Final Project
By Leo Cleary-Foeller

Independent Reading
• What I took away most from this class was the
impact that independent reading can have on a
young learner. I based my final project on how we
as teachers can get our to students to not only
read when they are required to, but also read in
their free time. I used the experiences I had as a
young student learning how to read. I also took
the strategies and terms we learned in class and
related them to each other, and also combined
them to stress the importance of reading and
encourage independent reading.

Motivation
• Being told as a young student that I was supposed to
read just wasn’t enough for me. I needed that extra little
push to get me going; some sort of added incentive. This
is common among many young students, and why
motivation is such an important part of a child’s reading
process. Providing motivation that young readers can
relate to can make the difference in them enjoying
reading or not. No one strategy or lesson is going to
motivate every student in your class, but the more you
talk about and stress this in class the more likely you are
to have an impact on your students.

Reading Reasons
• “9 Reading Reasons” by Kelly Gallagher was a text that motivated
me to read more and really convinced me to do more reading in my
own free time. This article shows kids nine practical reasons why
they should read on their own. Including: “Reading is financially
rewarding.” “Reading makes you smarter.” “Reading opens the
door for college and beyond.” (Gallagher 2003). Gallagher delves
into each of the nine reasons and the positive impact they can
have.
• I believe I enjoyed this piece so much is because it gives teachers an
answer to smart alec kids like me who asked “why do we need to
read this?” It gives legitimacy to the teacher who is on their
students about how important reading really is. For many students
hearing these reasons and hearing it from an outside source may
truly sell them on the importance of reading.

Print Rich Classrooms/Praise
• It makes it a lot easier to stress the importance of reading and motivate your
students to read if you have text for them to read. Not only just books and
independent reading options, but all kinds of literature throughout the classroom.
In our text book “Teaching Reading in the 21st Century” it says “Three kinds of
print should fill your room, published material, print created by teacher, and print
created by students.” (Graves 2011)
• If all these are present and all there are an abundance of all three, students can’t
help but to read. They look on the wall and they will see their own work, the work
of their classmates, and even the work of their teacher. They will also have a
variety of texts to choose from to read in silent selective reading time.
• Seeing your own work hanging up for the whole class to see can serve as its own
motivation, but praise can be as strong as a motivator as any. Having students set
goals for reading and then accomplishing them can prove to be very effective.
Especially when they are backed with praise. Telling a student they are doing a
good job can be go miles for a students confidence. Young kids want to do things
that they are good at, and if they are setting realistic reading goals and achieving
them they will start to realize they can be good readers. This is the best type of
motivation a teacher can ask for.

Culture
• “It is not all surprising that students are more engaged and
motivated to learn if they feel what they are learning is
related to their own out of school lives.” (Graves 2011)
• This concept seems so simple, yet if as teachers we alter the
texts assigned and lessons we teach to relate to our
students, this can help keep students interested and motivate
them to read more. Having a library full of options that can
relate to all different types of cultures and interests is
essential.

Choice
• Choice is a powerful thing to give a student. There is not one or even two books
that will fill the interest of every student in your classroom. Giving kids the option
to choose books that interest and relate to them makes reading much more
appealing. A quote that I found to be very interesting in Donalyn Miller’s “Creating
a Classroom Where Readers Flourish” is a students response when Miller asks her
students if she should assign “The Hunger Games” because almost all the students
have read and enjoyed the book on their own. “No, no, please don’t! When teachers
tell us we have to read a book, we hate it. We like it that we get to choose what we
read.” (Miller 2012) To me this quote just proves that students want to choose what
they read if for no other reason than they just want freedom.
• You can incorporate the choices your giving your students in their reading options
and make it a group activity. Students will not only learn about their own culture
but the different culture of their classmates. This will not only get students more
interested in reading but in learning with their classmates and improving their
social skills.

Jordan
In elementary school I was obsessed
with Michael Jordan. I remember
getting a book about his career as a
basketball player. It was filled with tons
of cool pictures and stories.
Unfortunately I couldn’t fully grasp the
concept in the book and I was
essentially just able to look at pictures
and read their captions. I remember
always wanting to read this book. It
served as great motivation for me to
become a better reader so that
eventually I would be able to be fluent
enough to read it.

