This document discusses facilitating student choice in reading within curriculum constraints. It summarizes research showing that increased reading leads to improved reading skills. When students are allowed to choose their own books at their reading level, they are more engaged and motivated to read. The Common Core State Standards emphasize student achievement over prescribed means, allowing choice in what students read. Moving away from whole-class novels to individual choice or text sets based on themes or genres provides more opportunities for each student to read books they find interesting.

1. Facilitating Choice Within
Curriculum Constraints
Jillian Heise, 7th & 8th grade Language Arts Teacher,
Indian Community School of Milwaukee
Melinda Rench, Middle School Literacy Coach,
Northbrook Junior High, Northbrook, Illinois
http://slideshare.net/mindi_r

2. Our Understandings
More reading = improved skills, increased vocabulary, & higher
test scores
(Allington, 2001; Krashen 2001 and Stanovich, 2000 as cited in Allington, 2002; Nippold et
al., 2005)
• Move from teacher-chosen 4 books/year, to students actively
reading more at own level. Less "stuff " & more real reading
every day.
(Allington, 2001; Ivey & Broaddus, 2001; Miller, 2009; Worthy, Turner, & Moorman, 1998)
• As students increase grade level, reading attitude decreases.
Need engagement & interest to increase motivation.
(Turner, 1995 as cited in Allington, 2002; McKenna, Kear, and Ellsworth, 1995; Pitcher et al.,
2007; Guthrie et al., 2006)
• Allow choice = meet these requirements(Allington, 2005)

3. Every Child, Every Day (Allington and Gabriel, 2012)
Six Elements for Every Child
• Books: Choice, accuracy, understanding
• Talk: with peers about reading
• Listens: fluent adult read aloud
• Writes: personally meaningful topics

4. What do the Common
Core State Standards
What to read and who decides:
• Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as
well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are
expected to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and
broaden their perspective.
• Given space limitations, the illustrative texts listed are meant only to show
individual titles that are representative of a range of topics and
genres. At a curricular or instructional level, within and across grade
levels, texts need to be selected around topics or themes that
generate knowledge and allow students to study those topics or
themes in depth. (CCSS ELA page 58)
• The standards appropriately defer the many remaining decisions
about what and how to teach to states, districts, and schools.

5. What do the Common
Core State Standards
A focus on results rather than means (CCSS ELA page 4):
By emphasizing required achievements, the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum
developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional
topics should be addressed. Thus, the Standards do not mandate such things as a particular
writing process or the full range of metacognitive strategies that students may need to monitor
and direct their thinking and learning. Teachers are thus free to provide students with
whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as
most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the Standards.
Distribution of types of reading (CCSS ELA page 5):
8th grade 45% Literary & 55% Informational
12th grade 30% Literary & 70% Informational
The percentages on the table reflect the sum of student reading, not just reading in ELA
settings. Teachers of senior English classes, for example, are not required to devote 70 percent
of reading to informational texts. Rather, 70 percent of student reading across the grade should
be informational.

6. What do the Common
Core State Standards
Text complexity and the growth of comprehension (CCSS ELA
page 8):
The Reading standards place equal emphasis on the sophistication of what students read
and the skill with which they read. Whatever they are reading, students must also show a
steadily growing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text, including
making an increasing number of connections among ideas and between texts,
considering a wider range of textual evidence, and becoming more sensitive to
inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in texts.
Note on range and content of student reading (CCSS ELA page 35):
To become college and career ready, students must grapple with works of exceptional craft
and thought whose range extends across genres, cultures, and centuries. Such works offer
profound insights into the human condition and serve as models for students’ own thinking and
writing. Along with high-quality contemporary works, these texts should be chosen from
among seminal U.S. documents, the classics of American literature, and the timeless dramas of
Shakespeare. Through wide and deep reading of literature and literary nonfiction of steadily
increasing sophistication, students gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge, references,
and images; the ability to evaluate intricate arguments; and the capacity to surmount the
challenges posed by complex texts.

7. Moving away from the
whole class novel
Using individual choice & text sets
in place of the whole class novel

8. With one book, how many
students benefit?

9. Which do you like better?

10. Why it works

11. Choice leads to

12. Choices...Choices
theme, genre or topic form
Text sets =
Guided
Choices
Individual choice = students choose based on interest,
ability or reccommendations.

