Independent Reading: Inside the Box

October 1, 2012 — Independent Reading: Inside the Box is a fantastic literacy resource that can be used in any classroom from Kindergarten to grade 12. While it is promoted for use in classrooms up to grade 6, it has been utilized with great success in many secondary English classrooms.

The book contains tasks targeting a variety of skills that students complete independently before, during and after reading. The student has a choice of different “boxes” or activities for each skill (for example a choice of 8 activities or boxes for the skill of Inferring). The student picks one activity from each skill to complete for the book they are reading. As an added bonus, rubrics are included for each of the skills.

The skills in the book include text elements, word skills, taxonomy of thinking, reading strategies (connecting, questioning, visualizing, inferring, predicting, determining importance, synthesizing). This book is well laid out, easy to use, and the activities can be used immediately in the classroom.