There’s a quiet revolution happening at Alta High School—and it starts with 20 minutes of silence.

Not the awkward kind. The good kind. The kind where teenagers are flipping pages, lost in books they chose themselves.

If that sounds improbable, even a little magical, you’re not alone.

“Sometimes I’ll look up and think… wait, they’re all reading?” said English teacher Peggy DeVeny. “And then I don’t say anything because I don’t want to ruin it.”

Like many educators across the country, DeVeny was seeing a troubling trend: students disengaging from reading. Assigning whole-class novels—once a staple—wasn’t landing the way it used to.

So, a few years ago, she tried something different. Instead of telling every student what to read, she gave them a structured choice.

The results were immediate—and surprising.

“Students who had been checked out all year were suddenly reading,” she said. “They were finishing books. Going back for more. Their grades improved. Their engagement improved. Everything shifted.”

One student, who hadn’t finished a book since elementary school, returned to the library with a confession—and a request: “I loved this. Do you have the sequel?”

That moment, said Alta High teacher-librarian Amanda Siler, is exactly the point.

“One of our goals is that students leave high school seeing themselves as readers,” she said. “Not just people who can read—but people who do read.”

Students still work within clear academic expectations. Books must meet basic criteria (length, genre, appropriateness), parents sign off on the book selections, and assignments align with rigorous literacy standards.

It helps, said DeVeny, to set aside some classroom time for in-class reading. Adults modeling reading also matters, notes DeVeny, whether at home or in the classroom.

Giving students ownership over reading does more than boost engagement—it improves reading scores and grades. “I had students raise their reading levels by two grades in a single quarter,” DeVeny said.