Article Critique #2

A CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS

Reprinted from The New Advocate, l2(4), 359-375 with permission from Christopher-Gordon Publishers, lnc.

"I am a Level 3 Readey'': Children's Perceptions of Themselves as Readers

Kathryn MitcheU Pierce

Our dishict, like many others across the country, is looking closely at the reading growth of all of our students, particularly those who seem to be stnrg- gling with the leaming-to-read Process. We have implemented a reading inter- vention program for fust graders at risk of becoming stmggling readers. In grades two through five we have concentrated staff resources on prwiding one-on-one and small group reading support for children reading significantly below the level of their peers. We have provided extensive pxifessional devel- opment for teachers focused on strategies for supporting struggling readers, including "guided reading" as described by Fountas and Pinnell (1996'). Teach- ers .ue provided release time to meet regularly with fellow classrnom teachem and specialists to discuss the progress of individual students in need of addi- tionalsupportbeyond the rich literacy leaming experiences already provided in their classrooms.

We have supplemmted our extensive collection of literature sets with large collections of leveled books to make it easier for teachers to provide students with materials at their reading levels. This decision was based on the widely accepted belief thatbeginning readers need such materials to ensure that they do not experience failure and frustration while reading. We use some of these leveled materials as general benchmarks in the process of selecting those stu- dents who may require additional support in reading. When we meet to talk about students' reading, we refer to their oral reading proficiency at various levels and we use children's Progress through these levels to measure the suc- cess of our program.

Kathryn Mitchell Pierce is amultiage primary classroom teacheratGlmridge Elementary School in Claytsn, Missouri. She is coeditor, with Carol Gilles, of Cycles of Meaning (Heinemann, 1993).

Volume 12, Number 4, FaII7999

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

360 TluNw AdwuE

Even with these extensive efforts, we continue to search formore effective ways of supporting struggling readers. In the past we had used broad terms such as emergslt, transitional, and independent to describe children as begin- ning readers. With our emphasis on struggling readers, we have begun to talk srore oftm about drildren as performing on particular numbered levels based in part on the leveling sysbm used in other reading intervention prcgrans such as Reading Recovery (Foturtas and Pirurell, 1996). I have grown increas- ingly concerned that as adults we are focusing so much on the childrcn's read- ing levels that we are iglorin& and possibly devaluing, other ways of defining or describing them as readers.

This intense focus on students'levels of reading proficiency was surpris- furg to me, given the extensive work we had done in the district over the past ten years to further enhance the quality of literacy leaming and teadting. The district had invested considerable resources in the professional development of our staff and the restmcturing of our curriculum. The district had:

o paid teadrers toattend summerworkshopson writing, readertesponse, and guided reading.

o offeredoctensiveprcfessionaldevelopmentexperiences withlong-term consultants in reading, writin& and the support of struggling readers.

. repliaced basal reading programs and ability grcuPs with a comple- hensive district ctrriculum and extensive collections of literature titles in multiple copy sets to be used in hetercgeneous groups.

. supportd teacher research projects focused on integrition of technol- ogf in the curriculum, improving achievemmt of African-Anerican sh.rdenb, and supporting stmggling readers at the elementary and middle school levels.

. provided travel funds for teaclrss to visit exemplary sites across the country to leam morc about best practices in the teadting of literacy.

r supported conference attendance at IRAand NCTE. As a result of this extensive support and restnrcturing, district classrooms had become even richer envirurmenb for literacy leaming. I was concemed, then, that our talk about great new books and studenb' r€sponses to literahre had been replaced by, not supplemented with, talk about shrdents' reading levels and their progr€ss thrcugh leveled materials.Ibecame even more tmcomfort- able after listeling to my studmts talk about themselves as readers.

What follows is a description of the engagements I planned to help us ex- amine and challenge the ways students were describing and defining them- selves as readers.

Getting to Know You Our multiage/multiyear classroom includes students in grades one through

three. Students generally remain in our classroom for three years, although we sometimes getnew studmts in grades two or three. Last year I had 24 children with about one third of them in each grade level. Our sdrool draws from a diverse population in terrns of race, crrlture, and proficiency with English, as well as wide extremes in tenns of family economic status. Because of our di-

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

"I Am a Leuel 3 Reader": Children's Percrption of Themseltses as Readers %7

verse student population from both suburban and distant urban neighborhoods, and the mix of retuming and new students, building a sense of community in the dassroom is a high priority for me.

I believe that students must feel like welcomed and valued members of a leaming community if they are to be successful in their mdeavors. I agree with Ralph Peterson that "comtnunity in itself is more important to leaming than any method or technique" (1992, p.2). I also recognize that our culture places a highpriority on learning to read in first grade and, therefore, that first graders are often preoccupied with their own reading Progress. I share other teachers' observations that children who are successful in reading are often integrated more easily into the mainstream of the classroom than ar",e those children who appear to be struggling with literacy-related tasks (Allen, Michalove, & Shockley, L993). I have found this is particularly tnre in a multiage primary classroom wherebeing seen as anindependent readerand writer is an importantfactor in becoming an integralmember of the classroom.

