The Death of Sustained Silent Reading
May 6, 2007
Memo to all teachers who may have missed it: Sustained silent reading is dead.
As the National Reading Panel stated way back in 2001: “The research suggests that there are more beneficial ways to spend reading instructional time than to have students read independently in the classroom without reading instruction.”
This statement caused an uproar at the time, but only because many people neglected those final three words.
Students should still be reading constantly in a variety of ways throughout the school day: alone, in groups, orally, silently, in a variety of genres, for a variety of purposes, reading teacher-selected material, reading self-selected material… but they should be doing this reading in conjunction with targeted instruction.
Having the teacher sit at his desk, reading a novel to “model” reading to his students, is pointless (and a complete misunderstanding of what “modeling” really is). I could see doing this once per school year, just to make a point to your students that adults love reading too, but certainly not more than that.
Sustained silent reading is dead; long live reading.
Entry Filed under: DEAR time, Education, Elementary Education, Reading, Secondary Education, Sustained Silent Reading, Teaching, school. .
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1.
cityteacher | May 6, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Interesting, because many of the more senior teachers still advocate for SSR, and consider that the sum total of reading instruction.
2.
mrpullen | May 7, 2007 at 10:27 am
Thanks for the comment — I would reply to your colleagues with this blurb from WikEd:
“SSR can easily become an unregulated time period in the day where the teacher gets 20 minutes or so to breathe and relax in the middle of the day. It is also seen by the students as “free time” to go to the bathroom, take their very own long amount of time selecting books, and not even having to read them. (Fountas, Pinnell, 2001) The intent, of course, is to have a structured session so that students make reading a habit and then are encouraged to read more often for recreation. This is where the problem lies. It is very unstructured, there is no accountability, and teachers often do not monitor the reading activities. Students who are at a lower level are unmotivated to step up. Instead of hoping that students will suddenly like to read by putting books in front of them, and giving open time, Fountas and Pinnell propose a stronger, more guided method: “Independent Reading”. In this method, teachers help build students in selecting appropriate level books, monitor journal reflections on reading, maintain records on student reading, and facilitate group sharing.(Fountas and Pinnell). There is also a time for teachers to model reading behavior by sharing their own reading experiences with students. Additionally, the other students in the classroom support each other through sharing and feedback. (Fountas and Pinnell) In this way, all students are held accountable for having some level of productivity as well as having the opportunity to share new and exciting stories that they are learning with each other.”
3.
cityteacher | May 9, 2007 at 8:39 pm
I like this idea of guided “Independent Reading”. I will have to look up Fountas and Pinnell. I am finishing up the year with this class, but I’m starting a new academic year in July. I don’t think I will have time to read, reflect, and implement immediately with the new class, but perhaps by fall.
4.
Mathew | August 4, 2007 at 11:51 am
I agree that independent reading should not be used exclusively as an instructional strategy but there are some things that I don’t think studies measure…specifically student’s attitudes toward reading. I think a sure way to turn students off to reading is to control the conditions under which they read and the types of literature they’re reading at all times.
5.
Christine | September 26, 2007 at 5:39 pm
I used to teach reading improvement in inner-city Houston, and I used SSR on a regular basis with my students, who were mostly nonreaders. My program was structured;I had a plethora books that were high interest and varied reading levels, and the students were expected to respond in a dialogue journal each time they read. I picked up their dialogue journals and responded to what they had written. Yes, I admit I did enjoy that time for my own reading, as I rarely have time during the school year, to read for enjoyment. I, too, kept a reading journal, along with my students. We even took time to talk about our books with one another for a few minutes each week. I could tell the once reluctant students were becoming excited by having some pleasure reading time each week, as they recommended books to ME to read! By the end of the year, I had reached NEARLY every student, and many of these students would come to me at the end of the year and tell me how much they now enjoyed reading–because someone believed in them and allowed them to read, once a week, their own choice of material. I also saw an improvement in many of their TAAS scores and reading abilities. These were primarily minority students (a high ESL population) and students with extremely low reading abilities. It has been over ten years since I taught in Houston, but let me tell you, if the program is consistent and one believes in it, I believe it can succeed. I now teach English in Colorado and have very little time to use this program in my classroom. However, looking back at how so many of my students fared back in Houston, I am thinking seriously about implementing the program once again in my freshmen English classes.
