Literacy Reading Response

The focus of a chapter in my literacy textbook was four reading models and how they relate to various literacy theories. I am pretty sure a combination of the whole language model under the psycholinguistics/top-down theory and the skills-based model under the behaviorism/bottom-up theory was used in my elementary classes. There were reading groups that were based on reading levels, and there might have been four or five reading levels in the class. Often, we were in a group with the same people for the year, if I recall correctly. The teacher would choose a book for us to read, and we would discuss it at our conferences. I was in one of the higher reading levels; I enjoyed reading at the time and I still enjoy reading today. I do not know that the leveled reading groups had an impact on my positive reading habits, but I could see a student may be led to dislike reading due to a stigma of being in a lower level reading group, and therefore not enjoy reading as much as others. I think it is great to have interest-based reading groups, like in the whole language, reader response, and four resource and Halliday + models, but I think there is some rationale to having specific levels for reading groups. I think students should read at a level that is both comfortable and challenging for them. I wonder if there is a way I could combine the four resource and Halliday + model with the skills-based model in my future classroom. I think this is something I would like to consider in the future.