1. Jennifer Campbell’s Blog Post # 6, Miller (2013), Section 1: Not This: Is There Enough Time? And Is Time Enough to Support Independent Reading?

At this beginning of this section, Miller talks about how some teachers spend their reading time running through the calendar, looking up vocabulary words, workbooks, worksheets, test-prep materials, and spelling practice. 

            I began the school year not wanting to consider an independent reading block only because I remembered times that when I worked in other classes, students read only during Interest Areas and they played.  They did not look at books for long periods of time and would often ask to leave for a better center, usually Blocks or Dramatic Play.  My first few weeks of school I did not assign Interest Areas and my students never picked the Library Center.  Once we got past that first month and some of my students were finishing up their work faster they needed something to do, so I told them to get a book.  We started filling in our odd left over minutes with books.  When we finally had our schedule finally ironed out, I added in a reading block once a week to see how it would go.  At first it was awful.  They looked at the books for five minutes before they lost interest. Sometimes they wanted an adult to read to them, which is great, except I would have a line of five students wanting to be read to and they spent the block standing around.  So we would end the block early and move on to something more captivating.  Each week I tried adding a few more minutes and each week it got a little better.  Now they are lasting the entire 30 minute block and sometimes I’ll extend it if they seem really interested in their books.  They have also become more likely to choose the Library Interest Area on their own and when I do assign it, they do not ask me if they can go somewhere different to play.