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HIT > resistance to sustained silent reading I have received so many wonderful responses to my target. Forgive me for being late posting these. It has been a busy summer. My original target precedes the hits. We have had some major problems. One is that none of the classes had classroom libraries. We had a book drive but we didn't get the books that are most popular with students. Only a few of the teachers really want to have a classroom library. One doesn't want one at all, because she doesn't want books lost. (I did lose about 10 books from my library that were put in classrooms and three from the public library. But loss of books is not as important to me as long as the students are reading.) In many of the classes, the students mostly read newspapers or magazines. The students do not have a variety of up-to-date magazines, since most of the magazines come from the library. Some of the teachers let students talk during SSR or do their homework. Another problem that we are having is that the students are very resistant to SSR. I know one of the reasons for that is not enough variety of high interest reading material. However, even in classes where I brought in more reading materials, the students were resistant. They used to have that 20 minutes in homeroom just to talk and they resent having to read. We seem to have a large number of students who dislike reading. How do we find reading materials for the classrooms inexpensively? What can I do to encourage the teachers to effectively implement SSR? What can the teachers do to motivate our students to read? Gayle Rogers Library Media Specialist St. Jude Educational Institute ninagayle@yahoo.com When my son Will was in grade school, silent reading could be done under your desk, on the floor with feet up on chair, etc. Not sure if you tried that and/or if it would work in your situaton, but I figured it was worth a shot. Cheryl L. Isbister Wow! That you are able to have 20 minutes of SSR 4 days a week astounds me! What a gift! (Which is not meant to undermine how hard you had to work to accomplish that!) I think you've hit the nail on the head; good books will attract them to reading, but since they've grown accustomed to not having to read, they're resistant. It's too bad that it didn't start in September; you may have had very different results. It's disappointing to hear that some teachers are not supportive--that would make a huge difference! I'm not sure the best idea would be to support classroom libraries; better to allow students time every day or every few days to select enough appropriate materials from the school library--I think it's a better use of any monies spent. And I feel strongly that reading magazines and newspapers is perfectly acceptable for SSR; it's supposed to be enjoyable, and if that's what they want to read.... Quality materials is the first thing. In addition, perhaps since many are below grade level academically, books on tape would be possible? I know it's not strictly SSR, but if they can't read, listening to literature is better than talking! Equipment may be an issue, so a whole class could listen to a story, or perhaps even have one read or played over the loudspeaker? I know there are great renditions of good literature on tape or CD. Good investment if you can swing it. I'm not sure what books would be appropriate for grades 7-12; I'm in an elementary school now. I'm thinking perhaps something by Gary Soto or Gary Paulsen? See if you can connect with a local book store, one of the Book Fair companies (Scholastic is one, I'm not sure what else is out there.), local magazine distributor, newspapers, etc. for possible donations. I scour second-hand book stores, garage sales, and thrift stores for like-new used books for almost nothing. We've also gotten donations from a local girl scout troop who went through their own collections for books they'd outgrown. You might have better luck looking toward college-age groups for that, given your age level. As far as getting the teachers on board, continue to be enthusiastic and positive; acknowledge the contribution they are making to students' learning by being good role models. Enlist the help of those teachers who support SSR to "talk it up," and show research about the positive impact SSR can have. Sorry I’m responding late to your target – reading home e-mail has been on the back burner as things get pretty hectic towards the end of school. Anyway, here’s an idea: How about loading up a book truck with books and taking it around to homerooms just before the start of SSR on those 4 days. Kids can choose a book. The next day they can choose another if they didn’t like the one from the day before, or hang on to it until done. At least they’d always have opportunities to choose something of interest to read. There might also be some incentives for student reading: Encourage students to post reviews of the books they read on your library webpage or on a library blog Perhaps to kick-off each day’s SSR (or at the conclusion), a student can be chosen to read a passage from a favorite book over the PA system Be sure you have a way for kids to give you feedback on the kinds of books they would like to read so you can order them for