sustained silent reading

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Learn more about sustained silent reading

Ongoing assessment for reading: Ongoing, informal assessment is crucial to teaching reading. Using audio and visual examples, this edition explains the use of running records and miscue analysis, tools that help a teacher to identify patterns in student reading behaviors and the strategies a reader uses to make sense of text.; Format: series (multiple pages)

Running records as authentic testing: In Ongoing assessment for reading, page 1.2; In many school systems, running records are administered using preprinted running record sheets that contain the exact text the student is reading in a matching leveled book. To allow a teacher to administer multiple assessments with a single student, two...; By Jeanne Gunther.

Portrait of a reader: Ben: In Ongoing assessment for reading, page 3.2; A fourth-grade teacher uses running records to uncover individual strengths and needs in a new student's reading.; By Jeanne Gunther.

Real-world approaches to reading: Techniques for providing children with the literacy-rich environment that is crucial to both reading and writing success.; By Alta Allen.

Resources on the web

Student contracting: This lesson from ReadWriteThink provides teachers with a basic contract format, sustained silent reading (SSR) extension activities, and literature response activities. Students develop contracts that focus on language arts education. (Learn more); Format: lesson plan (grade 6 English Language Arts); Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Print

A period of uninterrupted silent reading in the classroom, typically from fifteen to thirty minutes.

See also Drop Everything and Read.

Additional information

Sustained silent reading is based on the premise that as a skill, reading improves with practice.

Examples and resources

See Education World’s article "‘Sustained Silent Reading’ Helps Develop Independent Readers (and Writers)" for additional information.

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