A Review of the Literature

Question Development
Kragler, Sherry and Christine Nolley. Student Choices: Book Selection
Strategies of Fourth Graders. Reading Horizons: A Journal of
Literacy and Language Arts 36.4 (1996): 354-365. Print.
In this study, Kragler and Nolley explore the book selection
habits of fourth graders. They determine that self-selection is a
powerful motivator for young readers if they choose a just right book.
Nolley listens to students read the book of their choice, noting miscues,
and then asks careful questions about their book and the selection
process, comprehension, and enjoyment. Kragler and Nolley find that
students generally think about why they choose books (favourite
author, recommendation from friend), but not necessarily how they
choose books. Consequently, students did not fully consider the
difficulty of a book. Eventually, students were able to find books at
their instructional or independent reading level. Kragler and Nolley
suggest teaching a book selection algorithm or other strategy to help
students find this match more quickly. Ultimately, Kragler and Nolley
conclude that self-selection fosters students enthusiasm,
responsibility, and competency in regards to reading.
Kragler and Nolleys study in the fourth grade classroom will be
extremely important to our own research with grade nine students.
The students in Mrs. Quirings classroom do not read very much

outside of school. If they become better self-selectors, this motivation

and enthusiasm may improve, as in the Kragler and Nolley case.
Furthermore, the questions Kragler and Nolley ask the students will
directly influence the questions in our initial survey, determining how
students self-select books now. If we are able to effectively teach Mrs.
Quirings students how to self-select books, reading motivation,
enthusiasm, and responsibility should increase, as in Kragler and
Nolleys findings.
Mercurio, Mia Lynn. "In their Own Words: A Study of Suburban Middle
School Students Using a Self-selection Reading Program." Journal
of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 49 (2005): 130-141.
Mercurio provides a great deal of background information with
regards to our action research topic. She proves through her article the
importance of self-selection in boosting students desire to read and
overall attitudes towards reading as many students don't like the books
they have to read in school. She mentions many times throughout her
article the importance of students being able to select their own
reading materials. She writes, the purpose of the study in this article
was to record students' reactions to a self-selection reading program,
to determine whether our school reading program was engaging to
these students, and to ascertain whether this program could make
these students enjoy reading more". This purpose is similar to our own.

An important aspect of our research that was derived from this

study was the basic methodology. Like Mercurio, we invited students
to participate in a survey both before and after the implementation of
the intervention/mini-lesson. Furthermore, we were also able to obtain
questions for our surveys from this article, including asking their level
of interest in reading, as well as how much time they spend reading
outside of school.
Intervention
Barsema, Michelle, Louann Harms, and Carol Progue. Improving Reading Achievement
Through the Use of Multiple Reading Strategies. 2002. 6-79. Print.
This article studies a students reading achievements through their standardized tests,
in-class book testing, and theme tests. The data from these tests explains how children
struggle with reading fluency, comprehension, and engaging in a text. According to
Barsema, Louann, and Progue, this reading incompetency is directly related to students
discontent with and poor understanding of their reading material. The authors then apply
an accelerated reading program and monitor as the use of buddy reading, silent reading
time, and home reading programs change students test scores. Much of this material
applies to our own research, specifically when considering our next steps and how a
teaching strategy can be carried through in not only tips but also in-class improvements.
Hopefully with these next steps of class reading and home programs, students will fall in
love with reading.

Wedwick, Linda and Jessica Wutz. BOOKMATCH: How to Scaffold

Student Book Selection for Independent Reading. Newark, DE:
International Reading Association, 2007. Print.
Wedwick and Wutz outline how to teach book selection for
independent reading in this book. The strategy they develop, called
BOOKMATCH, empowers students to make their own choices about
their reading. The title is actually an acronym, containing the strategy
itself: book length, ordinary language, organization, knowledge prior to
book, manageable text, appeal to genre, topic appropriateness,
connection, and high interest. Wedwick and Wutz also offer specific
questions attached to each aspect of the strategy. Furthermore, the
questions not only help students select an appropriate and engaging
book, but also encourage students to monitor the appropriateness of
their selection as they continue to read. BOOKMATCH will be
absolutely vital to our research because we will teach Mrs. Quirings
grade nine students this book selection strategy, in the hopes that they
will become more excited about reading outside of the classroom.