The Power of Reading through SSR

Questions You Might Have What is SSR? What do you want me to do during SSR? Why are we taking time out of the school day to have SSR? How is it going to help me?

What is SSR?

SSR is an acronym for Sustained Silent Reading. SSR is a reading intervention strategy used in schools all over the nation.

What do you want me to do during the SSR period?

Your responsibility: Read Fill in your SSR log

Daily: YOU will need to bring reading material to class. It’s YOUR responsibility. You can bring any “book” you wish. Novels can be checked out at the library. By the time the bell rings, you should be sitting quietly and reading.

You will earn a grade for your reading effort and your log sheet. There will be no sleeping or talking during SSR.

Why are we taking time out of the school day to have SSR?

Reading Is A Skill Ask any sports coach, the band director, the speech coach, the keyboard teacher, a dance teacher, or a chess champion, “What do I do to be good?”

Answer: Practice

Research tells us students who read more demonstrate markedly higher achievement. Students in the top 5% read 144 times more than students in the bottom 5%. On national testing, students who scored in the top 25% spent 59% more time reading than do students who score in the bottom 25%.

SSR will allow us to teach you the READING strategies that good readers use to comprehend what they read: Recall prior knowledge before, during, and after reading Engage in questioning before, during, and after reading to clarify understanding and focus Activate sensory images to deepen understanding of the text Determine what is important by summarizing what has been read so far, and synthesizing info about characters, the setting, and important events in the story’s plot. Infer to predict, draw conclusions, and make judgments Network new information with existing knowledge to create original ideas and interpretations and make critical evaluations Get past comprehension problems by re-reading, thinking aloud, and using context clues.

How is all this going to help ME?

Research shows: It makes you a better reader.

It improves your spelling.

It improves your vocabulary. Students learn an average of 45 words with each novel they read. Word meaning is picked up 10 times faster by reading than intensive vocabulary instruction.

It improves your writing. Research shows that both style and complexity of sentence structure is increased as the amount of reading increases.

However, Richard Peck may provide the best answer for why you should want to improve your ability to read in his poem entitled “I Read.”

I READ because one life isn’t enough, and in the pages of a book I can be anybody.

I READ because the words that build the story become mine to build my life.

I READ not for happy endings but for new beginnings; I’m just beginning myself, and I wouldn’t want a map.

I READ because I have friends who don’t, and young though they are, they’re beginning to run out of material.

I READ because every journey begins at the library and it’s time for me to start packing.

I READ because one of these days I’m going to get out of this town, and I’m going to go everywhere and meet everybody--and I want to be ready.