the library Hope these are helpful - Margaret Robison K-12 Librarian at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind Staunton VA chewey75@comcast.net "Libraries Maximize Curriculum" John Williams SI had a group of 5th graders who were very resitant to reading and I had them all sit around a large table and listen and read the same audio book, "The Mulberry Project" Once they started listening, they did not want to stop. Go to Recorded books, and read their stuff- if kids listen at the same time they read, it seems to help relunctant readers. Subject: TARGET-> resistance to sustrained silent reading- June 2007chool No. 5 Rochester City School District Rochester NY It has taken us a full 4 years before the kids fully accept SSR. Also you have got to have the faculty behind you. Our faculty love SSR. We also started off with school wide reading contests, prizes etc. Can you get any money to go to a used paper back store to buy fun books? We have 3 SSR books in every classroom--lots of things like Uncle John's Bathroom Readers, Horror short stories, etc. Our English teachers also require outside reading so the kids have things to need to be reading. You are going to have to pump up the volume so to speak; you already know why they are not reading and the solution is to jump start reading for them. Go to Barnes and Noble or any local bookseller and find out what kids at that age are reading. Find something exciting and relevant to students. Try Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Go into classrooms and read the first chapter aloud. Tell students after they have read for 20 minutes they will have a few minutes to talk about the book together, that way they get their talking in but it is about what they just read. Good Luck! Michelle Holt Media Specialist 7th St. Elementary NLR, AR 72114 [501]340-5170 Sounds to me like "the cart before the horse you put." In other words, you didn't do the proper preparation BEFORE you started the program, and you are reaping the results. What to do now? Drop it for at least a year, maybe two. During that time you and the principal need to work on getting ALL the teachers on board. That includes not only the idea of SSR, but also what it looks like. Will you permit newspapers? Magazines? Books? Books/newspapers/magazines brought from home or only school-provided materials? How much time will be devoted to SSR? When? Who participates? Students only, students and classroom teachers, administrators? While you are working on those issues, you need to start gathering materials for kids to read. Yes, this will cost money, and that money will have to come from somewhere. Since it sounds like you are already operating on a shoestring (I've been a Lutheran school teacher) you need to be looking for a donor. Perhaps your local Wal-Mart would be willing to let you come in once a month and get 10 books for free. If you bring in 10 kids with you each time (don't use the same ones) and they actually select the books (with your permission, of course) you will eventually have quite a collection of books that the kids WILL want to read. Good luck. -- David Lininger, kb0zke, MS/HS librarian Hickory County R-1 Schools Urbana, MO 65767 417-993-4226 tss003 at tnp dot more dot net I can imagine the difficulty your school is having instituting SSR. What kid wouldn't be resistant if s/he previously had time to chat with friends and now is expected to do something s/he hates for 20 minutes instead! I think easing into 20 minutes of SSR might be the way to go. You might first get teachers to do a read aloud for 10 or 15 minutes each day. Find a few really high interest, exciting books and give them to the teachers to read to the kids. If the teachers don't have to do anything except read the book you might get them on board a little easier. Then you might hold a few well planned - and fun - DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) events. Perhaps during the DEAR events you, the principal, or some other respected (by the students) highly visible member of the community stops in a few classes and gives away something to everyone who is reading, or has a book, etc. And something really special for the teacher who is modeling reading. Keep the DEAR events short 10 or 15 minutes maybe. Then maybe you could move into a regularly scheduled DEAR event every Tuesday for example and again keep it short. Keep adding days and time to the schedule until you are up to your 20 minutes a day. I think this could actually take a couple of years to pull off. (Or maybe you increase the number of days/time according to grade level.) Get the teachers on board with a "caught you reading" program. During SSR time walk around the school take pictures of the teachers you catch reading. Post them in the library and give them a gift certificate to Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, or some other inducement. (Our principal uses leave early passes that teachers get to use to leave campus earlier than our regularly scheduled release time.) Without a doubt classroom libraries full of books that appeal to the students AND getting the teachers to buy into the program are the keys to this being a successful venture. But anything you can do to make it fun/hip for the students and