Hi there Mark and/or Rachele'
I think one of the reasons that some teachers struggle with the concept
of SSR is that it seems like "wasted time" or "time not well spent" or
"time that is better used for something more explicit and direct" and I
see that coming through in your comment that having SSR on one day a
week would add up to almost 7 weeks of silent reading in class. But
here's a thought.... that's a GREAT use of seven weeks! Time for
students to learn to enjoy reading on their own... something that will
stay with them forever, something that might turn some non-readers into
readers (and I'm not talking about competency, I'm talking about
choice). But if it were me, I would turn it around, and have the SSR
day be on Monday instead of Friday, because then the reading on Monday
could serve as personal information from each student to add to
whatever discussions happened during the week.
What if, for example, Monday was also a "book sharing" kind of day,
where students read silently and independently for 3/4 of the period,
something of their own choosing, and then met in small groups to just
share with a few other students what they are reading? What if, after
this got started, you started throwing out targeted questions for
discussion in these small groups? For example, perhaps on one Monday
you could suggest that students talk to each other about any visuals
that popped up while they were reading, and on another Monday you might
suggest that students tell others about any connections they made while
reading.
I think it's hard for many of us to see this as a good use of time, but
I'm with the person who said that SSR would be the last thing she would
give up. I worked in a school where everyone stopped to read for 20
minutes every day.... and in our case, that included teachers, the
principal, the secretary, etc. I read all of Fountas & Pinnel's Guided
Reading and Lucy Calkins' The Art of Teaching Writing during that time.
I do not see it as wasted. Rather, I saw it as myself modeling reading
for students. I did not worry whether or not they were really reading,
unless I saw someone just turning pages, or obviously not engaged. Then
I would quietly prompt them to please read or, if they were making
noise, that they were interrupting my reading time. It only took a few
weeks into this system for nearly all students to be on task most of
the time, and I never, ever considered this to be a waste of time. But
then, we had administrators who supported it, and that's a key thing.
Renee
On Jun 30, 2009, at 6:11 PM, Mark & Rachele' Thummel wrote:
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??
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"The ultimate goal of education must be to get each one out of his
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~ Paul Goodman
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