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Reading levels and levelled reading have been tried and true teaching tools used for assessment and to guide the teaching of reading in classrooms for decades. However, identifying students' reading levels does not necessarily lead to success in reading for students. In strictly adhering to an instructional routine based on reading levels and choosing books based on those levels, we miss valuable opportunities to identify and celebrate children's current and learned reading practices, and importantly adhere to students' reading interests. In this article, we draw on self-determination theory from the field of motivation to rethink how we are framing our students as readers, and further urge educators to look critically at their use of reading levels and levelled reading. As opposed to solely relying on the tried and tested ways of working with readers, we instead offer an opportunity for teachers to bolster students' well-being by focusing on their motivational needs and their efficacy as readers. In designing reading instruction and activities around students' interests, choice, abilities, and interactions in the class community, we can empower students, foster their lifelong love of reading, and support their development as strong and strategic readers.

No abstract

With the goal of exploring a motivating way to approach world language teaching and learning in order to promote lifelong language learning, this article reports on a year‐long, collaborative action research study of two middle‐school German classes that used an imagined communities curriculum. The curriculum, co‐constructed with the classroom teacher, provided a way for the teacher to address the required content while helping students feel more connected with other target language speakers. Study findings show that students' feelings of connection to the target community were influenced by their perceived similarities or cultural differences with German speakers, their perceived language abilities, and their opportunities to communicate with, or be in proximity to, German speakers. Compared to their experiences with a conventional curriculum the year before, 36 of the 41 students found that the imagined‐communities‐infused curriculum activities helped them feel greater connection with, or ability to relate to, other speakers of German.