Our middle school did an amazing thing. After lunch each day 15 minutes was and is scheduled and the whole middle school grade 6, 7 and 8 and the teachers read at this time. It has made a hugh difference to the borrowing from the library and I know that parents who were concerned about their children not reading once they hit middle school. It has made such a difference to not only the kids but the whole school. INaturally, there were a few hiccups at the begining with kids not having books, not being focussed to begin with, but now three years into the program, the kids are moritfied if they don't get this time and it's just a part of the program.. I don't know what the issue is in the US (as I am not from your country) apart for time periods for Silent reading but ;unless kids are supported in providing books, time, place, peace, how can they ever realize the value and enjoyment of the time as well as the progression of skills that takes place. Isn't it a time too for students to independently apply the 'comprehension' and mini lesson skills on their own. I personally would give up everything BUT silent reading if I was told there was a choice. We talk about 'teaching writing' but how can we ask children to write without the experience with reading, and reading about things which most interest them? Always before silent reading I give the kids just a task to think about and we do a couple of minutes after the session and usually the focus is on the author's craft. For example, think about the the words that the author uses to create mood or look at how dialogue conveys information ....anything that I am working on in writing, I use as just a snippet of the silent reading time. Of course not all students are going to every day have the sorts of books that enable them to participate and that's fine too but the thing is that we get to hear and listen to what others have read. What makes you smile or frown as your read? Or laugh? Simple, simple things. I am lucky in that my students had a regular rotating classroom library of over two hundred books at various levels, on various subjects. There was never a reason for a child to not become engaged in a book even if at the beginning of the year it was and I spy book that an EAL student chose. It included cartoons, comic books, magazines....poetry books, everything that I could get my hands on. And when kids didn't have a book they actually chose a new or different genre for browsing. S.
--- On Wed, 1/7/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Silent Sustained Reading To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <[email protected]> Received: Wednesday, 1 July, 2009, 12:51 PM We all would like it if we could do our jobs with our doors shut in our own little community. But sometimes the decisions made at another level impact us so severely that we're stuck. I wonder if this isn't a time your language arts (and content teachers as well, really) need to make a case for a regular language arts class (which would logically be heavy on writing) and a separate class for reading instruction. Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel -----Original Message----- From: "Mark & Rachele' Thummel" <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:11:26 To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group<[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Silent Sustained Reading I struggle with the Silent Sustained Reading as well . . . and I was wondering what you all thought about it at the upper levels. I teach a section of 7th grade and 9th grade English. In both classes I'm expected to teach reading and writing in 55 minutes--we don't get a period of "reading" and a period of "writing". I would love to have my students silent read, but I always feel as though I'm "giving up" valuable writing and group literature time. I do teach with a teacher who has her students read all period on Fridays . . . but when I add that up, that's almost 7 weeks of silent reading in class! The added frustration is that students aren't reading outside of school, even when there is a grade attached--so I feel as though for some of these students, the only time they are reading is when it's "carved out" of class time. As I recall, the research says that for "struggling readers," the best thing to have them do is read. But when you only have 1 period to do reading and writing, I feel as though using "reading time" to do reading strategies is more valuable. But I'm interested to know what other middle/upper level teachers are doing about outside reading and SSR? -------------------------------------------------- From: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:01 PM To: <[email protected]> Subject: [MOSAIC] Silent Sustained Reading > As teachers, do?you think that Silent Sustained Reading > improves?individual reading scores on standardized tests?? > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. Access Yahoo!7 Mail on your mobile. Anytime. Anywhere. Show me how: http://au.mobile.yahoo.com/mail _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