easy for the teachers would certainly help. Perhaps there are some grants available that would help you purchase the materials (and prizes) you need. Instituting a new reading program should qualify your school for funds somewhere. But don't give up. I was at one school where 10 minutes of SSR at the beginning of EACH class period (for us that was 70 minutes a day!) resulted in our reading scores soaring through the roof in one year's time. It will be worth the trouble. Rachel Hinds Librarian Carleston Elementary Pearland, Tx mcquita2@aol.com This year I purchased books from Townsend Press, publisher of the Bluford Series. By dealing with the company directly the set of 13 books cost $13.00 plus shipping. I got three sets of 13 and they were checked out of our library much of the time. The price is so reasonable, that I didn't mind when a book cam up missing. The books are high interest and appealed to all populations at our school. I learned about the series from LM_NET!!! Marcia McCarthy LMS A.D. Oliver Middle School Brockport, NY Maybe your students just "aren't there yet" in regard to SSR. What do you think about someone reading to the students during that time for maybe 10 minutes, rather than having the students read themselves. You could raise it to 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. Then, as it progresses, you could move to students reading themselves. This way, you and/or the teachers could introduce the students to high interest subjects, stories, etc. You could use "cliffhangers" to make the students want to listen and to anticipate finishing it the next day. Maybe you could schedule some celebrity readers to come in and read as guests. Pat Pulis Media Specialist Schofield and Westview Elementary Schools Warren, MI patpul@fps.fitz.k12.mi.us Keep plugging away. The research says that it takes at least a year to see a change when you implement SSR. I would suggest one change. 20 minutes is too long. Aim for 10 minutes, that also gives the students back some of the time they would like for talking, you could also try having them read first and then talk about what they have read. Colleen Tew, LIS Margaret Allen MS Nashville, TN In my view the key to successful SSR is that it must start from the top. Your principal must insist upon it, and participate. If he/she does not care, then it is not going to take off school-wide. Then publicity can be great. Have the local paper come in and take a picture of a teacher, some students, custodians, or other members of the school community reading. Make a bulletin board of pics of people reading. Etc. If you cannot get school-wide support starting from the top, caring teachers can still enforce it within their domains. That will happen if they buy into it, model it, and make the kids take part. As for getting low-cost materials, sometimes you can appeal to local businesses. I know some supermarkets in my area used to have a certain amount of money they could give away each month. If you showed up on the first of the month, they would give you about $20. Then It would go to their paperback and magazine racks and buy what I could. Little by little you can build this way. Used book stores are sometimes allies also. Or you can have kids bring in gently used books. In return they get something they like. Candy, for instance. I was fairly shameless about using candy as prizes with kids. Frankly, if people are not supporting it and you are trying to drum it up by yourself, you may be fighting a losing battle. I know this was true for me at one point. In that event, I would seek other promotions that encouraged reading but did not seek to get EVERYONE involved. To me the true key is the principal.—mabell I hope you do not have to fight this battle alone. SSR is a powerful tool, but it must be used correctly and with committment. Jim Trelease has updated his Read Aloud Handbook (2006) and in that he reports the results from schools who embraced SSR and raised test scores. I am a fan/student (albeit figuratively) of Stephen Krashen and he has done the research to support the benefits of SSR. I've heard him speak a few times and he always discusses the technique. He specifically describes the problems of "getting started." This takes patience, perseverance and committment. You begin with 10-12 SSR minutes and build to more. The teacher must also read during SSR. Students are often uncomfortable and restless in the beginning, but the teacher must remind them of the purpose and expectation. The experts go on and on about this, but I just wanted to share my excitement about the power of SSR. Give them good books (from the school library collection of course) and time to read; and your students will prosper with reading skill as well as better understanding and study skills in all areas. Good luck and I hope you get others on board to support these efforts. http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/ http://www.sdkrashen.com/ From what you describe, it almost seems like it might be more effective to do a really high-profile read aloud program first -- with books that are high interest and that will catch the students' attention - perhaps one book per grade level, and then some sort of event that gets classes talking about it. Or maybe even