Monday, May 18, 2009

Topic: SSR--Sustained Silent Reading

10-second review: Alternative to the usual SSR, 15 minutes of random reading in anything the children choose to read.


Title: ‘The Benefits of Sustained Silent Reading: Scientific Research and Common Sense Converge.” EM Garan and G DeVoogd. Reading Teacher (December 2008/January 2009), 336-344. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).


Summary: Typically, students just read for fifteen minutes when they engage in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). The activity builds the habit of reading. Sometimes teachers require a one- or two-sentence summary of what the students have read. Another alternative is to have students sample every literary genre—novel, short story, poems, plays and nonfiction.


Comments: To add to these ideas, I might have students learn how to preview chapters, magazine articles, nonfiction, short stories and novels. Such alternatives give a useful purpose for the reading beyond just developing the habit, which is reason enough.

1 comment:

  1. The key to effective SSR is to properly match reading levels of the text to reading levels of the student, while maintaining some semblance of student choice.

    Learn how to match reading levels of texts to reading levels of your students without time-consuming assessments. Also, learn how much independent reading is needed to make grade to grade progress. Check out How to Choose the Right Book.

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