Monday, September 20, 2010
SSR - "Students are Supposed to Read"???
Gallagher promotes Sustained Silent Reading among his students, as well as he should. It is imperative that students read silently and aloud. In fact, one of the GPS's is to read aloud at least 98% of the time during a lesson. However, as Gallagher suggests students should read silently half the time for enjoyment to gain reading flow and the other part of reading is to be just beyond their reach for the building of vocabulary, knowledge and academic purposes. Again, Gallagher involves techniques that will engage the secondary student as he helps students identify texts that may be beyond their scope in order to make connections in their everyday lives. We must do this in order to make our students want to read and more importantly, desire to read.
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I agree with you, Eve, but I ask if the materials just beyond the scope of the readers have to be texts. Can they be novels, blogs, newspaper articles, etc.? I think that in order to get those kids to love reading, we should expose them to as many forms of reading as is possible. They should be culturally relevant, too. Magazine subscriptions are a wonderful way to get the culturally relevant material into the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think that SSR rocks and I see the impact that it has on my students at Mount de Sales. I hope that they do this at your school and that you are able to do SSR in your classroom. Much love, take care, B.
I have read a lot of the blogs today and I am very frustrated that we do not have SSR in my school. Maybe we do and I do not know it. It seems like a great idea but I could imagine my kids not bringing anything and just trying to beg their way out of it. After reading everyone's blogs, I am just focusing on the kid's apathy in the classroom. It is not just reading. They do not want to do ANYTHING. However, I am encouraged that I see a lot of kids at my school who are avid readers...not the majority but more than I remember in high school.
ReplyDeleteSSR is awesome especially if there are RICH texts in the classroom to chose from if the students do not bring in their own. by RICH texts I mean weekly news magazines, the newspaper, non-fiction texts on a variety of subjects, and of course a plethora of fictional texts. At westside they have advisement everyday and the counselors have developed a curriculum for it. they are working on career stuff, GHSGT test practice, and of course SSR. I even think the teachers have to read aloud to them as well. we need to have more students reading a variety of things in order for them to grow as learners.
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