13. What to do with the books
• READ
Get rid of the "stuff" and let them read!
• Confer with Teacher
• Respond in Writing
• Book Talk
• Share Favorites
• Discussions with Classmates
◦ Students still talk about what they've read
■ Same book groups

14. What am I teaching?
I teach reading;
I don't teach books
What is the curriculum?
the book or the skill
What is my goal?
think like I do or think for self
answering questions or critical thinking
giving same answer as all or giving support for own answer

15. What the students say
about having a choice
"There was never a time this year that I read a book I
wasn't interested in. It inspires me to continue reading this
summer and throughout my time at the high school."
"This year I learned so much about myself when I read
books. It has made me a lot more interested in book
genres that I never even knew existed. My perspective has
changed of books this year. I enjoy them so much more
than I used to."
"I hope that most of the books that I read here will be in the
high school because some of the books I read in here are
series books. And I can't get enough of them."
"Finding books that I liked resulted in reading more at
home & in school, therefore improving my reading habits."

16. What about the tangled or
dormant readers?
• Ask: “What was the last thing you read
that you really liked?”
• Use that as your starting point to find “read
alikes” that will get the reader going.
• It’s not easy, but you can’t give up!

17. Can you give an example?

18. What about reading level?
• Reading levels are a guide to appropriate
text, and have their uses when grouping
students for small group instruction.
• Students are able to read more difficult and
complex text when they are motivated or
interested in a topic.
• For example... Gaming magazines!

19. Okay, you’ve sold me...
where do I start?
• Build your classroom library.
• Use the Scholastic Book Club to get free/cheap
books. Also, check out their warehouse sale.
• Go to your local Goodwill or
Salvation Army store to find books.
• Look for teacher discounts at
bookstores
• Read. A lot. Share your reading
life with your students.

20. What books should I
get for my library?
Middle School • 13 Reasons Why (Asher)
• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (Angleberger) • Perfect Chemistry (Elkeles)
• The Unwanteds (McMann) • Divergent (Roth)
• Runner (Deuker) • Clarity (Harrington)
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians (Riordan) • Legend (Lu)
• The Hunger Games (Collins) • The Ranger's Apprentice series (Flanagan)
• I Am Number Four (Lore) • The Alex Rider series (Horowitz)
• The One and Only Ivan (Applegate) • Gordon Korman books
• Wonder (Palacio) • The Fourth Stall (Rylander)
• I Heart You, You Haunt Me (Schroeder) • Sidekicks (Santat)
• Speak (Halse Anderson) • Zita the Space Girl (Hatke)
• What My Mother Doesn't Know (Sones) • Amulet (5 book series) (Kibuishi)
• Smile and Drama (Telgemeier)
• The 39 Clues series
• Mike Lupica sports books
• Kate Messner books
• Tommy Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading (Greenwald)
•Out of My Mind (Draper)

21. High School
• 13 Reasons Why (Asher) • Before I Fall & Delirium (Oliver)
• Perfect Chemistry (Elkeles) • Jumping Off Swings (Knowles)
• Divergent (Roth) • House of Night series (Cast & Cast)
• The Mockingbirds (Whitney) • Tell Me a Secret (Cupula)
• Clarity (Harrington) • Refresh Refresh (Percy)
• Legend (Lu) • Anna Dressed in Blood (Blake)
• Crank (and other Ellen Hopkins books) • Catching Jordan (Kenneally)
• Living Dead Girl (Scott) • Unwind (Shusterman)
• Twisted (Halse Anderson) • Hold Still (LaCour)
• Hush, Hush (Fitzpatrick) • Variant (Wells)
• Page by Paige (Gulledge) • Blue is for Nightmares series (Stolarz)
• Right Behind You (Giles) • Gym Candy (Deuker)
• Purple Heart (McCormick) • Crackback (Coy)
• Swim the Fly (Calame) • Breathing Underwater (Flinn)
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Hodkin) • Hex Hall series (Hawkins)
• THE DUFF (Keplinger) • Cracked Up to Be (Summers)
• The Warrior Heir trilogy (Williams Chima) • Sweethearts & How to Save a Life (Zarr)
• Stupid Fast (Herbach) • Twenty Boy Summer (Ockler)
• Wake trilogy (McMann) • The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Chbosky)
•Paranoid Park (Nelson)

22. How do I start?
• Find time in your day to let students read
books of their choice.
• The only way to get better at reading (and
consequently writing) is by reading!
• Seek out professional books and journals. Use
the research that supports student-selected
reading when you talk to your administration
and colleagues.

23. Remember... you’re not in
this alone.
• Find a whole community of like-minded
educators on Twitter! (We’re there as
@mindi_r and @heisereads
• Connect on other social networks such as the
English Companion Ning or Goodreads.
• Contact us:
Jillian: jillian.heise@ics-milw.org
Mindi: mrench@northbrook28.net