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Set Individualized Reading Goals

Tags

ELA: Reading K-8 Strategy

Skills

Verbal Reasoning Processing Speed

Set Individualized Reading Goals

If your student reads slowly or easily loses focus while reading independently

How To Apply It!

  1. Emerging readers should have individualized goals, beyond pages or time, so they can focus on their own progress and develop self-confidence.
  2. The rule of thumb for students in elementary school is to read independently at least 20 minutes a night. If a child needs more structured guidance or is not yet ready for this goal, consider alternative metrics.
  3. Use a timer and measure the length of focused reading time. Students might start with only a few minutes, take a break, and then read again. Create a chart and let them track their progress with the ultimate goal of 20-30 minutes of focused reading time.
  4. If you are concerned about reading lapses encourage a short reading period followed by an informal check-in to ensure comprehension
  5. Track the genres of books read over a period of time (fiction, non-fiction, biography, memoir, poetry).
  6. Keep a personal dictionary of new vocabulary words encountered and learned during reading with a goal of how many new words the child will learn.
  7. When you see a child has made good progress, give him a book s/he struggled with a while ago to demonstrate progress.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

Regardless of your student's reading level, the more the student practices the more he or she will improve. When students feel pressure to read or meet certain expectations, they tend to lose their enjoyment of reading which eventually will lead to less reading. Research on motivation and effort suggests that if your student tends to enjoy goals and competition, creative reading goals can offer that sensibility without needing to draw a direct comparison to peers. And students in late elementary and middle school might begin to grow discouraged if they compare themselves to peers and measure success by number of pages read or books completed.