Choosing Just Right Books for Independent Reading

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Choosing Just Right Books for Independent
Reading

• By
• Andrea Frasier

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Independent Reading

• Independent reading enables students to clock up
  mileage as readers, expand their reading powers,
  and fulfill the essential goal of daily reading.
• 
  -Fountas Pinnell

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Classroom Library

• Students should have access to a range of quality
  books.
• Book baskets should be filled with fiction,
  nonfiction, poetry, and various levels of reading
  difficulty
• The library should keep growing and changing to
  reflect student interests, reading levels, and
  topics of study

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Why Is this Important?

• Children can read for extended periods of time
  when they are matched with a Just Right book,
  which will enable teachers to confer and meet
  with small groups.
• Children are more successful with books that
  interest them.
• Children are capable of using a variety of
  strategies if their book offers the right amount
  of support and challenges.
• Semantic and syntactic cues can not be accessed
  when books are too difficult and children are
  forced to rely on graphophonic cues.

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Easy Books

• Students can read the words fluently (smooth and
  with an interesting voice)
• There often are not a lot of words on a page
• Students know how to say all the words
• There are not a lot of pages in the book
• Students have a lot of schema for the subject
• Sometimes the book has a larger font
• Students totally understand the story
• Students reading rate may be quicker
• Students thinking comes easy as they read the
  words

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Challenging

• Many of the words are too hard to decode (failed
  a five finger test)
• Students don't know what the tricky words MEAN
• Students reading becomes choppy more than it is
  fluent
• Students don't have any schema for the subject
• There are often a lot of words on the page
• Often the font is small
• Students may lose focus while reading
• Students are not enjoying the book because they
  have to do too much word work
• Their thinking is confused
• Their reading rate slows way down

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Just Right

• Students can read most of the words
• Students can understand what you are reading
• Students enjoy reading the book
• Students may have some schema for the subject
• They can read the book with smooth fluency but
  there are some choppy places
• Their reading rate is just right- not too slow
  and not too fast
• Students can figure out the tricky words and
  still get the meaning of the story

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Model How to Choose Just Right Books

• Demonstrate reading from adult texts that are too
  easy, challenging, and just right for you
• Develop an anchor chart with your students with
  criteria for choosing books

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Know Your Students!

• Conference during independent reading (see sample
  conference questions)
• Listen to students read!!!
• Consider how the books in your classroom support
  and challenge all readers

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Students Practice Choosing Just Right Books

• A lot of time in the beginning of the year should
  be invested in helping students choose books that
  they CAN and WANT to read!
• This will set the tone for readers workshop for
  the rest of the year
• Teachers should always monitor book selection,
  including level and genre, etc., but students
  should have the tools to choose books on their
  own

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Reflect on Book Selection

• Carlos realized that he had chosen a book that
  was too challenging
• He shared with the class how he knew it was too
  difficult (I read it very slowly, there were a
  lot of words I didnt know, my reading was
  choppy!)
• He chose it because it was about 5th grade and
  thought he would be able to make connections to
  the charactershe decided to come to it in a
  month or so!

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Where Do I Find Books?

• Check books out of the library
• Share with other teachers
• Book Room
• Book Club Award Points
• Spend on 1-6 copies of a single text (not on
  whole class text sets!)

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Supporting All Readers

• For optimal learning to occur, students must be
  matched to Just Right books
• If this is not in place, many students continue
  getting taught with the main reading textbook
  (basal) that is at their frustration level
• Students continue getting taught (but not
  necessarily learning) for the whole school year
  using an inappropriate book
• It is imperative that students learn to choose
  appropriate books for independent reading!