Pick the Right Book for You

I have been working closely with our 6th graders this year to help foster a desire to read and to work on improving our Lexile scores.  Although I firmly believe reading any book will help you become a better reader, it's important to pick the right book for independent reading.  When you feel confident in and enjoy what you're reading, you are more likely to read more.  The more you read, the better of a reader you become.  So on Wednesday's each week, I teach the 6th grade classes aspects of being a good reader and give time for silent reading and time book selection.  Our first lesson was on 'How to Pick the Right Book.'  It may sound elementary (especially for our adult middle schoolers), but I have found that these students have never actually been taught how to pick out a book!  There is some debate (okay, a lot of debate) over what types of books students should read for independent reading.  I like to think that students should read what they enjoy, because enjoyment is the way to motivating students to want to read.  Things I enjoy reading are often below my independent reading level (Hello, Percy Jackson!) or I read a ton of magazines and scholarly articles, which tend to not have an associated reading level.  We should not limit students on what they can read-period.  However, I also see the need in scaffolding students to that point.  I've lived a long life and over the years found what I enjoy, what I can handle, and when I need to read intentionally learn.  So with our 6th graders (and from a lot of prodding from the 6th grade teachers), I worked with the students on how to find that 'right' book.  I focused a lot on the genres and less about the reading levels, but we still covered that independent reading should leave you challenged but not too challenged.