Spencer's Scratch Pad: Silent Reading
So, here's how I do our silent reading:
- Students pick their own books. The only rule is that they have to complete at least one fiction and one non-fiction book a quarter. Some of them read part of a book and switch. That's okay to me. Eventually they find a book they enjoy. By the end, most students complete about about a book a week to a book every two weeks.
- Students have the option of doing a creative book review (a video, podcast, slideshow) or an interview with me after they finish a book.
- I allow students to read multiple books at multiple levels. One of my highest readers chose The Giver, Technopoly (a great Neil Postman book), Brave New World and Harry Potter. He began making creative connections between technology, the concept of magic and illusion.
- We work on one reading strategy a day. It might be visualizing, asking clarifying questions or making inferences. I have no accountability for this, either. I just trust that students will use these strategies.
- There is very little monitoring of progress. We don't do reading logs. Instead, students have a short conversation with a critical thinking question, such as, "How has the setting in your story shaped the personality of the protagonist?"
- We do silent reading every day, including the last day of a quarter, testing days and field trip days. It's not an option.
- I join them in reading. Toward the beginning of the process, I walk around and check to see their progress or read their body language for signs of frustration. However, by this time in the year, I'm reading as well. I think there's something powerful in students knowing that their teacher loves to read.
via johntspencer.com
So I was trolling through the twitter feed tonight and spotted a tweet by @techfacil re: silent reading practices in the classroom. The link within took me to this list from John Spencer, author of Spencer's Scratch Pad. I thought it was worth sharing
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