track their progress across books and a special page conversion rate for books read on cellphones. You wonder if they really are reading all these books or if it is a “fogging” technique meant to throw you off their trail
Instagram: The shelves look nice and all the books are away in their correct spot–or maybe even in rainbow order.
It doesn’t even look like any books are checked out!
Reality: the books are toppling over where books are missing. You find romance mixed in with horror as the students put the books back in the first open space they find. Even when the shelves are full, the worn books look a little messy.
Instagram: They read at their actual pace.
They completed a ten-minute timed read to find their page rate and are reading that amount of pages consistently.
Reality: you time it out and find that they are not reading for the full time or are reading even slower in the right amount of time. Other kids are reading, like, an obscene amount of pages, like 12,000 in two weeks. They out-read you (and their rate) by a mile.
Instagram: They choose to read a wide variety of books.
The students pick up new kinds of books based on their wandering interests and conversations about books.
Reality: once they finally find something they like, they stick to it. Only through cajoling and multiple invitations do you get them to branch out.
Instagram: They volunteer to talk about their books at length.
They call you over, reread part of the book (that they have also written down in their notebook in some artistic way.
Reality: you ask them how it’s going and they say fine. If you ask a better question, you get the answer to that question and little more.
Instagram: They all love to read.
If you survey the students they say they love to read.
Reality: most say it’s fine or that they only do it for a grade. Some say it’s boring. A few say they hate it.
Before you lose hope…
So this list can leave us feeling depressed, like there’s no hope for creating a beautiful environment of inspired readers, but let’s turn this list inward for a sec.
Do I start and stop reading on time? Absolutely not. Not in class, where I find it hard to read while students are reading. Not at home, where I stop and start again.
Do I keep a perfect list of all the books I’ve read? I have books on my Goodreads list that I have been “reading” for a few years.
Do I take books home to read? No. I have home books and school books.
Which means I also don’t read one book at a time.
Are my books at home organized? Sort of, but they require a reset from time to time, and even so, it takes me awhile to find what I’m looking for.
Do I read at my actual pace? I have no idea, because I would never time myself in that way. That’s a school thing we do to track progress.
Do I choose to read a wide variety of books? Honestly, not as much as I used to. With my current time frames, I focus on the specific genres I need to function. Juicy horror. Informational. Early readers with my daughter.
Do I volunteer to talk about books at length? Every once in a while when I want to make an impassioned book recommendation, but not to analyze anything.
Do I love to read? Heck yes I do (but also not all the time. I love lots of activities). And still, even though I show up as reality and not Instagram, my love is no less perfect.
What Happens Next
I’m really excited to dive into independent reading in the classroom in an unconventional way. My independent reading workshop will discuss
The topics:
- Creating readers
- Introducing choice reading
- Assessments
- Managing a classroom library
- Fitting choice reading in with every unit
• Done-for-you resources to go with each topic
• Surprise bonuses
Sign up to get the details when they are released!
