Choice #2: Choice in What You Read

This week we are continuing to practice our Read to Self Choice, and making great strides! My hope is for students to have comfortably mastered this choice before I introduce the next choice, Read to Someone. While students have mastered many of the I-Chart expectations of Read to Self one of my additional concerns has been what they are choosing to read.  I truly believe that it is important to give students choice in what they read, while also making sure that what they are reading is appropriate for their age and reading level. In our classroom we still use our basal textbook, focusing on a different story each week, and while this story is deemed “at their level” it doesn’t fit all the levels of readers in my classroom, and it definitely does not always spark their interest. However, the basal is not something that I can give up, it is something that I am expected to use in my classroom, and therefore I am placing great focus on the choices students do have in what they read, trying to enable to choose good independent reading book that truly fit them.

I have worked to help students make good choices in what they read through two different focus lessons, both of which compare choosing a book to shopping of some sort! One lesson focused on finding a “just right” book versus one that is “easy” or “challenging”. I first read a picture book entitled Goldilocks and the Three Hares and then used that to compare books that are too easy, too challenging, or just right. We continued by making a chart that listed different qualities of each of these types of books, and ended with a shopping comparison. Using Wild hockey jerseys I had one that was too small (a Build-A-Bear shirt), one that was too big (an adult jersey), and one that was just right (a youth jersey). I had students try on these jerseys and as they modeled we compared the fit of these different size jerseys to the fit of a good “just right” book.

Shopping for "Just Right" Books

 Easy - Challenging - Just Right

A few days later I expanded on the idea of choosing a “just right” book to picking  the right “just right” book to fit all your needs. For this lesson I used the I PICK strategy, as introduced by “the sisters” in the Daily 5. In the strategy the acronym stands for I= I chose a book P= Purpose, what is my purpose in reading this book? I = Interest – Why am I interested in this book? C= Comprehend – Do I understand what I am reading? And K= Know – do I know most of the words I am reading. As an introduction to this strategy I used a comparison of shoes. I started by reading a picture book called Shoe-La-La and the brought a bag of shoes I had collected from around my house. We first looked at the purpose of each shoe and what interests it did and did not express about me. We then compared this to books, I would not wear my sandals when I play kickball just like how I would not read a comic book if my purpose was to research for a paper. We noted that I did not have any golf shoes in my bag, but I did have soccer cleats, that showed my interest. This is similar to choosing a book that interests you, you don’t want to read something that is not interesting to just like you would not own golf shoes if golf was not interesting you.

We continued the conversation to Comprehend and Know by looking at one of my husband’s shoes that was in the bag. When I put it on and tired to walk around in it I had difficulty walking, similar to a book I don’t understand or can not read most of the words in. We continued to make connections to shoes as we talked about how picking the best “just right” book was going to be different for everyone. I then had two students with very different size tennis shoes on attempt to switch shoes, the shoes showed similar purpose and interest, but clearly would affect the students ability to perform, similar to how choose a book that you do not understnad or know most of the words in can affect your reading.The following day students were given a copy of the I PICK strategy along with an assignment that required them to go through all four steps of the I PICK strategy in picking out a book within the next week. I am eager to read their responses and see what “just right” books they have chosen to read.

Teaching the I PICK Lesson

Today in class we began to discuss the next Reading Workshop Choice: Read to Someone. This is the one that I am most nervous about because it requires students to work well with one another and stay focused on their reading. This is one that we will practice a lot! The students lit up with excitement at the mention of being able to choose to read to someone else during reading time! We first talked about and modeled how to sit EEKK (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) with the person you are reading with and then brainstormed our ideas for the I-Chart, and they seemed to get it. There ideas for the chart showed me that they realized this is not about hanging out with a friend, this is about reading!  Their ideas led right to the conclusion I was hoping for, that reading to someone will help us get better at reading out loud and make us better readers! I am looking forward to seeing how the introduction of this newest choice goes and hoping they continue to use the power of choice to choose good “just right” books!  

Choice #1: Read to Self

We have survived the first two weeks of school... the supplies are unpacked and being used, the books have been taken out of lockers and read, and the routines have been learned. We have spent a lot of time the first two weeks of school building a foundation for our community and I am thrilled with the way our year is starting off!

We jumped into Reading Workshop on the first day of school and after reading Read All About It by Laura and Jenna Bush we talked about what we love to read and why we love to read. Some students contributed more to the conversation than others, but not one was groaning about reading, so I took that as a good sign. Before embarking on our first independent reading time we sat together at the carpet and talked about how this year in Reading Workshop that students will have choices, but those choices will not all come at once, we have to learn them one at a time. I saw a few faces perk up at the mention of choices during reading, curiosity was getting their interest, which was wonderful to see. I explained that the first choice we would practice was one that many of the had probably done at school before: Read to Self. We the made an I-Chart about the expectations of this choice time. We start the chart of with an I for Independence, as the goal is that by following the expectations of the chart students should be able to independently complete the learning task. Our I-Chart (pictured below) was created by the students (with minimal guidance from me) and is something that we often reference when preparing for Read to Self time. We also talked about why this choice is important to us: To help us become better readers! Before sending students off to practice this choice on their own I had some models demonstrate the correct and incorrect ways to Read to Self. The students enjoyed the modeling time, and I was careful to select those that enjoy being silly to model and incorrect ways to Read to Self and then transition into the correct model as I was of showing them that I know they can do this!  (and so I can remind them when they are off task... "remember how well you modeled for the class, show me some of the things you did..."

