Abstract
This study investigates the impact that assigned versus free choice of reading had on a year 6 class. I gave 11 of the students a set text and another 11 free choice of text, with the guideline that they read for two hours per week and record any comments or feelings towards the book in a journal. This failed to find any impact on reading times, and unfortunately many students simply provided no journal sheets at all. Students with free choice found their books more challenging than those reading the set text, but a study in the literature found no evidence that reading at higher than one’s ability improves one’s ability, so that set books that are not challenging may improve readers’ ability at the same rate. The results for comprehension between free choice and set text was exactly the same, and students in both groups read almost the same amount. I conclude that it does not matter if you give students set texts or free choice; they will benefit from reading.
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Caire, T. (2017). Choose to Read. In: Geng, G., Smith, P., Black, P. (eds) The Challenge of Teaching. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2571-6_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2571-6_8
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