6.
monarda | November 10, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I am a preservice teacher and will be beginning my student teaching in January. I am all for SSR; however, all the teachers I have talked with indicate it is difficult to add this to the curriculum do to the already overwhelming curriculum to be taught in order to prepare students for state standardized tests. Any suggestions on how to properly implement SSR in grades 3-6?
7.
thirdgradeteacher | November 10, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Monarda, if you’re asking me, I was suggesting NOT to do sustained silent reading! I’d actually suggest something more along the lines of Guided Reading as outlined by Fountas and Pinnell.
8.
Monarda | November 10, 2007 at 11:54 pm
I agree, I feel guided reading fits more into the elementary and intermediate curriculum; especially given time considerations. SSR is great, but probably more suited for middle school/high school academic lab time.
9.
librarian | February 4, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I have to agree with those above who suggest that their is more to learning to read than just the learning how to read. The learning “why” to read is equally important. If kids do not learn to enjoy reading–at that they will do when they get to have as much freedom of selection as possible–they will never get beyond reading what they are told they HAVE to read. That seems to me to put another nail in the coffin for reading. Will it soon be dead too?
10.
V. Keesee | June 16, 2008 at 9:13 am
Some students rarely get their book reports completed on time; I am going to try using SSR as a specific time for them to read the required trade book for their report–then there will be no excuses that there was no time to read.
11.
mpullen | June 16, 2008 at 9:45 am
Just a thought in response to your comment: instead of trying to find ways to combat kids not reading, could it be that the problem lies in forcing them to read a required, teacher-chosen trade book and then forcing them to write a required, teacher-forced book report that doesn’t have a real purpose or meaning of its own?
12.
Student Choice « Th&hellip | June 16, 2008 at 9:54 am
[...] 16, 2008 Over a year ago, I wrote a post entitled “The Death of Silent Sustained Reading,” which talked about the need for more specific reading instruction, not just a “Drop [...]
13.
RPrice English Teacher | July 16, 2008 at 12:49 pm
WARNING - Pro-SSR posting!
For those that are interested in more research and data on the effectiveness of SSR, you may wish to read Chow & Chou’s evaluation:
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Chow-SSR.html
And for information from a teacher that has successfully used SSR: Steve Gardiner’s book on building student literacy
http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.chapter/menuitem.b7
1d101a2f7c208cdeb3ffdb62108a0c/?chapterMgmtId=64a951e3741c6010VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCRD
As for me,originally I had a great deal of difficulty with my department’s version of SSR as my students were not doing well and it was exceedingly frustrating. My students were several years behind grade-level, we were a Title 1 school, and much depended on the students passing the state tests. These were middle school students.
So I changed it (inadvertently ending up with something very similar to Gardiner’s version.)
Students choose whatever they want as long as it’s a story. I didn’t allow most magazines or newspapers, but did allow short story magazines like Analog and comic books and graphic novels. Students read every day. As I had extended periods, we normally read about 20-25 minutes a day. I read as well. I eliminated the journals and so on, all they had to do was stay awake, stay silent/in seat, and keep a book of their choice in front of them. They earned 10 points a day. A few loved it immediately, some more ended up reading because it was an easier way to earn a better grade, and some read because after two weeks of sitting there silently with a book in front of them..well…they might as well read. Too boring otherwise.
It took some time, about 5 months, but there was a genuine change in the students’ attitude toward reading. They did better on testing in part because they no longer suffered fatigue from reading longer passages.
Will this work for every teacher? Of course not, nothing does. But if you really do want to try it, there is research to support it. *Successful* SSR programs have a few things in common: daily reading (not once or twice a week), student choice (not from a list of books), expectation of silence and limitation of student movement, and focus on stories (this is not a study-hall, no textbooks). But most of all, teacher buy-in. If you feel that this is a waste of time or that students must prove that they read the book, etc., then there are lots of other techniques.
But this one worked well for me and for my students, all of whom either were reading at/above grade level or gained 2 grade levels in reading by the end of the year.
14.
debrennersmith | August 18, 2008 at 2:03 am
My kids read during ssr because I confer with them and talk about books. It works. Here are a few links:
http://www.debrennersmith.com/
in search engine type ssr
also debfourblocks.blogspot.com/
scroll down and look and the pictures