How do you teach children to pick developmentally appropriate books?

Question

Sometimes children will pick books that are way too hard for them. How do you teach them to pick a 'just right' book?

Answer 1

Ah, this is such a good question. I use a number of techniques.

First off, during the first week of school I teach a lesson on how to pick a "just right" book. I tell the students to use the 5-finger rule: If you find 5 words on a page (or in the whole book for very young students) which you can't read, then that book is not just right for you. Of course I model it for them and everything.

As the days go on, I try to evaluate the students' reading levels and make sure they've chosen books at their levels. If I see a child reading a book that's too hard, I'll have a conference with him/her and say, "I noticed that you chose this book because of the interesting illustration on the cover, but I wonder if it's a comfortable read for you?" If the kid says it is, I have him or her read aloud to me. If he can't read it, I say, "Hmm, it sounds to me like this book is not just right for you. Maybe you can read it later in the year." Then I recommend 2 or 3 books at the kid's level.

Sometimes during independent reading, I'll notice a student who is staring off into space, or talking too much, or doing other off task behavior. I'll talk privately to that student, or if I'm in the middle of a conference, I'll just say aloud, "I see that you're having trouble concentrating on that book. Maybe you need to pick a book that's a more comfortable read for you" or "that you can really get into" or something like that.

Lastly, and most importantly, I always model reading lower level books. I do them as read alouds, and I introduce them by saying, "This is one of my absolute favorite books. I re-read it all the time." Or "I read this book in first grade, but as a strong reader, I love to go back and re-read my favorite books. Even though I'm older now, I still just love Mr. Putter and Tabby [or whatever]." This helps take away some of the stigma. You have to work hard to establish that lower level books are real literature and not baby books, and convince the kids that mature adult readers read those lower level books all the time.

One last suggestion: Teach a lesson where you model for the kids reading a difficult college level textbook, and then a Dr. Seuss book. You can say, "Now, I can read and understand that medical textbook, but when I go to the beach and pick up a book to read, I'm not going to pick that! I want to read books that are easy and fun for me!" Then you talk up Dr. Seuss and tell them how you read the Cat in the Hat for fun all the time. Then require that every student pick a Dr. Seuss book to read that day (of course, you have to have a large supply of his books). You say, "Today, we're all going to read Dr. Seuss books" and talk about how you can enjoy them even more now that you're a little older, and keep playing up how fun and comfortable they are to read. It won't kill your higher level readers to read lower level books every once in a while, but it will really help establish that in our classroom, we love Dr. Seuss - or whichever author/series/genre you like - and we read his books all the time.

I know it can be really hard to get students into books at their level. Sometimes, you also just have to say, "No, you may not read that. Read this." But hopefully it won't come to that too often.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Limit their choices. If you have a classroom, keep appropriate books in it. In a library/learning center have a special section. Send out a suggested book list to parents so they can determine what's appropriate. You didn't mention the age of the students, and what you consider too hard. Usually if the content is not grabbing them or hard to understand, they will not read the book.

Answer 4

My daughter was way ahead of her class on reading and the school librarian let her get books out of the older kids section. She did that for a year and then the next year she started checking out books that were way to easy, not only for her, but for anyone in her grade. I kept trying to get her to read something more age appropriate, but she didn't want to. I asked her teacher about it and she said I should just let her read what she enjoyed. If I forced her to choose something else it would take the pleasure of reading out of it and she might not want to read anymore. I let her pick what she wanted and she did that for about a year also. Now she's reading books on her grade level. I think if you let the kids get what they want and what they're choosing is too hard for them they will catch on and turn to something more for their age level.

Answer 5

Have them read the first few paragraphs, about 100 words. If they have trouble reading more than two words the book is higher than their independent reading level. If possible have the student read aloud to you so you can be sure of the appropriate level. This is called their zone of proximal development. ZPD

Answer 6

When I was in grade school, my teacher would choose books from the library for us to read. We drew a bookcase on a piece of construction paper, and as we read a book, he would give us a little "book" (to write the title on), and then we would glue it in our case. It was fun to see more and more books on the shelf, different colors, of course.

Also, librarians are a great source of information. They love to help!

Answer 7

Don't you be the judge as to what book is too hard for them. If they enjoy the book, it is the book they should have.

Answer 8

reading is way better the book retains u thinking and you get greater detail in what people are thinking so you have more imagination

Answer 9

Reading the e book instead of observing the movie is the best way to see what the author intended. Reading uses your creativity, hones your reading skills, and can better your vocabulary

Answer 10

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