Children’s Choice

“Everyone feels included when we choose our class book. It’s so exciting to see who wins!”

Asking children to vote for their class book offers them opportunities to take ownership of what they want to read, become respectful readers by exercising their reading rights, and understand some simple aspects of decision-making and democracy in action, through their choice and voice.

Teaching tip

Use mathematical resources and graphing tools to discuss the data and record the results.

Taking it further

Wrap up nominated books to conceal their covers and write the first lines, paragraph, page or blurb on them. This will entice children to consider the content rather than be influenced by the covers.

As a child, do you remember teachers reading books to the class? Do you remember voting for that book choice? Your first answer will hopefully be yes, but your second will probably be no. But how transformational would it have been for you to have had the power to pick the class book?

Pupil voice means a whole-school commitment to listening to children. This is no different for reading. Create a choosing culture by setting up a station in your classroom for children to have their say on your class book. Display a range of nominated books, then handle, look at and talk about them before asking children to vote for the one they’d most like to read. Discuss how they can also abstain and how the majority wins.

Bonus idea

Turn this idea into #ClassroomChoice with teaching staff participating too. You could also use it for children to make other reading-related rulings such as selecting your ‘Author of the Month’ (Idea 97).

#ChildrensChoice

Make voting systems age-appropriate and inclusive by using a variety of: counters and baskets; named pegs; tally charts; a good old ‘hands up’; a head-to-head, knock-out #BattleOfTheBooks style tournament; a secretive #BookBallot; or online polling technology to increase interaction. Watch out, it can get very competitive!

Return the non-winning books to your classroom collection so children can go and find the book they voted for to read themselves after being so passionate about it.