Independent Reading Tasks to Get Your Students Thinking

As secondary ELA teachers, most of our readers can read texts independently. Their levels may be varied, but giving your students ownership over what they read and the tasks they choose can help them go deeper when it comes to analyzing and understanding what they read. Whether your students are reading fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, you can try these independent reading tasks to get your students thinking.

Fiction

Characters

When it comes to reading novels, let your students try some independent tasks that help with exploring characters in the book. Young adult novels often focus on dynamic characters, characters that change throughout the novel. Coming of age stories are particularly popular in YA lit. Use fiction task cards to have your students focus on character elements like realism, how the characters are involved in conflicts, and which characters are their favorites or least favorites. 

Setting

In addition, fiction task cards also explore elements of the setting. The time and place of a story can influence so many other elements, such as theme, character, conflict, and plot. Have your students explain why they would not (or would) like to live during the time and in the place of their book. Also, have them describe the setting. Get them thinking about descriptive words and phrases they can use to evoke powerful imagery.

Nonfiction

Autobiography, Biography

Explore informational text through nonfiction task cards. Nonfiction texts are as varied as fiction. Your students may read autobiographies or biographies. Have your students think about questions they may ask the subject of the book or a gift they would give the person.  

Author’s Purpose

Is the text your students are reading meant to inform, entertain, or persuade? The author’s purpose is an important part of comprehending and analyzing text. Have your students reflect on why the author wrote the nonfiction text with nonfiction task cards.

Poetry

Poetry can be a difficult genre for middle school students to dissect. First, start by expanding your students’ ideas of what poetry is. Poetry can include songs and verse novels. Give them a choice in their poems and have them think about poetry in a new way with poetry task cards. Your students can answer questions about the meaning of the poems by reflecting on the author’s particular choices. Think about the time period the poem is set (if applicable), the details the poet includes or leaves out, and the use of figurative language. Poetry is a powerful genre when it comes to independent reading.

Thinking About Reading

Your readers are ready to explore their own book choices. Let your students choose fiction, nonfiction, or poetry texts and think about what they are reading with independent reading task cards. Use the cards in small groups or for early finishers. The independent reading task cards bundle comes with cards for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. With 140 task cards and 67 pages, these standard-based question cards will help your students think about what they are reading every day! Try these independent reading tasks to get your students thinking in your secondary ELA classroom. 

Poetry Books to Inspire a Love of Poetry

The announcement of a poetry unit may elicit groans from your students, but when we start to broaden our view of poetry beyond the classical ballads and patterned rhymes, our students may learn to appreciate even love the genre. Add these poetry books to inspire a love of poetry to your shelves, and watch your students find a newfound appreciation for poetic verse.

The Rose that Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur 

Tupac (2Pac) was a well-known rapper until he lost his life by gang violence at the age of 25. His music has lived on, but what’s even more impressive is his poetry. Without the explicit lyrics of some of his rap songs, The Rose that Grew from Concrete provides a look a personal metaphorical poems that students can use to inspire their own lyric poetry. Images of rough drafts in the poet’s own handwriting help your students understand poetry writing as a creative process. Show your students that poetry is modern, filled with voice, and that music is poetry! Try using the SIFT strategy mentioned in this blog post to analyze the title poem, “The Rose that Grew from Concrete.” You’ll be surprised with what your students come up with!

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech 

You can introduce your students to classic poets like Robert Frost, William Blake, and William Carlos Williams without having them scratch their heads in confusion. Jack, the main character in Love that Dog learns to connect with poetry (which he does not like in the beginning) through a personal event in his own life. He writes versions of popular poems he learns about in school. Use the text to show the models of these famous poems, and have your students write their own versions, just like Jack did.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein 

Although Silverstein’s poetry books may seem a little elementary, I’ve never met a secondary student that couldn’t appreciate Shel Silverstein’s fun rhymes, imagery, and quirky speakers. Bringing back some of their childhood favorites will help them remember what they loved about poetry as a younger student. Use some of the rhymes to teach literary concepts like point of view, similes, and personification. You may also focus on imagery by having students draw new illustrations to go with their favorite poem. Silverstein poems are also perfect to practice recitation and memorization. One of the first texts I memorized as a child was from Where the Sidewalk Ends!

