Guided Choice

A Responsible Approach to Letting Kids Pick Their Own Books

When I tell people I let kids pick their own books for reading, I get a variety of reactions, almost none of them positive. The assumption is that I let kids read anything they want, and that I am, therefore, an irresponsible person who doesn’t care what kids read, who doesn’t teach the classics, who gets in trouble with parents and school boards, and who may be single-handedly responsible for Global Warming and the decline of Western Civilization. Despite the fact that adults choose their own books to read, few people I know think kids should be able to do this, even under adult supervision.

Actually, I don’t think of myself as a heretic or even a rabble rouser. I think of myself as someone who is taking on the responsibility of teaching kids how to make good reading choices, and who believes that giving kids the opportunity to choose is the best way of making sure they learn how to do it well.

The truth is, free choice isn’t really free. I’m always guiding students in some way. While kids get to make their own selections, I’m always monitoring those selections, and intervening in specific ways, according to my instructional goals and my sense of what is appropriate.

While I may believe in free will, I don’t believe in free choice when it comes to kids’ reading; I believe in guided choice. I know that life is about choices. And I want kids to learn how to make good ones. But they’re just kids. And that means they don’t always make the choices that might be best for them and those around them. This is where guidance comes in.

When it comes to helping kids make good book choices, my approach to guided choice is  based on the following principles:

• Define a range of responsible options. I don’t intentionally bring bad books into the classroom so right from the start kids’ choices are constructively constrained. I don’t expect them to have an abundance of truly awful options in the school library either. When I get to know a student’s reading level, most of the books that student chooses will fall within a narrow range just above and below it. And when I’m doing author or genre studies, or we’re studying a specific discipline, these parameters will further narrow the range of responsible options available.

• Align choice with purpose. I want kids to have a reason for reading, a reason that goes beyond just doing it because they have to. At the very least, I want the reason to have something to do with expressing an interest, solving a problem, answering a question, reaching a goal, or just becoming a better reader. And I want kids’ choices to reflect this. This comes into play all the time when we choose texts for the purpose of studying a particular subject. But even in kids’ regular reading, they can bring a sense of purpose to improving a particular reading skill and then use that sense to make sure they have a book that will help them improve it.

• Never let kids make a choice you wouldn’t make for them. Even with excellent instruction and constant supervision, kids make bad choices once in a while. Sometimes these choices are easily negotiated. But sometimes they’re not. This is where I have to step in to tell a student he can’t read five Goosebumps books in a row or that the latest Harry Potter book is so long and so far above his reading level that it will take him the entire year to finish it. Or, perhaps even more confrontational, that the book he has chosen is not one I would suspect his parents would want him to read. Every choice a student makes, even if it is not my choice, is my responsibility. I want kids reading books they like, books they can read, books that will make them better readers, and books that are appropriate for school.

• Choices must occur within a specific time frame. Time is our most precious resource at school. So even though I might take an hour to make a selection while strolling through my favorite bookstore, I’m more likely to give kids just a few minutes. As kids get into the habit of choosing books and then evaluating them at their desks, I might say, “By the end of the period tomorrow, everyone will have decided on a book they’re going to read.” Just as I should define a specific range of choices for kids, I should also define a range of time for making a choice.

• Choices must meet  standards for appropriateness. We are a community of readers in the classroom. We will also be sharing our books. This means that each reader’s choice has to take into account the prevailing attitudes of others in our school and in our community. I often advise kids to pick books based on the idea that their parents and the principal might be in the room to hear them read and discuss it. They are part of our community, too, and they deserve our respect. Occasionally, kids pick inappropriate titles. But a brief, private discussion usually settles the matter. If it doesn’t, I tell kids that as their teacher, I have to err on the side of caution when I’m not sure how others may react.

• If students can’t choose for themselves, I choose for them. Some kids aren’t good at choosing, especially at the beginning of the year. A few others prefer not to choose at all. In either case, the responsibility falls to me to make the best choices for them that I can. While I’m fairly good at matching readers and books, kids quickly realize that I’m not as good as they are when it comes to finding a “just right” book they’ll really enjoy. This realization gives them even more incentive to engage in the choosing process I’m trying to teach them.

Teaching kids how to choose their own books is a good thing to do. In fact, it’s a necessary thing, both for them and for those of us who try to teach them. If I showed you a list of the last 20 books I’ve picked for my own reading, including the ones I didn’t like and chose to abandon, you’d know a lot about me as a reader—including my reading level, my interests, and what books I might want to read next. But if you chose those 20 books for me, you might not learn any of these things. Choosing is not just a skill for student, it’s an assessment tool for the teacher.

To improve the quality of that assessment, I like kids to keep track of the books they choose. In their reading logs, I ask them to note any book they’ve picked, the reason they picked it, whether it was easy, hard, or “just right”, and, if appropriate, where they abandoned it and why. By keeping this list, students develop a sense of whether or not they’re getting better at making good book choices. When they have trouble finding a new book, they can look at the log for patterns and clues. For my part, I can also spot important trends that might indicate that a reader is getting stuck with a particular type of book or at a particular reading level.

Life is all about making good choices. But to learn this valuable skill, kids have to have a chance to make some choices on their own. Choosing books seems to me a great place to start. Who we are as readers is defined by what we read. And readers who choose on their own seem to take more ownership of their reading. Using the principles of guided choice, I can offer kids the sense of independence that motivates them to do their best effort. I can also ensure that the choices they make are healthy ones that further their reading development.