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5/25/2005
A May 23, 2005 article from The Washington Post reports that dictating which books students must read for school decreases their desire to read for pleasure. Many students are so busy with classroom assignments that they do not have the time to do any additional reading on their own. When this happens, reading can start to feel like a chore - even for students who otherwise like to read. An increasing emphasis on standardized testing, along with more teachers being required to use scripted lesson plans, is making it difficult for educators to encourage students to choose their own books. However, studies have shown that students who are allowed to make their own reading selections tend to demonstrate higher achievement in reading than their peers who are told what to read. The article indicates that students in elementary school are often given more freedom to choose what they will read than are those in high school.
The article is available at the MSNBC Web site.
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