For the Week of March 16

I was reading an article in the "Reading Teacher" about sustained silent reading in the classroom. For many students this is an important part of the day. During this time students get to select their own books and read for pleasure. This daily practice helps them to imprint more words on their brains so that they can read at a faster rate and more accurately. However, for some students, sustained silent reading is not that helpful. Some students pick out books that are too hard for them. This causes them to loose interest quickly and soon they are pretending to read. Books that students read for pleasure, with no adult help, should be books that have a maximum of 5 words on the page that are difficult for them. This same principle applies to students reading at home. The article stressed how important it is for students to choose books at their level. Parent can help with this selection by listening to your child read a page out of the middle of the book. Count how many errors are made. Steer your child towards books at their level. If you are reading a book together and can quickly feed your child words that they don't know, then it is fine to get a reading level that is higher. When students' abilities and the reading levels of books fit, students are much less likely to put the books down.