Greetings!
We all want our students to be good readers. You can buy all the programs, incentives and other gizmos you want, but as far as I am concerned, there is one best way to become a good reader. That is to READ. Since most of us don’t have extra money to throw away, there is a great FREE way to accomplish this. Sustained Silent Reading. Drop Everything and Read. It doesn’t matter what you call it. Daily silent reading will do it.
There are some important steps or rules to follow. These are NOT for the students as much as for the teacher to follow. I personally guarantee that if you follow the rules I am about to give you, you will have a 98% success rate and have increased your students reading levels by nearly two grade levels in reading over the course of the school year.
First, you need to make time in your daily schedule for silent reading. This could be part of the reading class or after lunch or anytime that works, but it needs to be scheduled just like you do for all the other subjects. If you decide to use part of the reading time, still schedule it along with a time slot. Write it on the schedule so you and the children will see it every day. Do your ultimate best to never miss a day. These actions will visibly show the students that this is important to you. It is important enough that we do this every day, not just when we feel like it or if we happen to have enough time, then we will have silent reading. We do this every day.
Second, let students choose what they want to read. The reading needs to be self-selected, not assigned. This is not the time to read the social studies assignment! Encourage students to gather enough reading material to last for the period so they won’t be getting up and walking around and distract others. Young children may need 10 – 15 books or magazines at arm’s reach. Older ones may only choose to have a chapter book. You may need to decide if you will allow students to bring reading material from home or not.
Third, YOU NEED TO READ TOO. If you grade papers or work on lesson plans and don’t read during this time, you send a very loud message that even though you SAY reading is important, you don’t really believe it. Find a book that you have been wanting to read and pull it out and read every day. You are the model for these kids. If you are afraid you will go overtime if you start reading, I totally understand. I kept a timer handy and set the timer for the specified time every day so I could read in peace and not continually have to be watching the clock. I waited until everyone was settled, and then set the timer and we all started reading.
If you haven’t done this yet, I would recommend starting with 5 minutes for grades 1 – 3 and 10 minutes for grades 4 – up. After a week or so, increase the time until you are reading for 15 – 20 minutes every day for grades 3 – up. First and second graders may not all be able to read for that long, but you know what your students are capable of doing.
This is not Reading Buddies where older students read to younger ones. That is also a great program, but completely separate from this. If you have a variety of grades that includes students too young to read for the extended time slot, you may need to be a bit creative with them. Maybe a parent or volunteer can take them out of the classroom and read aloud to them during this time. Maybe this can be nap time. Maybe you set a silent reading period for 10 minutes, and then take the younger ones for a quiet class while older ones who wish to continue reading silently can do so.
A quick recap:
1. Schedule daily silent reading time and write it on the schedule.
2. Let students choose their own reading material.
3. The teacher must model and read during the time slot.
4. Read daily without fail.
If you follow these guidelines, you will turn out a classroom full of readers for FREE!
I hope you decide to have a silent reading period in your classrooms if you aren’t doing it already. It amazes me that many teachers do not seem to think this is important enough to schedule in daily. I taught third grade for 11 years and at the end of each year my third graders would leave my classroom with nearly all of them reading on a fifth grade reading level or close to it. The only thing I did that other teachers did not do was to have silent reading time every day. I loved that time of peace and quiet. It really helped lower stress levels in our classroom, mine included. After reading, we were all calm and would then continue our school day.
Have a great and peaceful week!
Audrey
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