Coby's Response to Taberski's Chapter Four

In chapter four of her book, On Solid Ground, Sharon Taberski talks about helping children to choose books that are appropriate for them. She says that sometimes seven or eight year olds may have the ability to read young adult novels but they do not have the maturity to do so. It would be inappropriate to have them reading about a love triangle or something else that they would not yet understand. To remedy this problem Taberski suggests that teachers offer factual genres to such students like poetry, newspaper articles, and journal articles. Factual information has less text and more pictures but the vocabulary is harder than fictional texts and will challenge those children who are ahead in reading.

I never thought of the fact that although some children are able to read books they still should not because they do not have the maturity to do so. I knew that it was important to introduce factual material to children but I never thought of offering it as a substitute for inappropriate fictions. Those two things sound like good ideas that I would like to keep in mind and possibly implement when I have my own classroom.