Five things to consider when choosing texts for the classroom
The power of text choices:
The notion of choosing texts to read is one of the most fundamental issues English teachers grapple with, if the heated text selection debates we’ve witnessed are anything to go by! But when it comes to this all-important responsibility in Year 7-9 English classrooms, who is it that gets to make these decisions? On what grounds are such decisions made? To what degree are they negotiated with students? Are texts chosen based on what we think is valuable, how much time we have to review them and the current ‘resource banks’ we have to teach them, or because they ‘speak’ to our students’, challenge them to grow as readers and have the potential to provide rich jumping-off points for reflection on human experiences and the world? Ask any secondary English teacher and they’ll probably reply “yes” to all of the above when thinking about text selection across the course of their teaching life (or year!). We’re not suggesting the above reasons behind text choices are always pitted against each other or that they are the only reasons under consideration. However, it’s worth reflecting on what —and who—drives this decision-making because text choices have the power to make or break reading experiences for our students.
Text choices can be the difference between comments like “I enjoy reading”, “I never thought of it like that!” and “This book changed my life”, and statements such as “I don’t like reading”, “This feels like a slog” and “I don’t see the point”. They can shape a student’s conception of themselves as a reader and can have a lasting impact on students’ reading lives. For some students, access to texts begins in the classroom, whereas for others, the texts they encounter in class can push them beyond the boundaries of their ‘reading comfort zones’ and help them grow as readers. Because of this, it’s imperative that teachers and students have the time and space to make thoughtful, responsive and relevant decisions about what students read in the classroom. This post will explore some questions to consider in order to enable this.
Can our students see themselves mirrored in this text? Are their voices, stories and experiences represented?
Lamar Giles, author, teacher, and co-founder of the non-profit organisation We Need Diverse Books, highlights the importance of this in the foreword of the anthology Fresh Ink, recounting how he went from being an avid young reader to someone who hated reading for a while. What accounted for this transformation? It became clear to him that in “book after book, adventure after adventure, the heroes weren’t like me at all.” It was only when he “discovered that rare story that reflected [him], that hidden gem, [he] latched on and fell in LOVE love with reading all over again.” Nearly thirty years earlier, this was the focus of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s essay ‘Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors’, which describes reading as “an act of self-affirmation” and advocates for texts to reflect the diverse world we live in, acting as ‘mirrors’ of marginalised students’ experiences. When students read texts that reflect who they are in a real sense (note: NOT stereotypes or being relegated to victims and sidekicks) and they feel their identities are seen and validated. They feel that literature is ‘for them’ and that their voices and experiences matter. They are more likely to engage in literary experiences, like Lamar Giles did when he fell in love with reading again.
For those of us teaching in Victoria, Australia, this hits home to an even greater degree when we consider the results of a recent University of Melbourne study into the text lists of the Senior English curriculum from 2010-2019. Despite policy documents highlighting the need for text lists to “be suitable for a wide range of students” and to “reflect the cultural diversity of the Victorian community”, only four per cent of texts (including film) included works by indigenous writers, and it was noted there was“an absolute dominance” of heterosexual characters and “near absence of homosexuality in terms of characterisation and narrative.” There was also an “alarming” privileging of texts from the British Isles.
Every student deserves the opportunity to see themselves and their communities represented accurately in texts, to read texts relevant to their lives through which their own experiences and voices are valued and explored. This is why asking whether students can see themselves in the texts up for selection is so important.
2. Does the text offer a window into experiences, voices and stories different from my students’ own?
As teachers, we know it’s also important for students to see the world through the eyes of someone else, especially if they belong to social groups that are well represented in the majority of texts on offer. As literacy educator and consultant Kate Roberts comments, if students miss out on encountering diverse experiences in texts, this will “limit their ability to coexist in the world, to understand the society outside of themselves” (Roberts, 2018: 46). As Dr Rudine Sims Bishop puts it, “books may be one of the few places where children who are socially isolated and insulated from the larger world may meet people unlike themselves. If they see only reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world —a dangerous ethnocentrism.” Researcher Suzanne S. Choo takes this a step further, suggesting that by actively engaging with a variety of viewpoints through literature, students can practice what she calls “cosmopolitan literacy”; critical ethical engagements with diverse cultures and values that involve exploring ethical dilemmas and engaging with issues of justice (Choo, 2018: 7, 11).
A number of authors have likened the power of books to that of travel, enabling us to experience life in other places and shoes. Asking if texts offer perspectives that can help broaden our students’ horizons and develop their sense of empathy is crucial if we want them to live as active citizens in a multi-faceted world.
3. Will this text spark interest and curiosity? Will it help my students build more motivation to read?
Think about who your students are. What kinds of texts will spark their interest and curiosity? Which texts will they feel motivated to commit their sustained attention to? When students have an intrinsic reason to read —whether they are committed to finding out more about a topic they are curious about, want to understand what makes a fascinating character ‘tick’, are seeking answers to questions they have, or want to determine an author’s views and values—chances are, they’ll invest more energy in the process. PIRLS data suggests that positive attitudes to reading and reading achievement are related in a reciprocal sense, perhaps because better readers enjoy reading more and are likely to read more often than poorer readers, and therefore develop more knowledge and advanced comprehension skills and strategies. The implications of this, and decades of research, suggest that it’s important to consider motivation and engagement when it comes to students’ reading experiences and by extension, text choices.
If we want students to become thoughtful and self-driven initiators of reading, they need reading materials and experiences selecting texts that consider four key elements of intrinsic motivation:
Autonomy: A degree of control over what they’re doing (or choosing) and how they’re doing (or choosing!) it
Self-efficacy: When a student has the necessary (reading) skills required to be successful
Relatedness: Establishing high-quality relationships with teachers and peers within a community of readers
Relevance: The degree to which what students are being asked to do aligns with their interests, goals or what they value
4. Does interacting with this text offer opportunities for students to develop relevant and enduring knowledge, skills and understandings?
What particular knowledge, skills and understandings are you seeking to develop in your students? How might you choose texts that offer rich opportunities for students to gain lots of practice with building the conceptual knowledge and skills they need the most? For instance, if students need to work on analysing character, then texts with complex characters who have varying motivations would be ideal choices. Some other considerations here include:
Is the text illustrative of a particular genre or form, or a blending of genres or forms?
Does the text demonstrate a range of what the genre/form/blend is about and what it can do?
Does it contain interesting, unique or innovative features students have not encountered before?
Does the text provide opportunities for aesthetic appreciation of writing craft and language?
From what stances would you like students to interact with text? Does the text invite interpretation from multiple perspectives?
To see a list of reasons why a text might be appropriate for a class study, click the image below:
5. How can we support all students in their encounters with these texts so they can have a successful reading experience?
It goes without saying that ‘knowing where our students are at’ is important, so we can determine the appropriate levels of support and challenge students need in order to have successful encounters with texts. Some relevant ‘sub-questions’ here might include:
If students will be reading the texts independently, do they contain words that they can comprehend on their own? (i.e: do students understand at least 95% of the words on the page?). How will they be supported to discern the meaning of unfamiliar or unknown words they encounter?
Do students have the necessary background knowledge —contextual knowledge and knowledge of genre and form —to understand this text? If not, how will they be supported to build this knowledge?
Are students familiar with aspects of the complexity of this text (i.e: non-linear time sequences, unreliable narrators, archaic or unfamiliar language, etc.)? If not, what supports will be in place to ensure all students can meaningfully interact with the text? See the ‘Five Plagues of the Developing Reader’ here for more information about common aspects of text complexity.
What are your top considerations for choosing texts in the classroom?
