End of the Year Independent Reading Projects

End of the year activities can tend to get a little overwhelming and intense. But one activity at the end of the year that is highly engaging, important, and no prep is the Independent Reading Project. I am going to share with you one of my favorite projects to do with my third or fourth graders at the end of the year!

What is the Independent Reading Project?

The Independent Reading Project is one of those end of the year activities where students get to pick a book of their choice (novel) and read it on their own. It is that easy! They get to pick a book that really interests them and that they can comprehend and then during independent reading time they read it!

When they are done with the book, they will complete a project on that book to share with their classmates.

Why make this one of your end of the year activities?

• The Independent Reading Project is highly engaging to students because students are reading something that they chose and are interested in.
• It is NO prep for you as the teacher.
• It requires students to read and work on reading comprehension of novels. 
• This end of the year activity will push your students to read a novel if they haven’t so far.
• The students get to show their creativity in the project.
• When they present their projects to the class it gives other students ideas of things they would like to read. 

Step by Step Process

This is honestly the easiest end of the year activity that you will ever do! It is so simple and no preparation needed!

1. Help students choose a book. We will talk about the books that interest them, make sure that they can read and comprehend it, and find one they like.
2. Students will read the book during independent reading time and other times throughout the day and evening.
3. When students finish the book, you can have them take a comprehension test (like Accelerated Reader) if you have one! If not, who cares! 😉 
4. Students will pick a book project to complete! I let them pick from 20 book projects! (FREE sample below) You can also head here to read more about them!
5. Once they complete it, they share it with the class and their classmates can ask questions about the book! 

Want a free book project to run this end of the year activity? 

Grab the book projects here!

Head to this blog post to read more!