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"We are heading towards a country, not of illiteracy, but alliteracy-one in which we simply choose not to read-and this can be detrimental to the success of our students" (Tracy, 2017)

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"Encouraging students to read independently takes more effort than an anchor chart or a book fair. It’s a shift in culture". (Abercrombie, 2018)

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"Nearly all students in sustained silent reading classes become engaged in reading when interesting books are provided in a relaxed environment with little or no evaluation". (Krashen, 2013)

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Reluctant readers-we've all had them. Those students who wander around the room during silent reading time, browse half-heartedly in the library, complain about reading groups and abandon one book after another because each one, it turns out, is "boring." What to do with students who say "I hate reading?"

We asked the awesome educators in our WeAreTeachers Helpline group to share some tips:

1. The Right Book Makes All the Difference.

"I just tell them they haven't found the right book yet. Then we go on a hunt. It might be a year-long hunt, but I help that student find their 'hook' book." -Anika V.

"I'm a librarian and I tell students that they should find books that they 'want' to read, not what they think they 'should' read." -Kristy S.

"Books students choose HAVE to be about topics they are interested in. Gauge that first, and then select your reading. It's okay for students to be reading different things. Make it more of an individual reading plan vs. everyone reads the same thing. That's how we lose kids with reading." -Chris F.

"I ask them what they like to watch on TV. Then I look for books that have similar themes and characters." -Amy Y.

2. Use Everything You've Got.

"Magazines with high-interest, short articles may help because they have lots of pictures. Graphic novels are also good. Audiobooks are a great choice." -Bailey S.

"Hand them a recipe, comic book, play, box of cereal with games on the back, a kid's menu, anything with words! Then once they've found their 'thing,' show them that it's reading." -Megan B.

"Old school...Choose Your Own Adventure books...they rock! My students are in love with them." -Erin G.

3. Recognize and Validate Their Challenges.

"As a moderate needs Special Ed teacher, I really believe you need to acknowledge the struggle. Too often, adults shrug this off, which makes children feel even worse." -Diana M.

"Be sensitive to their feelings. I have heard from struggling readers and their parents many stories of being made to read aloud in class and feeling deeply embarrassed and humiliated. Just yesterday, a mom told me that happened to her child in 1st grade and now, as a 7th grader, her child still hates reading." -Kristy B.

4. Teach Each Reading Skill Carefully and Explicitly.

"Make sure your small group reading instruction is skill-targeted. Identify the real reading level of every student you have and make sure they have access to the books they need." -Diana M.

"Reluctant readers are often struggling readers, so it's important to know what is really going on with your students. Is it a comprehension issue? Can he or she read the words, but not quite pull it all together? Is it a decoding issue (sound, letter and word recognition)? Know where your students' deficits are so that you can address them directly." -Mary M.

"Instead of focusing on content instruction, focus on processing skills: word attack, sight-word recognition, contextual fluency, oral vocabulary and comprehension." -Lindamood-Bell.

5. Model the joy of reading.

"Reading is one of the greatest pleasures in life! I share my love of reading with enthusiasm and exuberance and find that my attitude sets the tone for my whole room with good feelings about reading. For my kids, reading is a treat and the best part of the day." -Stephanie I.

"Encourage parents to embrace reading with their children. Provide them with research that substantiates the benefits (emotional as well as academic) of reading on a regular basis with their kids. Make it a fun time to get lost in a story together, to ask questions and wonder." -Emily J.

"In my classroom we have weekly book talks where students can share a book that they are loving with the class. The kids love it! They get so excited as they share details about the characters and the story. I don't have to do the work-they get each other excited about reading! I've found my students are more likely to read a book that is recommended by a friend than by any other source." -Carrie P.
Thanks to Lindamood-Bell for sponsoring this article. For more on this topic, check out "I Hate Reading!: Tips for Helping Your (Very) Reluctant Reader."

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5 Ways to Help Students Who Say They Hate Reading

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Reluctant readers-we've all had them. Those students who wander around the room during silent reading time, browse half-heartedly in the library, complain about reading groups and abandon one book after another because each one, it turns out, is "boring." What to do with students who say "I hate reading?"

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Why So Many Students Dislike Reading
by Terry Heick

We tend to teach reading in a very industrial way in the United States.

We focus on giving kids "tools" and "strategies" to "make" sense of a text. To "take it apart." To look for the "author's purpose"-to bounce back and forth between a main idea, and the details that "support" the main idea, as if the reading is some kind of thing that students happen upon by chance while on some purely academic journey.

And we push the illusion of the "otherness" of a text by promoting the lie that they simply need to decode this, recognize that, and analyze that and that and that, and they'll be able to "read" (a troublesome word).