Our I-Chart for the Read to Self Choice

We have practiced Read to Self for the past two weeks and within that practice I have allowed students to continue making chocies within our Reading Workshop block. An additonal choice that needed to be made was where students would read during Reading Workshop, and instead of making this choice for the students I allow them to be a part of the process.  We first read The Best Place to Read by: Debbie Bertram, and then talk about places in our classroom that might be "the best place to read". Students are aware of some places around the room they would like to read right away  (one of the comfy black chairs, one of the rolling computer chairs, their table spot, with a pillow from one of the chairs)... I introduce them to a few more ideas (the counter, one of the camping chairs, carpet squares)... and they come up with some ideas on their own. (the double chair, sitting on top of the table spot, in the corner by the cabinet). Before we know it we have our list of Book Nook spots, which does include a few students at their table spot each day. I then had each student create a "Book Nook Stick" which was then used to create our Book Nook rotation system.

Book Nook Rotation System

Since the creation of our Book Nook Rotation System on Monday this has become a very popular each morning, the rotation of the Book Nook spots just moves down one stick each day, but it is still very exciting for them to see what their spot is for reading each day! Book Nooks seem to have created some added excitiment for Reading Workshop, and on Parent Information Night this past Thursday many parents were directed by their students to look at the Book Nook sticks, and to try out the comfy black chairs! I am thrilled to see this excitment towards reading, even if it is all over a Book Nook spot!

As we ended our second week of school today I had the students reflect on a notecard about the Read to Self choice, knowing that this is something most students have expierenced in the classroom setting before, most often refered to as independent reading time. The reflections helped me see who already has a love for reading, and who needs more encoragement to become lover of reading, who feels they can accomplsih this choice well, and who needs additonal support, it help be better understand how they feel and view the Read to Self choice. (it also helped me see who listened to our conversation about what it means to "take time to reflect" and who just copied my key words off the board and put none of their own thoughts or feelings into their reflections..... still working on following directions! :))

As we ended week two of Reading Workshop the reflections showed a range of feelings towards the Read to Self choice: "I don't think it's the best choice. I can't really focus on my book." "I go bananas for it! It's Fun! It's the Best!" "I liked it, I liked my book, I was not a distraction." "I think it is good having a long time just for reading. It gives us a long time just for one thing." "I think reading to self is fun! I just shouldn't look around the room so much!" "It is easy, but I don't like it." "I feel smart when I read!" "I think it's a great idea. It is helping me read and it's always quiet!"

“The one thing that students want most in school can be summed up in one word: CHOICE.” ~Tricia Georg

It's Go Time!

With the start of the 2011 - 2012 school year one day away it is time for me to take what I have learned through my Review of Literature (RoL) and implement it as my Action Research (AR). In my research my focus has been on student choice in the classroom, and the question at the center of my research is:

“How does implementing student choice during reading affect my fourth graders’ attitudes towards reading?"

The reason behind my research comes from my experiences in years past. I have always done a Reading Workshop format during my reading block, but I struggled to have all of my students ENGAGED in reading at all times. During independent reading time it was always quiet, but by looking around I could always pinpoint those that were not truly engaged in what they were do. I wanted to find a way to reach all my students in a way that would give them a positive attitude towards reading, and that lead me to student choice.


I met almost all of my 4th graders at Back to School Night last week, and I am already looking forward to a great year! This year I will have 25 students, 13 boys and 12 girls. Of those students I know that 4 students are new to our school ( 3 girls, 1 boy) and 4 students are currently on 504 plans. I know that the way I implement student choice in the classroom will change based upon the students in my class but I am looking forward to seeing how it goes and how their attitudes towards reading change!

The choices I will provide for my 4th graders will be based on ideas from The Daily 5 and the Reading Workshop model. At this point in my planning I hope to implement six choices into our reading block, each choice will be introduced individually throughout the beginning of the school year and it is my hope that by the end of October all six choices will have been introduced. The six choices I will implement into our reading block will be: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Working on Writing, Spelling/Word Work, and Writing About Reading. In order to determine the impact of allowing this student choice in the classroom I will use a variety of tools to collect data. This will include student surveys, parent surveys, comprehension quizzes, and teacher observations. I am looking forward to getting my action research underway and hoping to help students foster their love of learning and reading!