Jen McDonough
October 19, 2012
I took a drastic measure last year when my frustration reached the boiling point during Read to Self . Too many of my students were spending their independent reading time reading a choice book at their frustration reading level. Each student had 8-10 Just Right books in their book boxes, and one free choice book. The problem was most students were engaged in reading the pictures, pretending to read the text, and flipping pages without reading. They knew it, and they knew I knew it.
My prior instruction included the importance of reading Good-Fit books and how fluency and comprehension improves when practicing with words they knew. I offered frequent reminders during whole group instruction and one-on-one conferring to use Check for Understanding to recognize if a book was too difficult. I inspirationally espoused how far they grow, as readers, when reading text that is Just Right for them. I showed and modeled Three Ways to Read a book so they were able to look at the pictures and think about the story even if they couldn't read the words.
For the first time in my career, I asked the kids to remove free choice books from their baskets. But wait! Before you judge; that I am damaging their sense of reading identity or shattering a desire to become lifelong readers; hear me out. I did not make this decision lightly.
My fears stemmed from an overall lack of reading growth and my decision didn't result from a few students spending too much time in text too difficult for them. This was a class-wide concern. We needed a class-wide intervention.
We created a special "Book of Choice" box with a fun label to store choice books. They were allowed to read those books any time that wasn't Read to Self. Thankfully, all but a few kids were reading Just Right texts again. They began to make reading growth on their assessments, showed better reading stamina during independent reading time, and demonstrated better fluency and comprehension when I conferred with them.
There are good reasons for students to have a choice book that is beyond their reading level. The difference here was that it was an issue with this class at this time and as their teacher I had to do what I thought was best for the kids sitting in front of me. What may have worked last year might not be right this year. We, as teachers, need to trust our knowledge, our assessments, and our instincts to do what is right for kids.
This year, my students are only selecting good fit books. I am waiting to see if a free choice book can be introduced, or not. It's always about making the right decisions for the students who are in front of us right now.