Many schools in my district use reading programs, such as Renaissance Place (Accelerated Reader), to track students' achievement in reading. At my school we use Accelerate Reader (A.R.) to track student's progress in reading each quarter, but also use it as a diagnostic assessment piece. When students take the reading assessments through Renaissance Learning teachers are able to gain a breadth of information about their students. In grades K-2 they take the STAR Early Literacy Assessment, whereas students in grades 3-5 take the STAR Reading Assessment. Based off of these assessments, students are given a suggested Independent Reading Level (IRL), a suggested Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), etc. Further analysis can take place when you look at the specific standards that were tested. Based on the standard results, students can be grouped into focused learning groups. Additionally, lessons and activities can be accessed for these specific lessons.
Though these reports and figures are interesting and extremely helpful when trying to determine interventions for struggling readers, I feel that these type of programs lack something. Sure, it is great to know that a student reads at a certain level independently, but the most important element of successful reading, in my opinion, is the student's interest level. Where is the report for that? I would love it if students could take a diagnostic-tyle assessment and have it determine the genre that they are most likely to enjoy, along with some book recommendations based on their independent reading level. I know this idea may seem impractical, and I am suggesting it in jest, but as reading teachers we need to be conscious of what interests our readers. In my experience, a student may be "reading" at a certain level, but because they are uninterested in the text, they are not interested in understanding the story. On the other hand, I have seen these same "struggling" readers pick up a higher level book that they were interested in and fully comprehend the story.
During my first year of teaching, I subscribed to the idea that students had to strictly read within this given range. I assigned my students their ranges and colors for A.R, conferenced with them weekly, and provided strategies for independent reading. Despite all of my efforts, one of my students refused to read and could not pass any of his A.R. tests, even at level lower than he was capable of reading. I had several conversations with this student and it ultimately surfaced that he was not interested in any of the books in his range, and because he has been stuck in that range for so long, he had already read most of the books he liked. He told me that he had always wanted to read the book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but none of his teachers ever let him because it was out of his prescribed range. I went out on a limb and I told him..."Go for it!"
After about a week and a half, my student was finished reading the first book in the series and ready to take the A.R. test. The whole class anxiously waited while he took the test. When it was time to reveal his score, he got 100%! THe whole class cheered and my student has the biggest grin on his face! For the rest of the year he read the remaining 4 books in the series and got 100% on all of the books. His A.R. grade went from a 68% to a 87% at the end of the year, and his reading level went from a 2.4 to a 4.8 after taking all of those tests. Now that I new what genre of book he was most interested in, I was able to suggest additional books to read and branch out with.
By all means, I am not saying that interest level is the only factor in student success with reading, but I am suggesting that it may have more of an impact than emphasized. For this student it really seemed to make a difference.
In order to help my current students, here are some of the tools I will use and suggest for determining books that my students may be interested in. The majority of book search engines that we have used sort books based on their genre, reading level, and interest level (LG = Lower Grades, MG = Middle Grades, MG+= Middle Grades Plus and UG = Upper Grades)
I personally love A.R. Book Finder. This website is accessable by teachers, students, and parents. I recommend this tool to all of my students and parents. Through the "Advanced Search" tab, you are able to look for books based on a title, author, interest level, book level, and genre. Searches are specific and usually yield very accurate and useful result.
Some additional resources include:
- Children's Library
- Top 100
- Book Browse
- Lower Grade Interest Level Books - Book Trailers for All
- Middle Grade Interest Level Books - Book Trailers for All
- Upper Grade Interest Level Books - Book Trailers for All
If you have any other resources to suggest for helping student pick books based on their interest level, I would love to hear about it! If not, I hope you find these resources to be helpful and effective for young readers.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jamie
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