How I Plan a Choice Reading Unit - Troubleshooting in Real Time
It is January 2021. I am a junior English teacher in the middle of a fully virtual school year, and I am planning the last unit my students will do before the quarter ends and I get a whole new set of kids.
I'm putting together a choice text unit - one of my signature frameworks - and I have a lot of variables coming at me right now. Hybrid plans changing weekly. COVID numbers. Students who may or may not be in the building. I am trying to make this as simple and streamlined as possible while keeping the learning intact.
I'm planning it on camera so you can see exactly how I think through the problem-solving because planning is never as clean as the finished unit plan suggests.
Why choice reading units are worth the complexity
I have been building choice novel units for years, and they are consistently the units my students are most engaged in and most invested in. When students choose their text, they come to the work with a different level of buy-in. They advocate for their book in discussions. They make genuine connections between their reading and shared texts. They actually read.
That said: choice reading units require more upfront design than a whole-class novel. The variables are real. Here's how I think through them.
The variables I'm working through
What texts are available? I need books that are physically accessible - either already in the classroom library, available to check out, or accessible digitally. In a hybrid/virtual situation, digital access becomes even more important. I'm not picking the most amazing books if students can't actually get their hands on them.
What's the essential question? Every unit I teach is anchored in an essential question. For this American Literature unit, the question threads through the whole course: what does it mean to be American? Choice novels give students individual entry points into a shared inquiry. Their book is their evidence.
How will groups work? In a normal year, book clubs meet in person. This year, some students are in the room, some are on Zoom. I'm building flexible group structures that work both synchronously in person and asynchronously for students who aren't physically present.
What are the milestones? Choice reading units need scaffolding - not to hold students' hands, but to keep the independent work from becoming invisible. Reading check-ins, discussion protocols, and a final summative that connects back to the essential question are all built in.
The framework underneath all of it
I have a signature framework for choice novels that I've developed over years of trial and error - a methodology for how I put together these units so they flow, build skills cumulatively, and don't burn me out to manage. I walk through parts of that framework in the video.
Watch the full video for the complete real-time planning session, including the specific texts I'm considering, how I'm structuring the book clubs for hybrid learning, and what I'm using as the summative assessment that ties individual reading back to the shared essential question.
Want to build choice reading routines that work all year long?
LIT 103: The Independent Reader at BNT University covers exactly this - how to build a classroom reading routine and choice system that fosters genuine reading without killing the joy or drowning you in management. Free at the 100 level.