have the whole school read a book like HOLES that is bound to resonate with different grade levels. THE FIRST PART LAST comes to mind for older students...then maybe you can work into the students reading a book silently like this book. Or THE GIVER or BUT NOT BUDDY or something like that. Short chapters...funny or dramatic. In my former life as a reading teacher (15 years), my classes always started w/15-20 minutes of ssr every day. I also did SSR 4 days a week in my advisory class. They did not begin this exactly joyously; afterall, we call them "reluctant readers" for a reason :-) .. They did, however, acclimate and, when forced to stare at the page would eventually give in. I knew I had them when they'd ask if we could read all period or jump halfway to the ceiling when I called time because they were so involved in what they were reading. One of my Special Ed Reading teachers also used SSR this past year at my suggestion. Again, in the beginning it's a struggle but she held firm and the kids DID begin to read... And not so amazingly, their scores on standardized tests went up. Very few kids would be willing to give up free time for reading so you've got to get over that hump first-- it can't be voluntary and your teachers have to enforce it. I'll be honest, it's not fun at first because the teacher has to be willing to stand firm on his/her expectations during that time period. So that means your teachers have to buy into this. The good news is that most of the reading "gurus" (e.g., Janet Allen, Stephen Krashen, Richard L. Allington et.al) strongly support SSR. Maybe you could find some articles by them and distribute them to your faculty? As far as books go... my special ed teacher brought the kids to the library to check out their own books. She kept them by periods in boxes in a special part of her room. She pulled out the box for the incoming class as they came in. Students weren't allowed in that other part of the room (to keep them from taking someone else's book.. she learned this the hard way). She had a few books in her room for those who refused to check out books but the kids quickly learned that their choices in the classroom were limited. As far as magazines and newspapers go, personally I stopped letting kids read those during SSR because magazine reading is a group exercise for kids.. plus some wanted to only look at the pictures and could "finish" a magazine in 10 minutes. Terri Moore, Librarian Richardson West JHS 469-593-3696 readingrocks@att.net I serve a similar population to yours, and I wish I could get my principal to agree to SSR! How about trying a one-book-one-school kind of approach? Your kids would love the Buford series of books from Townsend Press which are only $1 a piece (that's right - a BUCK!) At that price you could afford to get one for every student. The series is about the lives of students who attend a fictional high school in urban Los Angeles. Examples of titles are The Bully, The Gun, Someone to Love Me, and several others. They are written on a 4th-5th grade level but the situations involve teens. I think you'd see students really get into the books and start talking about the characters as if they were real people. Trisha Hartye, Librarian J. S. Russell Middle School Lawrenceville, VA patricia.hartye@brun.k12.va.us An effective SSR program takes teacher involvement. I found having students keep reading logs and the teacher walk around individually conferencing with students("I see you were on page 14 last Friday and here it is Tuesday and you're only on 16..what's going on?") Another effective thing is to do a guided reading book with the class to teach them how to read a book. Many don't know what they like to read. One of our teachers schedules time a couple of times a week for kids to discuss what they're reading. Another have kids do buddy books. They each check out the same book, decide how many pages they'll read each day, then spend 5 minutes discussing it before the next day's session. We have our students check out one book from the library that they leave at school just for SSR. If your students aren't used to SSR, it will have to be modeled and taught. But don't give up! Find one teacher that sees the big picture and get her/him on board. Jan Cole You don't mention kids reading library books. Why do they need to read from the classroom libraries? If each student borrows 2 or 3 library books each week they should have plenty to read. Karen I can understand the students resisting reading when they are accustomed to free time. I think the best way to get them started is to encourage the teachers to start out by reading aloud. You would have to make sure they are reading something that will really grab the reluctant readers' attention. I would make sure the teacher's have all of the data cited by Stephen Krashen on the benefits of free voluntary reading. Perhaps that will convince them to give it a try. Sandra Carswell, Librarian S.C. Lee Junior High School 1205 Courtney Lane Copperas Cove, TX 76522 I teach incarcerated urban youth and they love sustained silent reading time. I think, as you already pointed out, that teacher attitudes and high-interest materials make all the difference in the world. One idea: Do a staff devel. with the teachers where