While this all does well to emphasize the work that real literacy requires, there's little wonder why students are increasingly seeking briefer, more visual, social, and dynamic media. Because not only are these media forms effortlessly entertaining, they rarely require meaningful investment of themselves.

And it is this kind of connection that makes reading-or any other media consumption for that matter-feel alive and vibrant and whole. When readers are younger, there is a natural "give" between the reader and the text, their imaginations still raw and green and alive.

But as readers grow older, there is less give-and more need for texts to be contextualized differently.
See Also: 25 Self-Guided Reading Responses for Fiction and Non-Fiction The Spirituality Of Literacy
There is a spirituality involved in reading (really) that is challenging to promote only in the classroom. (That is, not at home, at social or recreational events, but only at school, where it will always be a kind of naked.)

Cognitively, a student "makes sense" of a text through a perfectly personal schema-that is, through the symbols and patterns and enthusiasm and suffering and meaning in their own lives. Students can't simply be encouraged to "bring themselves" and their own experiences to a text; they have to realize that any grasp of the text decays almost immediately if they don't.

Without that inward, reflective pattern where students acknowledge the sheer craziness of reading-where they are asked to merge two realities (the text, and themselves)-then that process will always be industrial. Mechanical.

A matter of literacy and "career readiness."

It's interesting that we give students crude, mechanical tools that, even used well, can only hope to mar and smash the text beyond recognition, then wonder why they don't appreciate Shakespeare or Berry or Faulkner or Dickinson.

We try to divorce the reader from the reading.

The nuance and complexity of literature is its magic. But students raised in data-loud, image-based, form-full, socialized and self-important circumstances aren't accustomed to that kind of selfless-and terrifying-interaction.

The self-reflection true literacy requires is horrifying! To closely examine who we are and what we think we know by studying another parallel examination from another human being who put their thinking in the form of a novel, short story, poem, or essay! You're not just "reading" another person's thoughts, but you're pouring yourself into their marrow.

No wonder they skim.

Most readers are already working from a disadvantaged position, where they view themselves as not only distinct from the text (false), but somehow further along in time and priority, as if they are being brought to some text to see if it's worth their time.

And so they sit with it only long enough to see if it entertains them, neglecting the most fundamental tenet of literacy: Interdependence.
The Irony Of Reading
In reading, you're simply uncovering something you've always been a part of. Instincts you've always had. Circumstances you've long been afraid of. Events and ideas and insights you've struggled to put into words but have just found right there on the page.

Your brain can't understand it any other way.

Compared to media experiences most modern students gravitate easily towards-Instagram, facebook, Epic Fail YouTube channels, video games-reading also lacks the immediate spectacle that can catalyze the experience. Something that lights them up inside at a basic knee-jerk level, and will keep them from having to go any further.

Reading isn't a show. (Not at first anyhow.) It doesn't exist to make them LOL. (Though it might.)

But they often turn the page hoping to be passively entertained. Ironically then, reading isn't "built" for what we use it for in education. It's hugely personal, but we focus on the mechanics because of our insistence on standardization.
The Ecology Of Reading
Reading involves process and tools and strategies, but it isn't any of those things.

It'd be easy to blame the ecology of it all. To suggest that Huckleberry Finn was only interesting because Minecraft wasn't around to compare it to.

Or to blame social media for distracting everyone.

And this is all part of it. Their habits and access to complex texts and personal affinities matter. There is an ecology that schools and students and texts and literacy operate within-an interdependence-that is there whether we choose to honor it or not. A lot of this is much bigger than you and I as teachers.

But that doesn't excuse us from our own failures in how we teach reading in schools. We give students processes for writing and tools for reading without stopping to humanize the whole effort. Mechanized literacy has all sorts of troubling implications.

You and I-we teach students to overvalue their own opinions when they're still often baseless and uninformed, which is like teaching them to read without helping them to truly understand why they should read.

We fail to help them navigate the blessed, intimidating, awkward otherness of reading that makes it rise.
Image attribution flickr user bluesquarething and oldshoewoman
And so we lose the reader-the real person-in the process.

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Why So Many Students Dislike Reading by Terry Heick We tend to teach reading in a very industrial way in the United States. We focus on giving kids "tools" and "strategies" to "make" sense of a text. To "take it apart."

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Can sustained silent reading help reluctant readers? 

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Can sustained silent reading help reluctant readers? 

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Can sustained silent reading help reluctant readers? - Innovation: Education

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English teacher Laela Warnecke set out to answer one question: "How might sustained silent reading impact 8th graders?" Warnecke examined the effect of sustained silent reading on the engagement and achievement of her students. She surveyed her students and helped them set aside time during the day to read whatever they wanted.