I was i,mpeeswd vnLth the childeerT'l knov'olndge

o{ book le,rels and awed at the steength

o{ populnc cultuce i,n defi.ni,ng hn/o eead.ees

geou) and become n1,oee liteeate.

Getting to know one another, particularly as readers, is an important part of ourback-to-school process and one of the ways we work to sustain our leam- ing community from one year to the next while incorporating the newcomers. As part of this process, we share books in a variety of ways, including rcad aloud, parhrer reading, and literatuie discussion $ouPs. In additioh, I spend time oneon-one with readers getting to know the ways they respond to chal- lengrng texts, the strategies they use, and the kinds of materials they enjoy reading. Reader interviews, reading interest and attitude surveys, and reading miscue analysis are all strategies that help me get to know the readers in our classroom.

Last year I asked some of the children, "Who in our classroom is a reader like you? Who reads the same kinds of books that you read?" Most of the chil- dren listed classmates whose reading proficiency matched their own. Sam, a six-year-old who wasn't reading independently at that time, initially indicated that he was a reader like Max, an exceptionally strong reader and a year older than Sam. I could hear bits and pieces of some discussion between Sam, Max, and another drild nearby, after which Sam added that he was a reader like Mark, a first grader like himself who was also an emergent reader. I asked Sam why he had chosen both Max and Mark. He told me it was because he lilceil to read the kinds of books Max rea4 but he was able to read the kinds of books Mark read. In this discussion I could hear Sam struggle between defining him-

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

X2 TluNeutAdwute

self as a readerbased on the kinds of books he enpyed and defining himself as a reader based on the

"level" of books he could read. I suspect he also wanted to be defined by others as being a reader like our oldeq proficient reaciers. I suspect these older readers taught Sam that reading proficiency was an impor- tant attribute for describing readers.

I grew incceasingly concecned thet o,s a"duhts

vte vJece focustng so mu,clr on tlte child,cen's

eead,i,ng lerels that voe vleee ignoeing,

end poreibly d.ewluing, othee vlays o{

d.efr,nlng oe dercctlring tlrcm as ceod,ecs.

Sam was a participant in our early reading intervention Program, receiv- ing regulat onmn-one reading support fnrm a reading specialist eadr day. He knew what level of books he could read and was anxious to progress to the next level. Being in this program further established Sam as an emergent reader in the eyes of his classmates. Other children in our cliassroom had participated in this reading support program in the past and were also awale of level num- bers used in the program. They had leamed to define a part of their reading growth in ternrs of progress through these levels. These children loved worli ing with their reading teache4, and others begg"d to have a place in her pro- gram. Part of the appeal of this progfilm was certaily the charismatic and caring nature of the teacher and another part was the opportunity to work one- on-one with someone focused closely on individual needs and interests. Surcly a third part of the appeal was the joy of watching that level number climb steadily following the hard work and regular reading at home. These begin- ning readers spent less than 307o of their rcading time inhomogeneous gtoups or leveled materials, and only for the first frw months of the school year. Still, reading levels were very important to them and their classmates.

Defining Reading Levels I was intrigued that Sam, a newcomer, had already figut€d out there were

at least two ways he could define himseff as a reader. I was troubled that his classmates were encouraging him to privilege qre of these ways above the other. I decided to explore the concept of reading levels with the childrcn in order to understand tlreir ideas about levels and in the hopethat I could begin to challenge the dominance of this continuum in defining readens and their growth. Through an extensive discussion, we crreated an initial list of "ways to describe who you are as a Eader." Our list included the following: level; cat- egory or geru€; smart neader strategies [that you use while readingl; how you read [physical conditions you prefed.

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

"I Am a Level 3 Reader": Chiklren's Perception of Themseloa as Readers %3

The children identified two ways of defining "level" as a way of describ- ing a reader: (1) the level indicators that many publishers now put on their books and (2) the grade level of particular kinds of books. For example, some of the children explained that they read second grade books. others said they used to read first grade books but now they read third grade books. so I asked an obvious question that I had never thought to ask before.

What is a first, second or thiril grade book? And they told me with certainty!A first gradebook, Panpan explained, was a book with "a lot of pictures and not such hard words and not so many words.,, Others named examples of first grade books, including some of our leveled books and picture books that were well-known in our classroom. Panpan, who read three of the "Little House" books at home for her October reading log (among many other books) often chose to read so-called first grade books at school. Earlona, a very proficient reader in first grade, told me she read third grade books that had lots of words, not as many pictures, and usually had a table of contents at the beginrring. So I posed an anomaly to the drildrerr: Panpan, a third grader, oftm read first grade books and Earlona, a first grader, often read third grade books. This use of grade level labels didn'tbother the childrrn at all. In fact, they couldn't figure out why I fotrnd it curious.

