Students’ reading choices should not be limited by a number, a letter or a color code. How refreshing to read this in Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst. Text selection for students is often driven by numbers or letters based on a test. The authors discussed in depth factors connected with readability, complexity and rigor. “Reducing text complexity to a formula based on sentence length and word frequency isn’t the solution. The next time someone requires that you use a Lexile number to match a child with a book, encourage a conversation about the efficacy of this as a sole measure.” Thank you for discussing text selection and the complexities that are a part of the process. Schools often strive for rigor and at times base it on the level of Lexile. “When districts tell us that they couldn’t use this text because it would be “too easy” and they must “raise the rigor,” we remind them that rigor is about relevance and not about a Lexile score.” …show more content…
“Non-fiction is the body of work in which the author purports to tell us about the real world, a real experience, a real person, an idea, or a belief.” Students have been typically been taught that non-fiction means “not fake”. I have made that same mistake in my own classroom. Beers and Probst challenge the reader to enter the text “recognizing that the author is not offering the truth, but one vision of the truth.” In my own classes I will bring a new perspective when reading nonfiction. “We are required to read beyond the four corners; we are required to let nonfiction intrude; we are required to wonder what it means on the page, in our lives, and in the