The New York Times discusses how reading choice affects motivation in this article: “A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like”. Eighth grade teacher Lorrie McNeill shares her experiences from her first year of using the reading workshop method, where “students choose their own books, discuss them individually with their teacher and one another, and keep detailed journals about their reading.” To cover required elements like symbolism, allegory, or foreshadowing, the teacher spends time with the students before independent reading begins, using short stories or poetry for examples. Students practice writing by keeping journals about their books, and practice speaking and sharing by leading discussions about their books.

Sound familiar? It sounds a lot like Plugged-in to us! As we know, choice can greatly increase student motivation. And motivation can greatly increase comprehension and, therefore, test scores. Plugged-in works with a philosophy outlined in the article, that “most experts say that teachers do not have to choose between one approach or the other and that they can incorporate the best of both methods: reading some novels as a group while also giving students opportunities to select their own books.”

Plugged-in’s three-step instructional model offers a built-in structure for a classroom like Ms. McNeill’s. The program starts students off with teacher-directed discussion, then allows them to move to small groups with more autonomy and title choice. From there, students independently read books they’ve chosen from the high-interest Plugged-in classroom library. And in both PITR and PITNF, students read independently throughout the program, not only after completing the teacher-directed and peer-supported sections. All the texts in the program, including those in the teacher-directed portion, have been chosen by Dr. Janet Allen because they are high-interest, relevant to today’s students, and cover the standards. In Level 3 and Level 4, titles also feature classic connections.