In our school we called it SSR -- "sustained silent reading" -- and it was truly silent. Students in my multiage classroom were allowed to sit anywhere on the floor, and I had large boxes, a sofa, and beanbag chairs. It was after recess for twenty minutes and they couldn't go out to recess until they had a book on their desk that they were going to read. They were not allowed to look for or switch books switch books once SSR started. I did not conference with anyone during this time.... I read, too. There were no "accountings" other than adding books to their ongoing reading logs (simple documentation, no writeups) if they finished a text. If they chose a book that was too short to last 20 minutes, they read it again. And again. Whatever. This was a quiet time.
How do I know my students were reading? I just knew. I could tell. I did not care if they were doing "deep reading" or "shallow reading" and I did not check for understanding of the books they chose. These were not AR leveled books, either. These were books they chose to read themselves.
As one of the older teachers, I find it really sad that we've had the questions "What is DEAR time?" and "What does interactive writing look like?" This is not a criticism of those who asked the questions, it is a criticism of the system, and especially whatever education programs they have gone through that did not teach them these things.
sad.... sad.... Renee On Oct 1, 2011, at 1:54 PM, Stein, Ellen H. wrote:
Drop Everything And Read= D.E.A.R. Time. My concern with this is that teachers usually assign 15-20 minutes of DEAR time and the students are supposed to do just thatg; Drop Everything and Read. But, how do we know they are reading.? How do we know they are thinkng about what they're reading? I believe there should be some accaountability; perhaps routine individual conferencing to check for understanding. What about a strategy focus for the time and sharing of that strategy when DEAR time is over. By itself, we rfeally can't tell if students are really reading.
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