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson 

For students that love to read novels or narrative nonfiction, verse novels are one way to introduce poetry. Woodson tells the story of her life through verse in this powerful memoir that earned her a Newbery Award and National Book Award. The story begins in the 1960s, a time of racial inequality and segregation in the South. Woodson’s story is relevant still today and is a powerful way to teach real, authentic narrative poetry. Poetry books are not just textbook anthologies filled with hard to understand language and iambic pentameter. Beautiful free verse poems, lyrics from musicians and artists, and novel length memoirs and narratives are some poetry books to inspire a love of poetry with your secondary students. Try some of these titles out in your classroom.

Literature for Women's History Month

Although March is Women's History Month, I don't like to just celebrate women in the month of March. I feel that traditionally mostly white male authors are taught and that's not fair. I like to incorporate a variety of authors throughout the entire school year.

I know that some schools have very rigid book lists. If you work in a school like that I encourage you to incorporate as many multicultural and female authors as you can into your classroom library. Even if you can't teach these books as whole class novels, you can incorporate them into independent reading. If you don't have a classroom library maybe you could add some female authors that have written poetry or short stories.

Here are some female authors I've incorporated into my classroom:

Fiction

Mary Shelley: The novel Frankenstein is either taught in a 12th grade British Literature class or AP Literature because of the complexity of the text. I've only taught this novel once in an AP Literature course but I hope to delve deeper into the novel in the future.

Sylvia Plath: I love to teach the semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. I've used this book a few times with seniors. Even though the book was written many decades ago I feel like some of the internal struggles that the narrator has are still struggles that people today have. I've also taught many of Plath's poems when I taught a creative writing course.

Laurie Halse Anderson: I've taught two of her novels in the past: Speak and Catalyst. Speak is a great novel to use with 9th graders as the protagonist is their age. The protagonist of the novel Catalyst is in 12th grade and she's dealing with the stress of applying to college. I think that teenagers like seeing characters their own age because it's more relatable.

Lorraine Hansberry: I've taught the play A Raisin in the Sun numerous times with both 9th and 10th graders. I think that this play is important to teach because of the historical context of racism in the late 1950's.

Sandra Cisneros: I've taught The House on Mango Street a few times. I've used the book in entirety with 9th graders and I've used pieces of it with a creative writing class. My students really enjoy this book. There are some controversial topics in the book but these are topics that students need to talk about.

Alice Sebold: I've taught the novel The Lovely Bones several times with both 11th and 12th graders. Although the book is very sad, it is well-written and unique. My students enjoyed it and they really liked the movie version of the book.

S.E. Hinton: I've taught the novel The Outsiders a few times with 9th grade classes. This book can be used with both middle school or high school students. Working in the inner city I found that my students could relate to many of the issues in this book.

Sharon Draper: I've taught the novel Tears of a Tiger with 9th grade classes but this book could easily be used with middle school students as well. The characters are teenagers and the situations they face are situations that students can easily relate to.

R.J. Palacio: The book Wonder can be used with a variety of grade levels. I've used this book with 9th graders but it is usually taught with younger grades. Wonder is a great book to use when discussing anti-bullying.

Suzanne Collins: The book The Hunger Games can be taught with any grade 7-12. Some people might be cautious about using the novel with younger students because there is a lot of death in the book but most students are probably familiar with the book already because of the popularity of the film.

Non-Fiction

Maya Angelou: I've taught the memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings once with seniors. It's both heart-wrenching and well-written. I would use this book with older students because there is a lot of abusive situations in the memoir. I also love teaching many of her poetry both in conjunction with the memoir or as stand alone lessons.

Short Stories

Shirley Jackson: I've taught both the short story "The Lottery" and the short story "Charles" by Shirley Jackson. Both stories can be used with a variety of grade levels and have interesting themes.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: I've taught the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper a few times. I think it works well with either 11th or 12th graders because of the level of vocabulary. I usually pair this short story with the short story "A Rose for Emily" (not written by a female author but still deals with feminist issues) and the poem "Barbie Doll."

Flannery O'Conner also has a lot of great short stories for upper grades.

Poetry

This is a list of some female poets I like to incorporate into my curriculum:

Emily Dickinson
Sylvia Plath
Anne Sexton
Maya Angelou
Nikki Giovanni
Marge Piercy

I have a few other female authors listed in this blog post I wrote about Literature for Black History Month.

