Research Article #5

The article, “Children’s Choices for Recreational Reading: A Three Part Investigation of Selection Preferences, Rationales, and Processes” by Kathleen A.J. Mohr, researches the idea of children choosing their own books for recreational reading. It is an investigation that allowed experts to interview 122 students about their reading process. It also questions whether choosing their own books for independent reading helps their reading proficiency. The three step process selection preferences, rationales and processes.

 The students used for the study were primary students from a rural school district. In order to produce the study, permission was obtained from the school principal and district superintendent. The school district “serves a diverse population of students representing various ethnicities, languages, and socioeconomic levels.”            

The article continues to discuss how students who are able to choose their own reading material often become “more motivated and skilled readers who choose to read widely and who develop lifelong reading habits.” The study looks at first graders reading habits and “…preferences among various picture books and to update our understanding of their selection process.”

Some of the aspects discussed include text features, genre preferences, selection strategies, gender differences, developmental aspects, ability issues, and motivational factors.

Along with the aspects studied, interviewers decided on methods to gain information. For instance, experts decided to choose the picture books for the students to choose from. The criteria for the students included, high-quality picture books with full-color illustrations; representative of various genres, genders, ethnicities, and language (English and Spanish); appropriate for first graders in content; recently published and thus not likely to be well-known among students; and similarly priced.        

After having 90 minutes to choose books, students were instructed to select one book out of nine titles. Children were given unlimited amount of time to choose a book before they were interviewed about their selection process.

            The experts conclude that children are as complex as their choices as well as assessing that 25 percent of the children did not know whether or not they had a specific selection process. Although there were various results, some results displayed patterns among the first graders. For instance, the girls showed a majority when taking the time to look through pictures and the boys showed a majority when choosing a topic was the importance during their selection process. Additionally, the first graders “…the common denominator among the most selected texts for these first graders was animals, even though the books differed in size, genre, and format.” This is more of a preference, however it allows a platform to learn more about the selection process. It shows that the children enjoy reading about subjects that they are interested in.

Although this study provided many insights into children’s selection process, experts promote using studies like this as an ongoing process as we continue to teach new children and new generations.

Resource:

Children’s Choices for Recreational Reading: A Three Part Investigation of Selection Preferences, Rationales, and Processes.

Kathleen A.J. Mohr

Journal of Literacy Research. Vol. 38. Issue 1. Page 81. 2006