I asked them to tell me more about how they knew what level abook was and how they used that information to help them select a book to read. Vikranr explained that many books have a circle or square in the top right-hand comer that has a number or something that tells you what grade levels a book is for. "For example," he explained "Level2 books [from one publis]rer] are for grades 2 and 3. I usually read Level4 books for grades 4 and 5." Again, he was not bothered by the fact that the grade levels assigned to the books-by publishers or by the children-didn't match the grade levels of the children reading the books. Giventhe amount of attention given to readinglevels in this discussion, I was not surprised that children who werc identified as struggling readers were quiet.

I was impressed with the children's knowledge of book levels and awed at the shength of popularculhrre in defininghow readers grow andbecomemore literate. I made a list of things the drildren had taught me about the ways they viewed reading and themselves as readers:

. Forsome drildrenthe level of abook, such as firstgrade or second grade, functioned almost as a label for a gmre or category of book for the clil- dren. It signaled a particular "We" of book that had less to do with actual grade placement in school and more to do with picfure book, tsan- sition book, chapter book. It was incidmtally related to readability.

e There was a significant amount of "truth" or accuracy in the drildren's corrmon cultural understanding of what kinds of books are associated with different grade levels. Children tlpically make the transition ftrom simple picture books in first grade to chapter books in third grade.

. Some of the children had spent enough time reading in leveled books that they knew where they fit on various levelingcontinuums. Most of these experienced readers knew that they preferred to read books that were intended for higher grade levels than their own.

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

%4 TlwNauAdwcate

r Although our emergent readers were the only children who consirs-

tently ti"t i" a hoa:rogcreous grcup for guided fld*q instruction in

leveled materials, and this for less than one-third of their total reading

experierrces during the first few 19"eu of sdrool levels were an inte'

gral and yet turintentionalpart of the reading culhrre in our classroom'

I hai assumed that even though ourbuilding was focused on levels as part

of our spotlight on reading, my own clagToom could sustain a broader defini-

tion of iaais and readirft g;*th.As I listened to the children, I knew I had

to reexamine ttrat assumplin I made a conscious decision to find out if we

could become less focused on levels. I wanted to pursue Sam's idea of "the

kinds of books I like to read" with the children. I wanted to know how they

thought about genre and how that influenced the ways they defined them-

,"lu*i ", *uaeri t troPea thatthis inquiry would help the studenb define them-

selves more broadlY as readers.

Rethinking EasY and Hard Books I posed the questions

"lAlhat kinds of books do you like to read?" and "what

kinds of books can readers choose?" The children initially suggested the labels It"ri Uoot" and "hard book" as categories of books that people might read'

rhey used the tersrs in a way that seemea to siqn{ a defined set of books. The

*o* *" talked,however, themore fluid and relative their definitionsbecame.

l thtl" the reading "levels' they had discussed uP tq Ss point

were fairly dis-

crete, self-standiig levels that seemed to exist outside of the teaders-a con-

Ur,""t" against "rliOt they placed themselves--*asy books and hard books

were defiied in ways that'wlre relative to the individual reader and in ways

that changed over time. Earlda started our discussisrby explaining that an easybook was abook

that was easy to read and a hard book was a book that was harder to read'

Vikram add&, "Yeah, I used to read easy books but now I read hard books"'

f"iUuUy f pt"dicted that easy boolc wouti Ue foorc commonly associated with gtrt gtLai loola and hard trooks would be associated with third gride chapter

books. So I pushed the issue. MegggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggVikram, I,m wurdering then, if you ever tead, easy books? If you

ever read books that are easy for you?

[Sheepishly, drawing out the vowe[, Yeeesss.

[To the entire grouPl Do you think an easy book would be easy for a preschoohr, Uke Mary's little sister Leslie, to read?

No. Do you think your parents would have a difficult time reading the hard books?

Vikram: Me:

Group: Me:

After abrief exchange they agreed thathatdbooks would notbe hard for theil

parmts and that e"iy Uoofs "*ttd be hard for a preschoolet: I I asked them

lg"ir, ,,lAlhat is an easy book?' and -What is a hard book?" After giving thgm

Jme time to talk to a neighbor about their thoughts,I posed a question to the

entire grouP.

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

"l Am a Level 3 Reader": Children's Perception of Themsehns as Reailers 365

Me: I wonder if those easy books were easy to read when you were in first grade or if they seerned hard?

Panpan: lAnimatedly] An easy book is something that is easy for you to read but maybe it used to be a hard book! A hard book is something that is hard for you to read but maybe if you keep reading it will be easy for you!

