PDF Ten Minutes a Day for Silent Reading // Steve Gardiner

[Pages:5]Oct ober 2001 | Volum e 59 | Num ber 2 What Should We Teach? Pages 32- 35

Ten Minutes a Day for Silent Reading

Improving students' attitudes toward reading is just one of the many benefits of sustained silent reading programs.

Steve Gardiner Rachel is asking t o leave t he room again. She asks oft en. She doesn't Oct ober 2001 want a drink of water or a trip to the restroom . She wants to go to the library t o check out a new book for our silent reading program . Even t hough we only read for 10 m inut es a day in class, Rachel finishes several books each week, and I 'm frequent ly writ ing library passes for her.

Classroom s in t he Unit ed St at es have had sust ained silent reading program s for m ore t han 25 years. Proposed by Lym an Hunt at t he Universit y of Verm ont in t he 1960s, sust ained silent reading program s becam e popular in the 1970s. I becam e interested in these program s in 1978 when I realized that m any students couldn't tell m e when they had last finished reading a book. They blam ed t heir inabilit y t o finish a book on a lack of leisure t im e and on t heir belief that m ost books were boring.

I began setting aside tim e for m y students to read in class every day. I also conducted surveys about their reading habits, asking such questions as

How m any books have you read in the past year?

Do you have a bookshelf in your house? I f so, how m any books are on it?

Do you have your own bookshelf? I f so, how m any books do you personally own?

Have you seen your parents read books?

Do your parents read m agazines or newspapers?

Have your parents ever recom m ended a book to you?

I learned that students who read frequently on their own had better literacy skills and better grades in m y English classes. I also discovered t hat if st udent s had t im e t o read during class, they quickly found books that they enj oyed and looked forward to reading. I n fact, within the first two weeks of the sem ester, m any students are in their seats and reading before the tardy bell rings.

During m y second year as a teacher, m y principal cam e to observe m y classroom . He sat quiet ly as we read our books--I always read wit h t he st udent s--and t hen proceeded t hrough t he day's lesson. Lat er in t he day, he called m e t o his office. During his evaluat ion, he did not com m ent on how I taught m y lesson; he only asked m e to j ustify the tim e I had "taken away" from m y students by having them read silently for 10 m inutes. As a novice teacher, I fum bled for an answer. I didn't do a good j ob of j ustifying m y program , but now, m ore than 20 years later, I still designate tim e for silent reading every day, and I have hundreds of success stories to support the value of silent reading program s.

What Is Sustained Silent Reading?

Sustained silent reading program s have gone by m any nam es, including SSR ( Sustained Silent Reading) , FVR ( Free Volunt ary Reading) , DEAR ( Drop Everyt hing and Read) , DI RT ( Daily I ndependent Reading Tim e) , USSR ( Unint errupt ed Sust ained Silent Reading) , SSRW ( Sust ained Silent Reading and Writ ing) , and POWER ( Providing Opport unit ies wit h Everyday Reading) . Each program is slight ly different from t he ot hers, but all share t he sam e guidelines. St udent s should read silently every day, choose their own books, have uninterrupted tim e to read, be able to choose not to finish a book, observe the teacher m odeling good reading habits, and not be required to take tests or write book reports on what they read ( Hopkins, 1997; Kornelly & Sm it h, 1993; Trelease, 1995; Valeri- Gold, 1995) . As St ephen Krashen ( 1993) point s out , sustained silent reading "is the kind of reading highly literate people do obsessively all the tim e" (p. x).

Beyond Better Attitudes

The prim ary goal of silent reading program s has always been t o increase st udent s' enj oym ent of reading. Researcher Janise Art hur ( 1995) invest igat ed t he connect ion bet ween sust ained silent reading program s and attitudes toward reading, with special attention to aliterates-- those who can read but choose not to. She found several studies that correlated daily reading opportunities with im proved attitudes, which in turn produced other benefits.

Studies of children in kindergarten, prim ary, and m iddle grades who have dem onstrated a voluntary interest in books were not only rated to have better work habits, social and em otional developm ent, language structure, and overall school perform ance, but also these children scored significantly higher on standardized reading tests. (p. 2)

Sustained silent reading program s do m ore than im prove students' attitudes toward reading. Studies show that students who enj oy reading also read m ore books and develop better skills in reading com prehension, spelling, and vocabulary.

One such st udy used t he Nelson Denny Reading Test t o assess rat es of im provem ent in vocabulary and reading com prehension am ong a group of high school st udent s in Colorado. Students who had com pleted an 18- week silent reading program showed an im provem ent of 1.9 grade levels, m ore than four tim es the control group's rate of im provem ent. Am ong students in the silent reading program , the percentage of those who read one or m ore books

per m onth doubled from 12 to 24 percent during the sam e period ( Kornelly & Sm ith, 1993) .

I n a st udy of a high school in Georgia t hat used POWER sust ained silent reading as an int egral part of its language arts program , 64 percent of the program 's teachers reported that students' interest in reading had increased, and 53 percent reported that the students' reading skills im proved as a result of the program ( Weller & Weller, 1999).

At an elem entary school with students from low socioeconom ic backgrounds, Arthur ( 1995) selected at random students who identified them selves as recreational readers and those who did not; the 4th grade recreational readers had significantly higher reading achievem ent scores than did the nonrecreational readers.

Silent reading program s can im prove reading speed as well. I n a six- week study of 76 college students, students read for 15 m inutes three tim es a week during class and for 15 m inutes twice a week outside of class. Students m aintained approxim ately the sam e level of com prehension, but their m ean reading rate increased from 210 to 348 words per m inute (Dwyer & West, 1994).

