"Just Right" Books

For years, teachers have used the “five-finger rule” to help students choose “just right” books. It goes something like this:

• ·        Pick a book.
• ·        Open to a page in the middle.
• ·        Read the page.
• ·        When you get to a word you don’t know, put your finger up.
• ·        Five fingers means the book is too hard.
• ·        Zero fingers means to book is too easy.

This method helps us to know students are reading at their “instructional level,” which will challenge but not frustrate students. But, what about interest? Where do books that interest students fit into the mix?

According to Timothy Shanahan, the “five-finger rule” is just not backed by research. He argues that students in 2^nd grade and above are motivated by and can learn from a wide range of text levels, including those much tougher “that we might not have dared to use in the past.” “Our relatively easy book matches may be holding kids back, preventing them from exposure to more-challenging features of language and meaning.” (Research behind his argument.) The students “curiosity about the content of the harder materials outweighs their fear of failure.”

Shanahan also states that giving students more challenging text will not hurt their decoding. After 2^nd grade tough texts “have not been found to slow kids’ reading development or to disrupt their growth in decoding ability.”

The overall recommendation is to give students texts at all levels and provide the appropriate amount of support.