Criteria for selecting literary works in the reading plan: a guide for primary education

Abstract

Reading constitutes a fundamental sociocultural practice in schooling, as it fosters students’ cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development. In the Chilean context, the Reading Plan (Plan Lector) has become an institutional strategy aimed at promoting and organizing reading practices in educational settings. However, current guidelines have primarily focused on recommending book titles, without providing explicit pedagogical criteria to systematically guide the selection of literary works. In response to this gap, this article proposes a comprehensive model for the selection of literary works within the Reading Plan for Basic Education, structured across three levels of curricular concretization: macro-curricular, meso-curricular, and micro-curricular. The model places particular emphasis on the micro-curricular level, where eight selection criteria are defined and grouped into three interrelated dimensions: contextual, cognitive and textual. Additionally, key criteria are identified as articulating axes of the selection process, which help guide teachers’ decision-making in a reflective, situated, and student-centered manner. This proposal seeks to contribute to the strengthening of the Reading Plan as a systematic pedagogical tool by overcoming intuitive approaches to book selection and serving as a guide for teachers.