Motivation and Culture
• The greatest way I can think of to motivate your
students to do any work is for them to be truly
interested in the subject. As I stated earlier you
can give your students this option by simply
letting them choose what they read. If there is a
type of book that your students are supposed to
read such as a biography, you can give them the
option of a plethora of books from just as many
cultures, races, and socioeconomic status’. This
way they will be interested and still learn the
targeted material.

To Kill A Mocking Bird
This book played a large role in my
independent reading as a child. I vividly
remember as middle schooler given the
option of reading a number of different
books. One of which was Harper Lee’s “To Kill
a Mockingbird”. I went home and asked my
mom which one I would like. She told me to
choose “To Kill a Mockingbird”. I enjoyed
having the choice and being able to talk to my
parents about the books I was reading. I also
fell in love with this book, and it really had a
big impact on me as a reader and made me
want to read more books similar to this one. I
felt as though I wanted to be just like Atticus
Finch when I grew up. Not only was I enjoying
reading, I was learning about different
cultures without even realizing it.

Fluency
“Fluency is the ability to read
rapidly, smoothly, without many errors, and
with appropriate expression.” (Graves 2011)
• My understanding is that fluency is the ability
to read without having to think about what
you’re reading. Being able to read without
constantly pausing; almost as if it is automatic.

Fluency Practice
• There are many different tactics and strategies that we
have learned in class about promoting fluency
including: repeated reading, partner reading, radio
reading and many others. All of these may be great
ways to get students to be more fluent. The one thing
all of these have in common is that they all involve
reading. As simple as that sounds the more students
read the better and better they will get. This is not to
say these strategies are obsolete, they may be great for
students who are struggling and I would encourage
teachers to use them. Yet it appears to me no matter
how you go about it, reading is the best way to become
fluent.

My Side of the Mountain
The first chapter book I read in my
own free time was “My Side of the
Mountain”. I remember reading it
on the way to Colorado on a family
vacation. Although I do not recall
most of the information from the
story I do remember being
overwhelmingly excited that I had
the fluency to read it. I remember
thinking I was flying through pages
without having to go back and
check to make sure I knew hardly
any words. I felt I was becoming a
better reader which just
encouraged me to read more and
more often.

Fluency, Culture and Motivation
• I picked these three terms to focus my project on
because of how well they relate to each other. If
teachers motivate their students to read more
frequently they will become more fluent, and able to
read a wider variety of books including some that may
relate to them and their culture. Or you can look at
these three in different ways where books on their
culture can serve as motivation to read more which will
lead to better fluency. No matter how you look at
it, using bits and pieces from all three of these
concepts will help promote independent reading, and
eventually lead our students to becoming better
readers. Which is the primary goal of every reading
class.

Summary
• After going through fifteen weeks of class I tried to think of one main
concept or message to take away from the class. The one that stuck out in
my mind after numerous readings and activities was the importance of
independent reading. I took this concept and tried to come up with the
three terms that related best to my experience as kid growing up learning
how to read, and related to how I will teach my own students when I get
my own class. In my opinion the best way to promote independent
reading and to eventually get your kids to be successful readers is to
individualize teaching. Motivate your students in a ways that apply and
work for them, present books in your class that relate to them and what
they are interested. Then get them to read more and more and give them
strategies that will help them as individualizes to improve their fluency. If
all of these are done at the end of the day I believe that each and every
one of my students will become fluent successful readers no matter what
reading level they entered classroom at.

References
Gallagher, K. (2003). Reading reasons
motivational mini lessons for middle and high school. (p. 17).
Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers. Retrieved
From:https://carmen.osu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=10798
060&tId=5566090
Graves, M. (2011). Teaching reading in the 21st century.
(5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Miller, D. (2012). Creating a classroom where readers flourish. (Vol. 2, p. 91). Retrieved
from:https://carmen.osu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=10798
060&tId=5312345