The well-intentioned strategy of allowing students to choose their own reading material most often fails. To pad their grades, unambitious students choose easy-readers below their achieved comprehension level, while go-getters overreach, comprehend little, and quit reading out of frustration. As Mark Pennington puts the case in his article on the Pennington Publishing Blog, “Students often choose books with reading levels far below or far above own their reading levels and so do not experience optimal reading growth.” Teachers who want students to enjoy reading can let them select their own material from a list of grade-appropriate choices without jeopardizing learning. To encourage them to read what they enjoy, teachers can permit students to nominate new material for the list.
