Renee, You make such a good point, and I'm learning how true it is to step back and let the kids. lead me. It is astounding when you do this. This year I am going to try more and more to do this, making my lessons as mini as possible, allowing the students increasing amounts of time to actually DO what I am teaching them. As much as possible I am going to turn to inquiry, which I believe to be one of the major components of learning and understanding. Even my rubrics are going to have direct student input.
Joy/NC/4 How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org ________________________________ From: Renee <phoenix...@sbcglobal.net> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Sent: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 2:43:50 PM Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Silent Sustained Reading I'm glad my points felt so awesome to you. And we are all going to want to see how this works out. :-) Here is a little more of my thinking: I belong to a book sharing group (which I started, and for which I was very selective on the people involved). There are about eight of us and we meet once a month. We all read whatever we want and then come together to just share what we've read, whatever it is. Name a genre and at least one of us has read and shared. What's interesting though, is that with all the sharing of what's in the books and our impressions, we have also branched out into discussions of politics, religion, local issues, specific authors, death, Alzheimer's (one person in our group lost a husband to this insidious disease and we all shared the grief from its onset to his passing a couple of years later), food, art, ..... in other words.... you name it. Boy, do we make connections! What I'm thinking is that the book sharing part..... voluntary sharing.... is so valuable and so complex and can teach so much. I was just thinking a while ago that some of the best teaching I've done was when I was not "teaching" at all. :-) Renee On Jul 1, 2009, at 9:06 AM, Mark & Rachele' Thummel wrote: > Renee--You make several AWESOME points--thank you! I do need to change my > thinking on the whole silent reading approach and see it as an advantage. I > guess I get frustrated with teachers who I see using that time to "get things > done"--which is not what I have chosen to do with that time when I've given > it in the past. Also, I just see so many of these struggling readers > lacking in basic comprehension skills, so I've decided in the past to replace > that "silent reading" time with a more structured approach. Students are > certainly doing a lot of reading in this approach, but not as much > self-selected--which is what I want them to get "hooked" on. Many middle > schools have 2 periods to teaching reading and writing . . . whereas I'm > limited to just one. So this is an added complication to make it through my > curriculum. I'd love to add another class . . . but it might be a struggle. > > Then of course there are the students who are scrambling to find a book two > minutes before class and reading something different every time. So I'm > thinking that if I restructure my approach to silent reading, I might get > better results. I'm planning on doing a "coffee shop" format with my 9th > graders this year--allowing them a modified reading time. I thought that I > would alternate weeks--one day a week they would silent read self-selected > materials and the next week they would share in a group with > coffee/cocoa/cider?! We have gender-grouped our 9th graders, so I will have > 23 girls. I have never taught to just one gender, but since I will be doing > this, I thought I'd try to make it a bit "girlie". Thank you for your ideas! > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Renee" <phoenix...@sbcglobal.net> > Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 7:54 AM > To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" > <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> > Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Silent Sustained Reading > >> 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: <linz...@aol.com> >>> Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:01 PM >>> To: <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> >>> Subject: [MOSAIC] Silent Sustained Reading >>> >>>> As teachers, do?you think that Silent Sustained Reading >>>> improves?individual reading scores on standardized tests?? >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Mosaic mailing list >>>> Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org >>>> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >>>> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. >>>> >>>> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Mosaic mailing list >>> Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org >>> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >>> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. >>> >>> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. >>> >>> >> "The ultimate goal of education must be to get each one out of his isolated >> class, and into the one humanity." ~ Paul Goodman >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Mosaic mailing list >> Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org >> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. >> >> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. >> > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > "Holding a grudge is like eating rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die." ~ Anne Lamott _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