An interesting 1978 study dem onstrated that readers learn new vocabulary sim ply by reading books. Without knowing that they would be tested on vocabulary, adult readers who read A Clockwork Orange by Ant hony Burgess were able t o score 50?96 percent on a t est of t he words that Burgess had coined especially for the book and repeated an average of 15 tim es each ( Saragi, Nat ion, & Meist er, 1978) .

Krashen ( 1993) reviewed studies that com pared students who were in sustained silent reading or sim ilar free- choice reading program s with those who instead studied traditional basal texts and received direct instruction in writing, gram m ar, and spelling. I n 38 of 41 com parisons, the students in the sustained silent or free- choice reading program s did as well or better on a variety of reading com prehension tests than did the students in traditional language arts program s. The st udies also found correlat ions bet ween longer periods of t im e in sust ained reading or free- choice reading program s and better results on vocabulary and reading com prehension tests.

I n a typical sustained silent reading program , m ost m iddle school students can read about 1 m illion words and learn about 1,000 new words each year without any direct instruction in vocabulary. Sustained silent reading also helps language learners gain language skills in what ever new language t hey are st udying, whet her t hey are English language learners or English speakers who are learning a second language. Those who can read in a first or second language will also write and spell better in that language ( Krashen, 1993).

What Students Do and Say

I have received m any letters from form er students com m enting on how the sustained silent reading program changed their reading habits, their literacy skills, and their attitudes toward reading and school. Although I stopped conducting reading surveys years ago, last sem ester I decided to com pile som e statistics and get som e feedback about how the program was working.

The 52 st udent s in m y honors sophom ore classes read 2?56 books each and averaged 9.8

books during one sem est er. The st udent who read 56 books set a new record, but several students each sem ester read m ore than 30 books, and at least a dozen read 10 or m ore. Reading alm ost 10 books in an 18- week sem est er is very product ive, especially when I com pare that accom plishm ent with the num ber of books read by literate adults I know.

St udent s in m y senior English classes last sem est er read 2?18 books each and averaged 7.75 books. That 's not bad for 76 st udent s who swear t hat t hey are suffering from severe cases of sen ior it is.

I also gave both the sophom ores and seniors a chance to explain their feelings about sustained silent reading. Their observat ions are insight ful.

I liked the silent reading tim e because it got m e back into reading. Before this class, I hadn't picked up a book unless it was required. Now I 'm reading three different books at once.

This class was m ore like an adult English class because we were able t o choose what we wanted to read.

I increased m y reading speed and t he abilit y t o com prehend what I read. My papers have im proved, too, in term s of spelling and gram m ar.

I read about nine books [ t his sem est er] . That 's m ore t han I 've read in m y ent ire life.

Silent reading helps m e relax and escape from realit y. Every night before I go t o bed now, I read 15?20 pages. I used to hate reading, but now it's starting to grow on m e. I t helps m e m ove on through life.

I read som e interesting books that I would have never picked up otherwise. I t gave m e a love for reading literature and poetry.

One st udent 's com plaint was only about t he brevit y of t he silent reading program .

I loved the silent reading program , but I felt that we should have had at least a few days to j ust read the whole hour. I t would som etim es be incredibly difficult to pry m yself away from m y book and then have to try and concentrate on another assignm ent . For m ost of elem ent ary school, I was unable t o go t o bed at night if I hadn't read at least a page. When I started j unior high, I barely even picked up a book without it being required. With silent reading, I am into reading again and have found it hard to sleep without having at least tried to read.

These st udent s' react ions support t he t wo decades of research t hat docum ent t he benefit s of sustained silent reading program s.

Ten Minutes for Giving, Not Taking Away

Jim Trelease, who cham pions reading aloud t o st udent s of all ages, calls sust ained silent reading the "natural partner" of reading aloud, noting that it "is one of those com m onsense ideas that is so obvious and uncom plicated it is often overlooked in today's com plex educat ional schem e" ( 1995, p. 140) . Ten m inut es of sust ained silent reading does not subt ract

from instructional tim e; instead, this tim e offers significant opportunities for students' language and literacy developm ent.

Refernces

Art hur, J. E. ( 1995) . What is the effect of recreational reading on reading achievement of middle grade students? ( ERI C Docum ent Reproduct ion Service No. ED 391 143) Dwyer, E., & West , R. ( 1994) . Effects of sustained silent reading on reading rate among college students. ( ERI C Docum ent Reproduct ion Service No. ED 382 924) Hopkins, G. ( 1997) . Sust ained silent reading helps develop independent readers ( and writ ers) . Education World [ Online newslet t er] . Available: / a_curr/ curr038.shtm l Kornelly, D., & Sm it h, L. ( 1993) . Bring back t he USSR. School Library Journal, 39 (4), 48. Krashen, S. ( 1993) . The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlim it ed. Saragi, T., Nat ion, I . S. P., & Meist er, G. F. ( 1978) . Vocabulary learning and reading. System, 6( 2) , 70?78. Trelease, J. ( 1995) . The new read-aloud handbook. New York: Penguin Books. Valeri- Gold, M. ( 1995) . Unint errupt ed sust ained silent reading is an effect ive aut hent ic m et hod for college developm ent al learners. Journal of Reading, 38( 5) , 385?386. Weller, L., & Weller, S. ( 1999) . Secondary school reading: Using t he qualit y principle of cont inuous im provem ent t o build an exem plary program . NASSP Bulletin, 83( 607) , 59?68.

Steve Gardiner is an English and j ournalism t eacher at Billings Senior High School, 425 Grand Ave., Billings, MT 59101; segardiner@rocket m .

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