Book Selection

Reading Levels

Many schools across the country use reading levels to inform reading instruction and label reading materials (Parrott, 2017).

• Teachers use students’ individual reading levels to make instructional decisions, and often use them as a way to organize classroom libraries (Parrott, 2017).
• One major argument in favor of requiring students to select leveled books for independent reading is that their comprehension is best when reading books at, or slightly about their individual reading level (Parrott, 2017). Without levels to guide them, struggling readers commonly choose books that are too difficult, which ends in frustration (Kim & White, 2011).
• On the other hand, some children may also select books that are below their reading level, which does not allow for as much growth in reading skills (Kim & White, 2011).
• It is becoming increasingly common for classrooms across the country to have levelled classroom libraries, and the practice is even mandated in some districts (Parrott, 2017). However, leveling books in this manner may also have a negative impact on students’ reading attitudes and self-confidence.
• Some claim allowing students to select books based only on text level is a “formula for failure” and even “educational malpractice” (Parrott, 2017, p. 43-44). Even Fountas and Pinnell, creators of a popular leveling system, do not encourage leveling books for student use, and believe reading levels are “a teacher’s tool, not a child’s label” (as cited in Parrott, 2017, p. 44).
• As children are learning to read, they are also developing their reading identity, and forming their attitudes about reading (Parrott, 2017). Students who are reading at lower levels may feel discouraged and feel like giving up on reading altogether (Parrott, 2011). When students are asked to select books only within their level, many choices are removed, which can foster negative reading attitudes (Parrott, 2017). Rather than selecting books based on reading levels, some advocate for more of an interest-based selection.

Interest-Based Selection

“Student choice and interest overrode text level when children had opportunities to read and reread loved texts” (Compton-Lilly et al., 2016, p. 63).

• When students, especially early readers or those who lack confidence, self-select texts, it can act as a scaffold, allowing them to read more challenging texts (McGill-Franzen et al., 2016).
• Students’ self-selection of books leads to increased engagement and feelings of empowerment, which in turn results in students making the choice to read voluntarily (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2013). In contrast, when books are selected for the students, they will often lack interest (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2013).
• Many researchers have determined popular culture has a major influence on children’s selection of texts (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2008, 2013; Compton-Lilly et al., 2016). When students have the opportunity to self-select books, they relate to “kids’ culture”, which includes popular music, television shows and movies (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2013).
• While it is recommended for students to select their own texts to increase engagement, this task can be overwhelming for some students (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2013). Some students may require teacher support with finding and selecting books that interest them, at least in the beginning (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2013).
• Allington and McGill-Franzen (2013) advocate for using “reduced choices”, which involves a teacher selecting three to five texts that may be interesting for the reader. From there, the reader selects one book that is the most appealing, which is much less overwhelming than selecting from an entire collection of books (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2013). Using reduced choices can be very beneficial to use as a scaffold when students are first learning to self-select texts; however, support should decrease over time since the ability to select books of interest and appropriate difficulty is a valuable literacy skill (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2013).
• Not only is the self-selection of texts a necessary literacy skill for students to develop, but this practice can also increase student engagement in reading (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2008, 2013).