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"Reading silently improves students’ understanding because it helps them concentrate on what they are reading, rather than the pronunciation of individual words" (Masum, 2017

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Much research shows that to properly make SSR work students should be free from paperwork on their reading. With that, these logs seem interesting and seem to have value to keep the students responsible without too much paperwork.

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O.K. So my title is a good hook. I'm an ELA teacher, so you'd expect no less. However, I'm also an MA reading specialist, so you'd expect me to be passionate about getting students to read and read well. I do believe that independent reading is vital to reading improvement. So why am I writing an article titled Why Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) Doesn't Work?

First, let's get on the same page about what most of us mean when we talk about SSR. SSR does have a variety of pseudonyms: FVR (Free Voluntary Reading, DEAR (Drop Everything And Read); DIRT (Daily Individual Reading Time); SQUIRT (Sustained Quiet Un-Interrupted Reading Time), WEB (We Enjoy Books), and USSR (uninterrupted sustained silent reading). I'm sure there are more. Essentially, SSR is based upon these assumptions:

Reading is a skill which improves with practice.

Students should be allowed to select their own books to read.

SSR should not include instructional accountability.

SSR is best accomplished within the classroom with the teacher as a silent reading model.

Now, of course, not every teacher implements the program in the same way; however, even with teacher tweaks, SSR just is not an effective use of class time. Why so? Here are 8 reasons Why Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) Doesn't Work.

1. Reading Research Does Not Support SSR

According to the Report of the National Reading Panel (2000), the experimental design studies on SSR indicate no statistically or educationally significant differences between those students who do SSR and those students who do not. Now, to be fair, the reading research does not invalidate SSR. There are just too many variables to isolate and no teacher would ever agree to participate in a study in which a control group of students was not allowed to read.

According to noted reading researcher, Doctor Timothy Shanahan in his August 13, 2017 article:

NRP did conclude that there was no convincing evidence that giving kids free reading time during the school day improved achievement - or did so very much. There has been a lot of work on that since NRP but with pretty much the same findings: either no benefits to that practice or really small benefits (a .05 effect size - which is tiny). Today, NRP would likely conclude that practice is not beneficial rather than that there is insufficient data. But that's arguable, of course.

Some educational researchers have criticized the findings of the National Reading Panel, arguing that long term correlational studies do suggest that students doing SSR gain more in reading than those who do not. However, correlation does not imply causation.

My take regarding reading research is that we should prioritize our instruction to focus on the instructional strategies that both experimental design and correlational studies support. In other words, let's teach what works for sure. To devote significant class time to an instructional strategy with a questionable research base should give educators pause, especially when there is an alternative which achieves better results than SSR advocates purport to achieve.

2. There is Not Enough Class Time for SSR

There just are not enough minutes in the day to achieve the results desired by proponents of SSR. For example, to achieve year to year vocabulary growth, elementary students need to read a minimum of one million pages; secondary students need to read a minimum of two million pages. Do the math. Many secondary teachers only have four hours of class time per week. No conscientious secondary teacher would allot half of instructional time to SSR. True that many students read in other content classes and some outside of school, but also true that with normal instructional interruptions there are many weeks with less than four hours of class time. In other words, an hour of SSR per week is just not going to make much of a dent in the amount of independent reading that students need to achieve significant reading growth. The "some is better than none" response is just not acceptable.

Additionally, all instruction is reductive: teachers cannot add on without taking away. Should elementary teachers give up teaching science or social studies to add on SSR? Of course not. Furthermore, with the increasing rigor of the language and writing strands of the ELA/Reading Common Core State Standards, both elementary and secondary teachers will be hard-pressed to teach the grade level standards and differentiate instruction as mandated.
3. Free Choice Reading in SSR Does Not Maximize Reading Development
Free choice reading is an essential tenet of SSR proponents. However motivating self-selected reading may be, there are significant downsides. Students often choose books with reading levels far below or far above own their reading levels and so do not experience optimal reading growth. Most reading experts suggest a 95-98% word recognition level as being necessary for comprehensible input and vocabulary acquisition. To be crass, allowing students to choose their own reading material, without any guidance, lets the lunatics be in charge of the asylum.
4. SSR is Not Teaching
Yes, incidental learning does take place when students are in engaged in SSR. Some SSR advocates go so far as to claim that "Free reading appears to be the source of much of our reading ability, our writing style, much of our vocabulary knowledge, our spelling ability, and our ability to handle complex grammatical constructions (Krashen, 1993; Elley, 1991, 1998).

