In Not this but that, No More Independent Reading Without
Support, Miller states the importance of balancing school reading opportunities
with choice reading texts. One of the best literacy decision that I made this
year was allowing my students to choose more of what they want to read and less
of what I want them to read. When students have the opportunity to choose their
own books they feel empowered, gain interest and are more likely to read even
more books. Several of my students prefer nonfiction books about animals,
space, plants etc. while a majority enjoys popular fictions books such as Pete
the Cat, Laura Numeroff Series, Junie B, Fly Guy to name a few. I like the fact that Miller mentions that
even though we should let students choose their own books we should still make
it a priority to make sure that students are exposed to a variety of genres. I’ve
tried as much as possible, to do that for example, my students have had the
opportunity to read biographies during Black History Month, poems related to
the different seasons, several fairy tales and folktales and informational
books on topics studied in Science and Social Studies. Some of the texts were easy, but most were
difficult but those difficult texts have helped them to grow as readers.
As a parent, I learned very quickly about the power of choice. Our readers will thrive and enjoy reading so much more if we remember this in our classrooms too.
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