Teachers and parents are often frustrated with kids when they don’t do more reading on their own. We talk a lot about the importance of choice,too. But do we do enough to facilitate choice for our students so they’re genuinely invested in the books they’ve chosen?
In their new book, Game Changer! Book Access For All Kids, Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp address this by devoting an entire chapter to choice.
Lifelong readers have strong reading preferences and can self-select books successfully (Miller, 2013). If we want children and teens to become lifelong readers, they need to practice and fine-tune their book-selection skills, too. When children begin selecting their own books to read, many adults worry that they will make “inappropriate” book choices or select books that don’t feed their reading development. Yes, many students struggle with making wise book choices. But we can help them by modeling how to preview and evaluate books and challenge themselves as readers.
When we assume kids know how to choose books they’ll stick with and enjoy, we do them a disservice. And I’m not referring only to the young.
I had a tutoring session recently with a middle school student and the majority of our hour together was spent talking about how readers choose books to read on their own. He confided in me that he knew he should be reading more, but he had trouble finding books that he wanted to finish. “I don’t finish most of the books I check out from the library at school or get from my teacher because they just don’t interest me.” We made a list of ways we know readers choose books to read. The list included–
- recommendations from other readers
- books in a series we love
- other books by an author we favor
- topics that interest us
- book covers that intrigue
Donalyn and Colby include even more ways for choosing books in their chapter on choice (wish I’d had my copy already so I could’ve shared them all with my middle school friend). It’s critical for students to know this variety of ways that readers use to choose new books to read. I’m hoping that I’ve created enough interest in Game Changers! that you’ll order your own copy if you haven’t already.
Teachers must include information about choosing books in procedural mini-lessons, conferring moments, casual conversations and intentional modeling in the classroom. Students need time in the daily schedule to share book recommendations and book talks (scheduled or impromptu) to facilitate great conversations around books.
It’s time we stop lamenting that kids don’t read books for enjoyment and actually do something that would empower them to be better “choosers”.
Take time often to revisit the ways in which readers make book choices, making every effort to honor and celebrate the books your kids take on to read.
