Don't you read what you want to read?

I have been observing elementary classrooms for the past few months. There have been aspects of the daily classroom agenda that I have witnessed, even helped out with, but not understood the logic behind. One example of this is leveled reading, which I have helped out with, usually in 15 to 20 minute increments. Naturally, different groups of children have responded to their leveled-guided reading groups in different ways. I have seen eight-year-olds partner up and read about rivers and glaciers enthusiastically, and I have also seen students who cannot approach this as an authentic reading experience because the text is something they could care less about.

After reading Let’s Start Leveling about Leveling by Glasswell & Ford, I have come to realize that reading is a very powerful and complex process that should not be simplified down to numbers and levels. More than anything, students need interesting text; they need to be engaged with what they are reading. Even if a book is above a student’s level, if they are intrigued by it, as teachers and parents we should celebrate this. Glasswell & Ford (2011) say, “Books are just books in the end. And while it’s easy to be critical of certain materials, they are usually neither inherently bad nor good. What matters more is the way they are used; it is this that determines the potential impact they can have.”

We need to keep in mind how these systems are created, who our children are, and what reading is about. These systems are designed mathematically, using criteria like number of words, number of pages, skills like “word identification accuracy,” and then assigns a letter to represent their ability on a ladder which children are expected to steadily climb. Children, on the other hand, are young people. They are human beings with imaginations, personal interests, and exponential learning capacities. I can’t help but think that if I was eight years old (or six years old, or ten years old), and I finally had the power to read, that I would want to use that power to find out about what I am interested in. Readers have the right to enjoy reading. After all, it is a language created for humans to communicate. And that is personal.

In the end, the judgment of the teacher—who knows their students’ interests and abilities—is more valuable than what a system of leveled books suggests. I plan to collect a library of children’s books on a wide range of subjects, fiction and non-fiction, to engage a wide range of readers. I think that students should get to choose books that interest them, and that they should be provided large amounts of time to read independently for enjoyment during the school day.