As our discussion continued we finally agreed thateasy andtrrlrd� were labels that individual readere could give to books; they ween't r€gulal categories of books or regular levels of books. We agreed that what was easy for ore perscr might not be easy for another person, and that people could choose when to read easy books and when to read hard books. I was surprised by how strong some of the children felt about this issue of choice in regard to level of reading challenge. Some of the drildren were quite excited to hear others proclaim that readerc could choose what level of reading challenge they wanted at a given time. Our discussion had been generative but I was concemed that we still weren't talking about categories of books in a way that reflected an awareness of genre.

Genre as a Way of Grouping Readers I involved the children in structured experiences designed to draw their

attention to genr,es and categories of books as a way of defining or describing themselves as readers. I still was not willing to let them limit their descriptions to terms that implied readability or reading proficiency.

Using a piece of large chgrlpapea I asked the drildren to brainstomr a list of the categories of books they liked to read. I gave a few examples to ensure that our list went beyond easy books and hard books. Our initial list included:

Categories of Books

picture books

dog stories

scary stories

(monsters, ghosts)

joumeybooks

true books

(informational books)

chapler books

mysteries

sports books

pets and animals books

series books (Li*le House,

Magic Tree House,

Ramonabooks)

As these categories were suggested, they werc accomPanied by titles that many of us knew4ooks that had become a Part of our sharcd classroom history. Drring the discussion, I shared my belief that who we are as rcaders is in part de{ined by the kinds of books we enioy. That week our Homework Packet in- cluded an invitation to add to our list of categories by looking at the books students had at home and by talking to adults about different kinds of books.

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

W TheNewAdooate

A few days later, I raised lhe topic of genre again. I asked children to write down three of the categories that they most liked to read or with which they were most fa:niliaq, and one wish for a calegory they would want to try out. I gave examples from my own experiences. Once all the children had recorded theirthreecategories and awish,I asked them tomove around our group look- ing for classmates with similar lists (in the fashion of a classic mixer activity). I said, "Find someone else who has one of your categories on their list of favor- ites. Have that person sign his or her name next to the category on your list that you both have. Then keep going. Try to find other people to sign your list."

I asked childvren to wette dwon thcee o{ the

categoeies tlwt tlwy rnost liked to cead oc vntth

vlhbh tW etrece n'Last {ami}ioe, end one vli'sh {ov

a ca.tegocy thnt tl*y u?ouV went to try aut.

I watched and smiled as most children moved immediately toward the children they knew well and read with often. They hteu what kinds of books their closest friends and flequent work partrrers liked to read They &near who in our room read the same kinds of books they read. Next, they began looking around the room and finally approachingchildren with whom they worked less often, or children who were newer to our classroom and with whom we were all less familiar. I was certain they were learning things about their class- mates that they didn't already know, evm those who had been together in our classroom for several years. Sq in a follow-up discussiory I asked,

"What did you leam about someone else that you didn't already know?"

Caroline and Margaux had been in our classroom the year before, although they hadn't spent much time together. Caroline said she leamed that

"Margaux

had three of the same things as me." l,ater in the conversation Margaux said, "I leamed that Caroline reads funny

books. I asked her [if she read firury books] because she put it on our class list [of categories of books we brainstormed] and I thought she might put it on her own list."

Chelsea, one of our youngest children, said, "Panpan reads chapter books." Chelsea was just getting to know the older children in our classroom and was comfortable enough with our classroom routines that she could begin to notice what other childr€n wer€ doing while she was doing her work.

Kareem, a new sfudent to our school, said he leamed that, "Daniel reads

health and body books. Those ar€ one of my favorite ones." Vikram shared that, "Ben and David like mystery books. I've never seen

them read mysterybooks. I usually see them read different kinds of books." loe added to this,

"I leamed that David reads mystery books. He doesn't have any at his house or I've never seen them, or seen him read them at hom€."

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

"l Am a lanl 3 Reader": Children's Perception of Themsekns as Readers %z

Joe and David .rne very close friends. They visit at one another,s homes often. Joe was amazed by what he was leaming about David. whether or not David actually read mystery books on a regular basis, he clearly wanted his classmates to see hirn as someone who mjoyed this type of book.

Our retumingstudmts werefinding out things about one anotherthat they hadn't known after having been together in our classroom for some time. I con- cluded from this that we had not been spending sufficimt time talking about the categories of books we read" or could read, and that such discussions could be beneficial in shengthening our conrmunity and in demonstrating what liter- ate people de-they read and are familiar with a wide range of books from a variety of genre and they often have developed a favorite genre. I believe that a literateperson is one whoreads widely and is familiar with anexpandingrange of genre, yet I had not consciously acted on this belief in my own classroom.

