Topic Choice

I just finished reading an article in the Globe and Mail , Monday March 29th, page L1. The title of the article is "Books in School: Let Students Choose." The general theme of the article is that if you let students choose the books that they want to read, they will actually make good thoughtful choices and read more. Maybe I wasn't so kooky after all. Letting my grade 2/3 class choose their own books for novel study might have meant more work for me, but it was definitely worth it. I just couldn't bear making a group of very different students with very different interests read the same novel and hearing "Miss Graham do we have to read this? It's soooo boring!" over and over again and again and again. Too bad I didn't really listen to myself when it came down to their writing. In my class, students were allowed to choose their own topic but looking back, I see that there were some type of parameter attached. My writer's workshop focused on getting my students to write about something they had experienced or knew. Student's used to complain about how unexciting their lives were, and how they would much prefer to write about something that wasn't real - a story about a superhero, or an amazing hockey player (that just happened to be the student) - but would allow them to escape to far away places. I didn't really listen to them but continued to direct them to their own life and lived experiences. I now recognize that although I didn't think I tried to influence them, I really did. What's my point? I guess I wonder why it is we don't we trust our students to make good decisions or choices regarding what they read and write? Maybe if we just trusted ourselves as teachers we'd realise that we have helped prepare our students to make good and thoughtful choices. We just need to give them the opportunity to show us.