Self Selected Reading Intro
Self-Selected Reading for Emergent and Early Readers
Purpose
The purpose of self-selected reading is to help students learn to enjoy reading and to develop reading habits and behaviors. Most students will need ongoing instruction and support as well as daily opportunities to develop and sustain interest in texts. As teachers, we must focus on helping students learn and practice self-selected reading behaviors. Reading materials for self selected reading should be easy and accessible enough for students to read on their own, or with minimal supports. It is important that many interesting texts are available, as well as various formats (e.g., print, electronic, print with audio). Classroom texts should represent different genres, including fiction and nonfiction. Texts can include trade books, magazines, poems, song lyrics, as well as teacher or student made texts (print and electronic). Students must have real choices about what they read, balanced by teacher guidance and encouragement to choose appropriate level texts and to continually broaden/ explore new kinds of texts. Emergent readers who do not yet solve new texts will benefit from re-reading familiar texts (including memorized or "pretend" reading). Emergent readers can also follow along with taped texts or view and listen to electronic texts.
The teacher's role during self-selected reading is to teach and support self-selected reading behaviors (e.g., how to choose a book, how to access electronic texts) and to support student interpretations/ responses to texts. This can occur during read aloud as well as individual student conferences. Some students may need opportunities to engage with several different books or book formats/routines during this time (e.g., look at a print book, then view and listen to a digital text on computer, then listen and share a book read by an adult or peer tutor). Other students may be able to sustain engagement with one text or one format for a longer time (e.g., 15-20 minutes).
Goals of self-selected reading include to:
- support students opportunities to read for their own purposes
- create frequent opportunities for students to read for enjoyment
- help students to practice and sustain reading behaviors and engagement
- allow students to apply/practice reading strategies-to build "mileage" as readers
- allow students to explore and respond to many kinds of texts
