Ownership of Learning
Ownership of Reading
The Importance of Providing Reading Choice
Why is it important for students to choose their own books? As teachers it is essential for to allow students to choose books that they are interested in and eager to read. Providing choice and freedom of what books to read gives students the opportunity to become eager to read, enjoy reading, and get excited about books.
If students are forced into reading, and forced to read books that do not interest them, then they will be turned off to reading. Also, they will be less eager to pick up a book and read on their own.
When teachers choose stories for their students to read, students automatically become uninterested in the story. According to the article, Creating a Classroom Where Readers Flourish written by Donalyn Miller, the students described in the article dislike stories not based on the content but because they do not have the freedom to choose their books to read.
How to Provide Reading Choice in the Classroom
It is important to provide choice within the standards and objectives of the lesson and unit. In a classroom a teacher can give the students a handful of books, where all of the books cover the same standard and objective of the lesson. What this also looks like in a classroom is to give the students a time frame to which they are to finish reading either a fiction, non-fiction, folktale and biography. Tell the students they have one month to pick and read a story that falls under one of these genres. Next month, tell the students to do the same, but to pick a genre they have not read before. This covers the same standards for the school year, while allowing the students to feel empowered.
As long as the standards and objectives are covered there is no reason why students whould not have freedom to choose their own books.
