Launching independent reading at the beginning of the year can feel a little… chaotic.
You’ve got bins of books, wiggly little learners, and big dreams of quiet reading time. But how do you actually teach your students what independent reading looks like—especially when many are still learning to read?
That’s where the 3 Ways to Read a Book comes in. This simple framework helps you introduce independent reading in a way that’s accessible, engaging, and effective—even during those hectic first weeks of school.
In this post, I’ll share how I teach the 3 Ways to Read a Book, tips for building reading stamina, and a free set of expectations posters to help you get started with confidence.
Let’s be honest: the words “independent reading” can feel a little ambitious when you’re working with beginning readers.
The “3 Ways to Read a Book” gives students permission to engage with books in developmentally appropriate ways—while still reinforcing that they are real readers.
Here’s how I teach it at the beginning of the year:
1. Read the Words
We talk about how reading the words means using decoding strategies, looking for known sight words, and reading from left to right. This becomes more relevant as the year progresses and students gain phonics skills.
📚 I keep “just right” book bins handy for independent practice, but emphasize that any attempt to read the words counts—no perfection needed.
To model Read the Words I use Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins. This book has works evey year, even if they have read it before! I read the words without the showing the pictures and with a very boring voice. I ask whether they enjoyed the story and, of course, they say NO, that was boring!
2. Read the Pictures
This strategy is especially empowering for emerging readers. I model how to use the pictures to tell the story, make predictions, and connect with characters.
✨ Teaching Tip: Choose wordless books or books with strong visuals (like Goodnight Gorilla) for modeling this one over the first few weeks of school.
Continuing with Rosie’s Walk, we then read the pictures. This is always so much fun! We notice that the fox wasn’t in the words at all and that we had missed a major part of the story by only focusing on the words! We make predictions about what is going to happen to the fox on every second page. We notice that there are marks on the page that show the direction of the rake flinging up, for example, and that we can follow the gaze of the fox to see that he is watching Rosie very intently. We notice that Rosie seems oblivious to the fox, but there is always a little cutie that says maybe she is walking that way on purpose because she looks so smug!
3. Retell the Story
They always beg to read the book again, so we always end up retelling the story in the same sitting! We use the pictures and what we know about the words to retell the story in our own words. I get volunteers to retell or offer suggestions for some pages after I have modelled the first few.
After this, even my most reluctant readers want to start reading from their book boxes.
Download Your Posters
You can download my free 3 Ways to Read a Book posters here. There’s a bonus Are You a Book Lover? poster included as well as many more!
Learn More
Check out these blog posts for more Back-to-School info and freebies:
5 Responses
Hi Kylie! I LOVED this post. I have just been given a 1/2 composite class for the whole of term 1 (my first ever whole term teaching job) and I am doing the same thing as you. I want to get the kiddies doing centres and reading to self is such a tricky one to get their stamina built up for! This post was just so helpful….THANK YOU so much for posting your experiences. Hoping you have a great end to your week and a fabulous weekend ahead. Happy Australia Day!!
Tina
Good Morning Mrs Rubie
Hi Kylie
Thanks for this post! One of my teaching colleagues had mentioned the Daily 5 website to me and I have been meaning to have a look.
I am inspired!
I can’t wait to try it tomorrow.
I’ll blog about how I went once I have given it a go.
I hope my class enjoy it as much as yours seem to have.
Jane
The Learning Curve
Hi Kylie
Do you use the whole Daily 5 and CAFE system? For how long have you used it and are you happy with it? Do you have the books or did you subscribe to the website? Which would you recommend?
I would love to get started with it but I’m not sure if the book or the website would be simpler to follow.
Thanks
Jane
Tina, congratulations on receiving your first term contract! I’m sure it’ll be the first of many!
Jane, this is my third year doing both the Daily 5 and CAFE, although the first year I really struggled with the recording keeping (CAFE) side of things and didn’t implement it properly. I’ve had to change the Daily 5 to suit my school requirements (e.g. do a Daily 2 or 3 instead) but I still set it up the same.
I have bought both books and found them invaluable when I first started. I still refer back to them each Summer before heading back for the new year. I have only recently subscribed to the website so I could find out more about Daily 5 Math. I think the books are more worthwhile as you have everything in one spot, it takes you through the set up, has sample lessons, strategy lesson etc. Good luck!
Kylie
Thanks, Kylie. I am ordering the books. One of the other teachers on my year level is keen to give it a go so we will be able to learn together.
We tried your lesson today in my class. They only managed 50 seconds! 20 minutes seems a long way off!