Life is like a box of chocolates...does it have to be for reading?

Forrest Gump made the phrase "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get" famous. I actually like to know what I am going to get when I bite into a chocolate and I am no different with books. I don't mind branching out and trying new things but I want to know what's coming. I also want to feel like I chose to be adventurous, I don't want the decision to be forced on me. Shouldn't we extend the same courtesy to our students when it comes to reading texts?

We need to provide a wide variety of genres, provide texts that represents the diversities of the students in our classrooms, and provide texts that match the interests of students in our classroom. Doing so allows students variety and choice for their independent reading time.

That places a great deal of responsibility on us as teachers for providing diversity in the texts we select for read aloud and guided reading. Sometimes it seems as though we are performing a juggling act when we are trying to keep in mind: student interest, representing all students, thinking about critical literacy, social justice, issues of equity, the big ideas from the curricula, and making the learning cross-curricular! The resources abound but where do we begin?

What I have learned is that selecting diverse texts about relevant life issues is not a series of lessons, rather it's an approach to teaching. So you begin with your expectations and big ideas in mind and you select texts that help you teach about the reading comprehension strategies while you talk about fairness, justice, environmental issues, friendship, etc. Whew! Changing your mindset from "yet one more thing to teach" to thinking of this critical literacy as a lens through which to view the text makes it seem a lot less intimidating.

Without pressure or intimidation, I relaxed and discovered that the resources for diversity in reading resources abounds! I have listed some websites that I have enjoyed browsing so far. Let me know what you think!

The Literate Learner (key concepts can be found on slide #*) 

Website for culturally diverse texts (this site is free, easy to navigate, has a variety of genres/languages/age group targets)

50 Books for Social Justice

Books that celebrate cultural diversity (these books are subdivided by age/grade levels)