I think it depends on your skill at guiding students to appropriate books as to how beneficial independent reading time can be. I have heard that students need 90 min. of reading instruction a day to catch up with their at level peers but I didn't realize that that applied to independent reading as well. The international reading association published an article in which the NAEP did a study that showed independent reading did not show to be as beneficial to 7th and 8th grade students as it did to 4th grade students. 4th graders who read independently showed great gains in reading ability but it did not transfer to the 7th and 8th grade population. That's just one study though and I think a lot of it has to do with how the teacher structures the independent reading time and can keep the students engaged in sustained reading. It can also be beneficial to require students to write a response and share these responses with their peers. Krista On Oct 27, 2007, at 5:27 PM, Kristin Mitchell wrote:
> Do your administrators > support independent reading time?? > > sarah > > Sarah, > > I'm teaching 6th and my administration not only supports me, but > helped me build MORE independent reading time into my schedule. > There is research out there (I have no idea where, though, my coach > broght it to me) that says kids need 90 minutes of ind. reading a day! > > If you've got lit circles and you've got kids recommending books to > each other, you've got a good thing going on! Good luck to you! > > Kristin/6th/CO > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http:// > literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