The children's discussions inhigued me for several other reasons. First, I leamed how much of reading, particularly the decision about what to read is social. Some children carefully observed the reading habits of their friends, or their classroom idols, and began reading similar books in order to strengthen their relationship with these friends or idols. They spent time looking through the same shelving sections as the readers with whom they wanted to be associ- ated. Second, I realized that to rullyl<now a reader, you had to know what they read at home and what kinds of books filled their bookshelves. Children who played together outside of school understandably knew more about what their friends read at home.

Panpan was a very accomplished reader and one of our oldest sfudents. Her monthly reading log for home reading was filled with the titles of chapter books, many of them considered to be challenging for readers her age. How- ever, at schoolPanpangenerally read picture storybooks. When I asked Panpan about the differences between her home and school reading, she explained that she liked picture storybooks at school because she could read them in one sit- ting, sometimes more than one book in a single reading time. She ienerally read more challenging chapter books at home because she could read for long, uninternrpted blocks of time at home-something that helped her get into the book world of the characters. At school, she said, we never had enough time to read; to really get into a book.

As our conversation continued, Sarah said she leamed that Akshita read chapter books. I asked how that was possible, since they'd been in this class- room together for a long time. Akshita responded before Sarah had a chance, saying, "Because she's never been to my house." I was beginning to under- stand how much the childrcn's social connections inlluenced the ways they defined and positioned one another as readers. Children who saw one another outside of school often knew things about others' reading habits that the rest of us didn't know. Children who were not corurected socially were defined as readers based on limited and sometimes misleading information-and usually based on reading proficiency$ecause no one knew them well enough to know their interests.

Later we extended the strategy by finding "experts" to sign wishes-the types of books we wanted to leam more about. I explained to the children that when I wanted to start reading mysteries, I tumed to a good friend who loved

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

368 ThcNntAdoaatc

mysteries because I wanted a great recommendation for my first serious mys-

teiy Uootc I asked the students to find a resoulte in our classroom who was

fanitiar with the kinds of books they wanted to sartpld. I was thrilled to see

some of our youngest children listed as resoulce$ for older students, and new-

comers to our classroom listed as l€sources for retuming studenfs. f saw these

events as inrportant milestones in our move toward becoming a community of

readers. finalty, the shrdentsweremoving awayfrom defining themselves and their classmates in terurs of level, to considering categories of books aE a way of grouping thsnselves. I was hopeful this insight would shift the ways that retuming students viewed youngne$'comers in subsequent yearsi.

I belUve that a litecate pecsan is one who

eeads wid,ely orLd is {amilinc with an exPandi'ng

cange o{ genee, yet I hnA. rwt conrcintsly actad

on this belu{ tn mv ovDn classYoom.

Frank Smith (1988) has described the learning-to-read Process as akin to

ioining the "literacy club." lust as adults at all levels of experience and profi-

ciency are welcome in theAudubon Society or an antique car collectors' groupr so can readers of all levels of experience and proficiency leam from one an- other in "clubs" or groups centered around shared reading interests. I believe zudr a shift from "lV-hat level book can/do you read?" to

"lAlhat kinds of books are you reading and what arc you thinking about?'is a positive shift for all readers, particularly those who may h struggling in the learningto-read pro- cess. The readers who struggle often seem to be on the social fringes of our classroolns. They don't spend literacy time with other children who share their reading interests because they shy away from reading experiences (Allen, Midralovg & Shockley, 1993; Rhodes & Dudley-Marling, 1996). Until these read- ers feel a sense of corurection and comrnitment to a literacy club, their reading developmentcan only go so far.

I began to think about the ways our classroom library collection invites children to consider new genre, and then supports their reading and explora- tion of this geme.Imade a mentalnote to think of ways thatthechildrencould begin to cr€ate their own genre collections within our larger classrocrm collec- tion. I wondered if children working in reading interest StouPs could begin to gather books in crates and baskets much the same way that I gathered text sets (Short, Harste, & Burke, 1996) in preparation for new inquiries or to support new perspectives within an inguiry. Such a proiectmight eventoally make our classroom library less overwhelming and solve the ongoing problem we had of maintaining the organizational structurc of the books within our library' Returning students would be able to help maintain the stmctqe of our library from one yearto thenext.I wanted to furtherestablishmybelief thatreaders in

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

"l Am a Inel i Rsder': Cltiklr*'s Perception $Themxloa Es Reaile/s X9

a literate community support one anothernot only in leaming to rea4 but in leaming about the kinds of books and materials that are available to read.

Selecting Books that Define Us as Readers Leamers must have a strong voice in their own leaming, and this includes

opporhnities formaking decisions aboutwhat they will explore thncugh their reading (Short, Harste, & Burke, 1995). lio be successful, readers must have support in leaming how to select their reading alxfglials (Bome4 1998). A few days after our discussions of categories of books,I planned a fairly sbuctured engagement to support all of the studsrts in thinking about the ways ttrey select reading materials, and to provide our emerging readers with demon- strations of the ways more experienced readers make decisions about the ma- terials they will read.

