Independent Reading Inside the Box: How to Organize, Observe, and Assess Reading Strategies That Promote Deeper Thinking and Improve Comprehension in K-8 Classrooms

The best-selling first edition of this popular book showed teachers how to use a single sheet of paper to add value, authenticity, and accountability to independent reading programs. It emphasized students reading books they love rather than filling reading time with busy work.

In this second edition of Independent Reading Inside the Box, Lisa Donohue shares what she has learned from the many teachers who have used her simple approach to reading response. Lisa describes how teachers can do even more to strengthen student comprehension, language, and thinking skills. Full of new ways to monitor, assess, and support students as they are actively engaged in their reading, the book remains committed to the premise that independent reading time is purposeful and directly connected to classroom instruction.

This highly awaited second edition explores critical literacy to promote higher-order thinking skills, individualized goal-setting, feedback and monitoring, and personalizing learning. This remarkable book introduces proven strategies for
• providing effective feedback and assessment
• relating independent reading response to the instructional core
• fitting independent reading into the literacy block
• using reading-response as prompts and for blended learning tasks
• making thinking visible during independent reading
• encouraging student choice among reading-response tasks

Independent Reading Inside the Box argues for classrooms that offer students choice among the very best material, as well as innovative ways to nurture the value of becoming lifelong readers.