The best-selling first edition of this popular book showed teachers how to use a single sheet of paper to help students focus on reading books they love rather than filling reading time with busy work. This highly anticipated second edition explores critical literacy to help promote higher-order thinking skills, relating independent reading response to instructional core. It offers sixteen new reading response “boxes”, with strategies for using them as prompts and in blended learning tasks, and options for providing thoughtful and effective feedback and assessment. The author argues for giving students choice among response tasks, and exploring innovative ways to make thinking visible during independent reading.

A caring and dynamic teacher, Lisa Donohue is passionate about creative solutions and innovative teaching techniques. Lisa has a strong background in the arts, and works collaboratively with other teachers in developing balanced literacy programs that foster student achievement. She was nominated as Teacher of the Year for 2010–2011, and is currently working as a Digital Literacy Resource Teacher with the York Region District School Board. Lisa lives in Newmarket, Ontario.

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Participation Independent Reading Inside the Box: How to Organize, Observe, and Assess Reading Strategies that Promote Deeper Thinking and Improve Comprehension in K-6 Classrooms