I asked the students to spend some time browsing our collection in order to locate three books in our cliassroom that were reflective of who they were as readers-$ooks that if we saw them we would say, "These ate youl books.' This kind of engagement involving the entile class was a departurre from our usual workshop fonnat and the children seemed very excited. After spending half an hour locating their books, the children worked in pairs to talk to one another about the &ree books each had selecied and why. Once most of the children were in pairs, I moved about the room,listening in on their conversa- tions. Regardless of how well they knew one anothex, the children shared their books with excitement and animation. ln fact, I had to stop thenr twice and remind them about reasonable conversation levels!

I was somewhat surprised by the level of excitemmt about the book shar- ing. We share books in our classroom all the time during parbrer reading shar- ing time, and in r€aders'dubs. I still am not surre why this sharing of the three books on this day was so electric and why it felt so generative. One contribuF ing factor may have been the novelty of the engagement, but I suspect it also had something to do with having an opportunity to shale an often.invisible part of yourself with another petleon.

I asked children to place just one of tlreir thlee books into a pile. I ttren explained the next st?. I would pass the books back out randomly, trying to avoid giving someone his or her ownbook Next I would grve the drildren a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the book they had received. Then they would be asked to locale the book's "owner" using a series of questions:

r Do you like to readbooks like this? o Have you ever read fhis book? r Is this yourbook?

Once they found the book's ownet they would rehrm the book to that person. We would stop when everyone had their own book back. I stressed the impon tance of the three questions and the reasons why they should spend time talk- ing about others'responses to the first two questions before moving alread to the final qtrestion.I reminded them that this was not a race,but an o'pporhnity to leam more about the kinds of books their classmates lilcd to lead.

I sent them off to query their classmates. I was fascinated as I observed their skategies. Our oldestdrildrerr, predictably,lcnew the most students in the

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

370 TheNattuknmte

classroom and seemed most aware of "potential" readers for a book Our young-

est children b"g"n by seeking out their favorite work partners or an older stu- dent who had been assigned as their special buddy at the first of the year. They started off with

"safe" people with whom they could discuss the books. Chil- dren known for being tolerant and helpful, particularly to younger children, were surrounded by others wanting to talk to them. Newcomers to our rhool sought partners more often than they were sought out as partrers. TWo chil- aren naan't a clue what to do. They stood somewhat forlomly in the center of

the melee and looked from their books to the sea of moving, chattering chil-

dren that su"rrounded them. Evenhrally, someone who had exhausted the ini- tial list of "possibles" for a book would approach. This opened the door for these ,'lost', children by providing a living demonstration of what they were to do and a captive audience for their first attempt.

I am con@erlad tlnt in a,n effoct to peooi'd'e

chilAeen with lrcl.rlks *at

theLe lnvel,' teonhees aee

m,owng ataay feom inwlving childeen vnlth boolcs

gco&ped a.ccoedi,ng to any o{ the oth,ee vtays

tllat liteeate indLvid,uds ocganize boolcs.

As the ptoc?ss drrew to a close, I took note of who still had not besr rt- united wittrtheir own book The last two children were children I would de- scribe as not closely corurected to others in our cliassr@m, children that others did not know well. I rememberedAllen, Michalove, and Shockley's (f993) find- ings that children who did not feel like an integrd part of the social community of the classroomofbtavoided literacyexperiences and were oftenon the fringes of the cl,assroom comnrunity. This led me to see the social isolation of these two sfudents as both a cliassroom community issue crd as an academic issue. Be- cause they were not grounded in the social stnrctut€ of the classroom, they had limited opporttmities to efigage in literacy experiences with a variety of class' mates. I realized that I needed to make deliberate attemPts to bring these two students into the social mainstream of the classroom and I began to searcJr for ways to do so.

I asked students once again, "What did you leam while doing this activity

about the kinds of books your classmates lilce to read?" Initially, our talk con- sisted of a series of reportings by individual students and then we moved into a discussion. Molly: I leamed that Rebecca reads books sort of like thebooks that I like to

read. I read l{fteil Will I Read? [Cohen, 1977] and Rebecca rcad a book with the sane characters and the same teacher.

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

"I Am a Leael 3 Reader": Children's Perception of Themsektes as Readers 371

Ben: I didn't know that Panpan read "Boxcar Children" books, Me: Wow! You two have been in here together for i long time. We talked

about this the other day, too. How is it possible that you haven't leamed this about Panpan already?

Ben: Well . . . I just never have seen her reading "Boxcar Children" books in our classroom.

Sarah: That's because Panpan reads them at home. I've seen them at her house. She's already read all the "Boxcar Children" books that we have in our classroom.

Panpan: Yeah, I read them already. So now I read different books at school and "Boxcar Children" books from the library at home.