they get to read whatever they want for 20 minutes and solicit feedback. Help them show each other what a great experience it can be and what challenges can come up for a reader at any age in that situation. Another thing I've found is that routines help-- the sign on the door, the self-evaluation rubric at the end, the conferencing one on one with students who are having difficulty. Another thing that worked well for me with 6th graders last year was ordering a bunch of simpsons books used from sellers on amazon.com. I invested about 100$ to get 12-15 books. The kids loved them. It was a big motivator, as were the bean bags I bought for my classroom. I understand your school won't invest in this stuff right away. Maybe do a pilot-- get the "worst" class and invest in resources for that class and prove that it works-- and then write a grant to get resources for all of the classes... (that's a long-term plan, I know.) And know you're not alone. Any school where the teachers don't buy into it will always struggle with the program. Best wishes to you, Jessica Fenster-Sparber literacyforteens@aol.com I worked in a school where students had the option to read a book, magazine or the newspaper during SSR. The Washington Post delivered 400 newspapers to our school each day for free as part of their "Newspapers in Education" program. A crew of students came to school each morning and earned community service hours (for their high school graduation requirement) by delivering a stack of newspapers to each homeroom and the library. See if your local newspaper has a similar program, this might give the students another option, especially those reluctant boys! They'll love reading the sports pages! Amy The first thing you need to do is get your administration's support. Teachers need to know that the administration is behind this, not just the media specialist's idea. Somehow you've got to get the kids to the media center to check out books. Since it is a small school you might be able to get teachers to bring their classes to the media center to check out books. Classroom libraries are okay but certainly not the answer to the SSR problem. Winning the teachers over is the 3rd big piece. Compile statistics of the benefits of SSR and present them at faculty meetings, grade level meetings. Get some popular paperback novels for teachers to read. Brainstorm with some teachers who are behind SSR. You might look into some of the writings and research of Stephen Krashen for some inspiration and support for why this is so important. I do know from my own experience as a teacher that if the teacher is not on board then it is virtually impossible to get this to work. The teacher has to believe in this and she/he has to participate - no grading papers etc... during ssr time. Maybe you could ease into the program by letting students still have some talking/social time as well as the ssr time. Wean them off the social time into more reading time as the year progresses? Good luck! April Johnson Elementary Librarian Waxahachie, TX Is the administration behind the SSR or is it only you trying to implement SSR? Starting in the middle of the year is harder than doing it at the beginning of the year -- the students have their routine set up and it's hard to break. Start SSR the first day of school and see if the administration would recommend (order) that everyone in the building reads; teachers, custodians, cooks, secretaries, visitors to the building, everyone. Having it in the morning should make it easier for everyone to read. When students see everyone reading it should make more of an impact on them. We have SSR just before lunch and because of 1/2 day students, bus students, senior labs, junior labs, academics it has not gone over very well. Also it's at the end of the period rather than at the beginning. The period before lunch is 10 minutes longer than any other period because we have some students that have to leave to eat lunch before they get on a bus to go to our south campus. I usually forget that I should be reading at that time -- though my assistant always reads. Try sending for travel material, ask car dealers for their material, see if the teachers would be willing to look for young adult books while they are out doing the rounds of garage sales. Check with Half Price Books, they may have books that they will donate to your cause, since they get a lot of books that they cannot sell. If your area doesn't have good garage sales you might want to ask friends and relatives in other areas of the country to shop for you (and donate). They should be able to send the books at a reduced rate since the material is going to the library. The items that you collect should be "free". Don't worry if they don't come back. Ask for restaurant menus, or get the pamphlets that fast food establishments have behind the counter. Have the material located on a book truck outside the library where the students could pick up their reading material for that day. Because our students are suppose to read four 250 page books or 1,000 pages during the year and keep a log of their reading (for High Schools that Work) they are told to keep their book with them. It may take awhile for it to catch on but it should. Emily Jean Honaker, Library/Media