Poetry In The Classroom

Many students today dislike poetry. I know that I often hear grunts, groans and other sounds of displeasure when the aim on my board has the word poetry in it. I don't usually have an isolated poetry unit because I fear for my life. LOL just kidding. I don't have an isolated unit because I teach poetry all year long.

I incorporate poetry with every novel and play that I teach. I always find poetry that relates to the theme, the time-period, the genre, etc. Sometimes I'll do an isolated poetry lesson or two but I only do that if I don't want to start a new unit. (Example I end a unit a few days before Spring Break and I don't want to start something new.)

When I teach the play A Raisin in the Sun, I incorporate numerous poems including the poem by Langston Hughes that inspired the title of the play. When I teach the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas I use poetry about The Holocaust. Before teaching any Shakespearean play I start with some of Shakespeare's sonnets. Without fail I always have a student that has never read Shakespeare and I like to read a few sonnets as an introduction to the language. Those are just a few examples of how I incorporate poetry into my literature units.

When I do teach isolated poetry lessons I try find "fun" poems that I think my students can relate to. One poem that I sometimes use as an isolated poetry lesson is the poem "Barbie" by Marge Piercy. It usually brings up some interesting discussion in class about gender inequality and the affects of bullying. I have a free PowerPoint lesson for the poem in my TpT store for this particular poem.

I always need to teach poetry lessons when I'm preparing students for exams such as the New York State Regents exam and the AP Literature exam. Both of those high stakes exams include poetry. I have another blog post about analyzing poetry. Click here to read that blog post.

I know that April is National Poetry Month and that many teachers dedicate some time this month for teaching poetry. I love poetry so much that I teach a little here and there all year round. I find that teaching a day or two of poetry here and there is tolerated more by my students than spending a full 3 or 4 weeks on poetry. I always get a student here or there that loves poetry as much as I do, but for the most part students aren't into the complexity that poetry sometimes presents. I hear comments like "Why can't the author just say what they mean?" Maybe your students are different than mine but I can only speak from my experiences.

Analyzing Poetry

If your students are anything like mine a lot of them don't like poetry. Many of my students get confused by poetry and they give up too easily. Unfortunately there is always a poem on our state exam. After many years of dealing with kids saying "I hate poetry" I decided to think outside the box. I love mnemonic devices and I use them quite often in my classroom. For poetry I use the mnemonic device SIFT.

Summary (2-3 sentences describing what the poem is about)
Imagery (Pictures formed in your mind from the author’s words)
Figurative Language (Other literary devices used such as metaphor, simile, etc.)
Theme (What is the author’s message to the reader?)

This week in my classroom I'm having students work in small groups (2-4) analyzing different poems using the SIFT method. First I model for them with this poem that I found online.

Teenagers  

One day they disappear
into their rooms.
Doors and lips shut
and we become strangers
in our own home.

I pace the hall, hear whispers, 
a code I knew but can't remember, 
mouthed by mouths I taught to speak.

Years later the door opens.
I see faces I once held,
open as sunflowers in my hands.  I see 
familiar skin now stretched on long bodies 
that move past me 
glowing almost like pearls.

  — Pat Mora 

SUMMARY: A parent is talking about her teenaged children and thinking about what life used to be like when they were small children. She talks about how much the teenagers have changed over the years and she wishes that she was as class as they used to be.

IMAGERY: When I was reading the poem I could picture in my mind a mother standing outside of a closed door. I also could envision the teenagers inside of their rooms on the telephone with their friends.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: Flashback – The mother is remembering her teenaged children when they were smaller. (Second stanza “mouthed by mouths I taught to speak”) Simile – In the third stanza – “I see faces I once held, / open as sunflowers in my hands,” The mother is comparing her child’s face to an open sunflower.

THEME: Children grow up and often distance themselves from their parents during their teenaged years.

After I model for them they get into their groups and analyze their poetry. I'll give them chart paper and markers so we can display their work. Sometimes I'll have each group present their poems. I explained this method in video format here: Using the Mnemonic Device SIFT to Analyze Poetry Video and PowerPoint Lesson. Let me know if this method works for you.