I was pleased that the children were able to talk about the types of books their classmates read, and how closely they observed one another's reading habits. I was sure this process contributed to the growth the children make as literate individuals-that the younger and less experienced readers benefit from seeing what kinds of books other more proficient readers are reading and from having opportunities to hear about new books from one another. With "so many books and so little tine," the children need help narrowing the field of possible books.

Curricular Responses These experiences strengthened my belief that I need to know much more

about the readers in our classroom, particularly our newcomers, than the level of book they can read. I also realized that an important part of building our classroom community is helping students get to know more about their class- mates' reading interests. The students had little difficulty leaming about the reading proficiency of their classmates, but leaming about classmates' reading interests involves more planning on my part. I knew that the following year I would spend even more time gefting to know our newcomers in terms of what kinds of books they are interested in and that I would take deliberate steps to help our retuming students get to know the new students in terms of reading interests. I hoped this shift in lny emphasis would result in a shift in tluir prion- ties as they attempted to define their classmates as readers.

Our interest in categories of books and genre helped many students find reading parbrers in our classroom. We moved into reading clubs (Bomet,1996) based on reading preferences. Some of these clubs read shared titles and others came together to talk about themed sets, genre sets, or author sets. While read- ing clubs are certainly not new in elementary classrooms, ours gr€w out of our exploration into how we define ourselves as readers and how we grow as read- ers. This thoughtful beginning made the difference, in our classroom, between a borrowed routine that grows stale once the newness has worn off, md a gen- erative strategy that pushes us to consider new perspectives and to outgrow our current selves.

At the end of the year,I again asked the children to describe themselves as readers. Their responses reflected the diverse ways we had looked at readers throughout the year. Some children continued to define themselves in terms of

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

372 TluNauAdomtc

extemal leveling systerns or common.culturle definitions of grade level expec- tations. Ttnn said, 'The kind of a reader I anr is a good reader. I can rcad words like'salacious'but not'fragilisticexpi.'I can read level3 books now. On a reading scale from 1 to 1O I would be a 5."

Other childrsr provided a qualitative analysis of their reading, self-evalu- ating their reading performance. Mark stad, "I read good when I read to my- self. And I don't read so good when I read aloud but I don't really know why that is, but maybe becauee I'm not so used to reading aloud."

Marry of the childrcn listed the kinds of shategies they use as a way of defining themselves as readers. Fo"ziaexplained, "Well,I'm a kind of a reader that hies herbest. Whm I'm stuck on a word I just skip it and read then I go back and figure out the word. The s€ntence helps me."

Other childr€n tdked about the kinds of books they enjoy reading. Some- times they explained why they chose particular kinds of books. Rebecca com- mented, 'I like reading drapter books or adventure books, mystery books or just very funny books. The nasm why is because I am a person who likes adventure and wants to do them- I read adventure books every night. The books make me have ideas in my head so if I went on an adventule one day."

1he range of childrcn's t\esporuies indicated that we had made significant progress towad increasinghow they defined themselves as readers. While gome continued to use definitions based on exEmal leveling systems and "hard

books/easy books,' many more considered the types of boolc they like to read, the reasons they dtoose particular books, and the strategies they use when reading.

Conclusions This experience forced me to reconsider the messages my shrdents were

receiving about thenrselves as rcaders. I had a difiicult time reconciling the fact that reading levels had such a prominmt role in our classroom, given the na- ture of tlre classroom context I had worked so hard to create. I never would have expected sfudents in our dassroom to give such attention to levels be- cause of the ridr literacyo<per{encres we engaged in, the wide range of books available, and the extensive use of flexible grouping based on interest. ltV-hile I occasionallybroughtsome students togetherinsmall, short-term homogeneous groups, students spentmoat of theirtime in avarietyof self-selected groupings based on interest. In an effort to rcsolve this anomaly, I talked with students, their parents, and my colleagues. In additiorv I consulted the professional lit- erature on creating classroom communities (Fleischer & Schaafsma,1998; Peterson,1992; Robinson,1990), establishing supportive literacy-leaming en- vironments (Camboume, 1988; Short, Harste, & Burke, 1996; and Short, 199n, and supporting shuggling readers (Au, 193; Bomer, 1998; Duff-Hester, 1999; Fountas & Pinnell, 1996,; Rhodes & Dudley-Marling,l996; and Watson, l99n.

My rcflections on the prominence of reading levels in both children's dis- cussions and the professional literature have led me to examine my own be. liefs about the value of leveled reading materials. Clearly, grouping books by reading levels is one way of looking at books, but not the only way (Short, 99n.1am concerned that in an effort to provide children with books "at their

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

"I Am a kt:el i Rtader": Children's Perceptian of Themselves as Reirders 373

level," teachers are moving away from involving children with books grouped according to the other ways that literate individuals organize books. ln our classroom the children often formed groups according to friendship patterns or grouped books according to what their friends were reading. Teachers whct organize only by book level are inadvertently limiting chiidren's conceplions about literacy and literature. I prefer to help students find what Watson (1997) refers to as "supportive and workable" texts*texts that so engage the reader that she is willing to work hard, with whatever additional supports are nece$- sary, lo make sense of the text.

