1. Independent Reading Day #1 (Sad, but true.)

2. Let’s do an experiment: Figure out a starting page number for today’s reading – It might not be page one – go to where the story starts OR where you last left off, if you’ve already been reading this book. When I say go, read for 10 minutes. – Go at a pace that feels comfortable for you and where you can keep up with what’s going on. – (It’s okay if you need to reread a sentence or paragraph to get what’s going on, though.)

3. 10 minutes later… Count the number of pages you read comfortably in 10 minutes (round to the nearest whole page if necessary) Multiply this number by 6 to get your hourly reading rate: how many pages of your book you can expect to read in an hour of concentrated time – Please: don’t be concerned with how big or small your number is. Use this as a tool.

4. Your weekly reading goal Now, multiply that number of hourly pages by 2. – This is the number of pages you can expect to get through in 2 hours! (Yay, math.) This number of pages becomes your current reading goal.

5. Your weekly reading goal What does this mean? To increase your stamina as a reader, I’m going to start us all at a minimum of 2 hours of independent reading per week (myself included!) So, looking at your 2-hour page rate, that’s what you’ll shoot to reach each week.

6. Your weekly reading goal “2 hours?!?!?! Ms. Zero, I barely have enough time to eat breakfast and shower on a regular basis!” Yep, we’re all busy people. Here’s how to make that goal achievable for you.

7. How to schedule this: 2 hours = ______ minutes 1 week = ______ days Let’s divide the total number of minutes by days to get the average number of minutes to read each day to meet your goal. _______ minutes / ______ days = _______________ minutes per day.

8. How to schedule this: Anyone can do 17 minutes per day! You get at least 30 minutes for free on Fridays already! Strategies: – read while you eat breakfast – read just before going to bed at night (that’s my go-to) – set a timer on your phone so you can block out all distractions and stop when it goes off (or not. That happens, sometimes. ) – Sports practice goes late/grandma’s birthday/etc.? Roll over your 17 reading minutes to do double the next day, or read a little more than 17 each night so you get it out of the way earlier

9. How I’ll grade this, to start A stamp on your gold homework stamp sheet for having your book at the start of class on reading days (and at random on other days of the week ) – I’ll do this for you shortly I’ll pass around a sheet today with space to record each of your weekly reading goals (this is the pages you can read in 2 hours) Each time we read thereafter, I’ll pass the sheet around for you to record the range of pages you read that week and for you to tell me how close to your goal you got for that week.

10. How I’ll grade this, to start: Met your goal or came within a few pages? Full credit. Came close? Close to full credit. Didn’t read at all? Half credit, but making a habit of this will not be helpful for you and we’ll have a conversation about what’s going on

11. How I’ll grade this, later on: For today, enjoy the experience of diving into your book. In the near future, I’ll explain the reading log process. Be ready at any time for me to meet with you one-on-one for a quick conference about what you’re reading and how it’s going. As you finish a book, be ready for me to start asking a couple people per week to give 30- second informal book talks about their reading choices.

12. What ifs… Not enjoying your book? Commit to the first 40-50 pages, and if it’s still not working for you, see me and we’ll talk about the next step. Finish your book between reading days? It’s on you to find something new to check out from home, a friend, our school library, or our classroom library to keep going on your weekly reading goal. Use your Next-to-Read list as a resource for this!

13. Final inspiration for the day… Happy reading