Specialist Delaware Area Career Center 1610 St. Rt. 521 Delaware, Ohio 43015 740-363-1993 ext. 2231 honakere@delawareareacc.org I wish I could offer some worthwhile suggestions. Colton High is a comparatively lower socio-economic populated school of 3,100 students. Last year I got an 18-vol. book shelf grant of new books dealing with what it means to be American from the ALA/Nat. Endowment for the Humanities. I announced a meeting in the Daily Bulletin that is read over the PA. 1 student came. So I collaborated with maybe 6 or 7 Eng. classes where I bk talked sources like Mad magazine with the cover showing Alfred E. Newman with a buckshot-pocked face standing beside VP Cheney with a shotgun. Bks. mentioned included NY Times Best Seller Marley & Me about a dysfunctional golden Labrador retriever; also As Nature Made Him: the Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. I got a list of perhaps 75 students including may 6 colleagues who said they'd at least be interested in attending. So I called another meeting. No one came. No colleagues. Not even the girl who attended the 1st meeting. The colleagues suggested fliers, posters. Via Publisher, I drafted a flier that I sent to those colleagues. I asked our print shop teacher to print up a large, color poster on the huge new HP color printer advertising Book Club date/time and a free copy of Time Stops for No Mouse, 24 brand new copies of which came from author Michael Hoeye. The poster was truly a work of art. Campus supervisors said that if I posted it outside, kids would punch holes in it in no time flat. I tried to put it about 10' high on the library's E wall but the green library tape wouldn't stick on our stucco walls, so instead I taped it to a metal fire extinguisher space on our E wall. I thought sure kids would draw a moustache on the mouse but no vandalism occurred. This time 1 teacher came. I gave her a copy of the book and this morning gave away all but 2 of the rest to the last of our Dist. librarians' meetings. ALA/NEH's deadline was last week. I e-mailed ALA, explained I'd failed and offered to return the bks. They graciously said I should simply add them to our main collection which I did. At that meeting and in discussion on LM_NET, it seems clear that there are a number of negative factors adversely effecting student reading. One is MP3s, iPods, & various other electronic gadgets which kids like. They seem to have sound buds stuck in their ears almost all the time. Another factor is that some of them, due to required class readings, are simply read out. CHS has something like 25 ppbk novels used as supplementary reading for Eng. classes including Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath/Of Mice & Men, works by Edgar Allen Poe, Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I've read the latter. It's not easy, and I must admit that if I were required to read even half the supplementary list, the chances of my joining an after school bk club that doesn't offer free food would be extremely unlikely. I think CHS does have SSR and I've coincidentally encountered at least 1 teacher here reading aloud to a class, which I think is great. But as Walter Dean Meyers, who I consider a very good writer, has said, "Today kids don't go to school to learn. They go to school to be entertained." I'm afraid he's right. If I'd wanted to be an entertainer, I'd have gone to Hollywood or Broadway instead of to library school. I still read. A lot. But am I going to pursue bk club establishment here any more? Nope. Good luck. Larry "Library" Retzack, BA, MM, MA, Ph.D. candidate, Librarian-Media Teacher, Colton (CA) High School, 777 W Valley BLVD, Colton CA 92324-2251. I would suggest going to Jim Trelease's web site, and reading the information on SSR. He is a big component of it, and public libraries might be willing to give you the magazines they would want to read. Albeit, they may still be older copies, but popular magazines. Loss of any type of material will happen whether it is a book to read or a pencil. Shame on that teacher. Do you have a time for read aloud? If students don't have many experiences with reading material, then it is difficult to expect that they would have the patience to enjoy the experience of reading on their own. You may need to create those experiences for a while. Reading aloud can provoke discussions and create excitement around interests and stories. You could even try reading aloud a book that has an exciting ending. When you get to the last few chapters, tell the students they will have to finish the book on their own. See how many will be wrestling to get the copy of the book for SSR. I volunteer at our Friends of the San Antonio Public Library used book sale. All withdrawn books are sent to this book store from all over the city. We have a huge amount of hard cover and paperback books for young adults which cost .50 and .25 (I get them for half price). Do you have such a place in your city? I am the librarian at a small Catholic school as well, so I know how tight money is. Josie Martinez St. Martin Hall San Antonio ____________________________________________________________________________________ Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. 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