As I look at what publishers are offering us*and I believe they are respond- ing in part to what they think we want*I arn concemed that quality literature books are being drowned in a sea of leveled readers. We used to search for and organize our books based on text types (circle stories, pourquoi stories, cumula- tive stories), topics (trces, westward expansion), authors and illustratnrs (Patricia

Polacco, Ezra Jack Keats, Leo and Diane Dillon), or themes and broad concepts (migration, democracy, coming of age). Publishers responded by providing themed sets in their catalogs. More recently, as I listen to teachers talk about the kinds of books they want help in locating, they are looking for, organizing, and using books primarily based on levels, with only secondary attention to match- ing materials to readers'interests. Watson (1997) reminds us that the first ques- tions teachers should consider when selecting texts are,

"How appropriate are the stories to the lives of my kids? Will they be interested?" (p. 638).

I don't have anything against grouping books into broad levels based on readability. Such groupings make it easier for teachers, parents, and students to select reading materials. But I prefer Earlona's categories of first grade, sec- ond grade, and third grade books (albeit with different labels!) over leveling schemes that purport to organize books into ten or more levels for first grade alone. I don't believe we can be that discriminating about readability levels and still honor the complexity oI the reading proc€ss and the diverse profiles struggling readers present. The profession seems to have reached a consensus that no single profile of a struggling reader exists (Snow, Eums, & Griffin, 1998). It makes sense, then, that no tightly-defined sequence of leveled texts will be appropriate for all, or even most, struggling readers, I agree with Watson (1997) that we need to broaden our definition of

"appropriate reading materials" from an exclusive focus on reading levels tcl a more cornplex view that integrates predictability, readabiliry and degree of match betw'een reader interests/expe- riences and text topic.

My pondering and re{lecting also helped me identify three questions. First, I wonder to what extent my own language signaled to students that reading levels were more important than reading interests. Clne of our regular parent volunteers in the classroom helped me see that by asking,

"What kind of a reader are you?" and,

"What kinds of books do you like to read?" I may have directed children's attention toward reading profici.ency, and possibly raised anxieties for children who did not perceive themselves as reudurs at the begin- ning of the school year. Had I asked from the beginning, "What kinds of book do you enioy?" I might have invited students to share a wider range of ways to describe and deJine themselves as readers.

Pierce, K. M. (2009). "I am a level 3 reader": Children's perceptions of themselves as readers. Classroon Connections, 32(4), 299-316.

374 The Naa Adoocate

Second,I wonder to what extent "struggling" readers are more susceptible to the prcssures of society to define themselves as readers in ternrs of levels. I believe that in our well-intentioned efforts to support these readers we inad- vertently send them destnrctive messages. These vulnerable readers :rre more likely to be assigned leveled reading materials and less likely to have the free- dom of choice about topic and level of reading challenge that we offer our mone successful readers. While Panpan was free to choose easy books in our classroom, beginning readers like Sam were often assigned easy books.

ln additioru struggting raaders are often more closely watched and more frcquently tested for evidence of reading growth. Camboume (1988) reminds us that one of the conditions required for success in literary is the involvement of significant adults who communicate to the child their unshakeable convic- tion that the child willbe successful in leaming to read. Like the father inl.r,o, the bte Bloomer (Kraus, Lg7t),[fear that our careful watching communicates doubt about the child's eventual success in learning to read, thereby under- mining that success.

Third, I wonder what else I can do as a teacher to broadm the ways chil- dren define themselves as readers. Society-including publishers who put lev- eling infonnationboldly on the frontcover of books4ombards childrenwith messages that rcading levels are important and are the primary factor to con- sider when selecting a book to read.

One common thread rurudng thrcugh the various engagemmts I planned in the classroom was the power of discussing reading, readers, and reading growth directly with the drildren. These conversations providdd us with a con- text in whidr to examine, challenge, and expand the ways drildren describe and define themselves and others as readers. I believe that we, as a profession, need to have mole of these conversations with our students.

Weneed tohave moreof these conversationswith ourcolleagues, too. b fessional dialogue in whidr we critically examine our practices, our assump tions and beliefg and our labels and definitioru can help us avoid throwing out time-honored practices (literature study, independent reading in sef-se- lected reading materials) in response to national obsessions. Such professional dialogue can support us in our ongoing search for greater understanding of the reading prmess and the complex readers we find in our classlooms.

Author'g Note The author wishes to thank the reviewers and colleagues who provided useful nesponses to various drafts of this piece, and to the students and parents who allowed her to share the children's commenb and experiences.

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" I Am a Lsr)el 3 Readet" : Children's Perception of Themseltns as Readers 375

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