However, having a credentialed teacher model silent reading while 36 students choose to read or not read independently does not avail students of that teacher's expertise. It's not a question of which is better: a teacher-centered or student centered classroom. It's an issue of educational priorities, efficiency, and effectiveness. SSR devolves the responsibilities and applications of reading strategies, comprehension or vocabulary development, and literary analysis to children. I'm not saying a teacher should exclusively assume the role of "sage on the stage," but a "guide on the side," should guide, not merely model.

Additionally, SSR is not appropriate for all students. SSR does not magically differentiate instruction. For example, some students (even secondary learners) need oral fluency practice, not independent silent reading. Other students already read extensively at home and do not need more independent reading time.

5. SSR Does Not Hold Students Accountable for Reading

Reading researchers Von Sprecken and Krashen concluded that children were more likely to read during SSR when certain conditions were in place: When there was access to interesting reading in the classroom and students are not required to bring their own reading material, when teachers read while students are reading, and when teachers made efforts to promote and discuss certain books the researchers found that 90% of students were reading. Even in a class in which none of these conditions were met, however, Debra Von Sprecken and Stephen Krashen found that 80% of the students were reading when observed. (California Reader, 1998, 32(1): 11-13) Not many teachers I know would be satisfied with a classroom instructional strategy in which from 4 to 9 of their 36 students (10-20%) did not participate.

It is true that many teachers "band-aid" this component of SSR and both the International Reading Association and important reading researchers part ways with SSR purists with regard to accountability. For example, Fountas and Pinnell suggest keeping records on student reading (2001). Nancy Atwell's Reading Workshop includes the following: "monitoring the type and the number of books students read; they may also administer assessments, keep reading checklists, and ask questions or encourage student discussion about books." (Atwell, 2007; Gambrell, 2007; Reutzel, Jones, Fawson, & Smith, 2008). Manning and Manning (1984) found that coupling SSR with peer discussions or teacher conferences led to improvements in reading achievement compared to a control group." But these "band aids" avoid the fact that SSR necessitates such tweaking to even approach meaningful reading instruction.
6. SSR Provides No Opportunity for Reader Response
SSR is designed as a solitary activity. It is true that we want to equip our students to learn the discipline and enjoyment of the author-reader interaction. Reader response is critically important to making students However, the simplistic notion that reading makes better readers ignores the fact that better reading makes even better readers. better readers.

Students can be trained to become better monitors of their silent reading. Teacher think-alouds, reading journals, and comprehension starters such as the SCRIP comprehension strategies can encourage self-monitoring of reading text. SSR ignores the reading-writing connection. Plot diagrams, character webs, and comprehension questions aren't just for teaching class novels. Narrative and essay response the same. The social context of reading development to build vocabulary and comprehension has been well-established both in research and practice. Social engagement increases reading motivation and accountability. Classroom reading discussions, literature circles, readers theater, book clubs, book reviews, and online discussion forums can be powerful motivators to encourage wide and thoughtful reading. Now for teachers thinking, "But we can have our cake and eat it, too" with SSR and Reader Response, I kindly suggest leaving the hypothetical and engaging the practical. See #2 above.
7. SSR Turns Recreational Reading into a School Thing
SSR advocates are keen on stressing how SSR is essential at their school because students do not have optimal environmental reading conditions at home or a lack of engaging books to choose from, or the distractions of video games-cell phones-family, et al. However, the fact that SSR in the classroom removes these distractions (highly debatable) sends a message and provides reading habits that require a structured school environment for independent reading. No teacher that I know takes the Free Voluntary Reading to mean "you can read if you want or not if you don't want to," whether the teacher enforces accountability procedures or not. Let's face it. SSR is coercive and required in a contrived setting-hardly the conditions that will transfer to recreational reading out of the classroom. If our end goal is to get students to become lifelong independent readers outside of the school experience, shouldn't we teachers work toward that end?
8. SSR Gives Up on Students, Peers, and Parents
To work toward the complementary goals of using class time to provide research-based reading instruction (#1, #4, #6) and assigning significant independent reading practice (#2, #3, #5, #7), I advocate abandoning classroom SSR and assigning independent reading as homework. "But they won't do it. Students will not read for homework." I have a different view and experience. Students will do independent reading as homework if a motivated teacher provides the leadership, appropriate carrots and sticks, gets parents to buy-in, and has the perseverance to ensure success.
Independent Reading Text Selection
Students choose any reading text that meets these criteria:
The motivational component of self-selection remains, but with appropriate oversight to ensure optimal reader-novel matches.
Independent Reading Accountability

But, how can teachers get students to read at home? How can teachers ensure that students really are reading? I require thirty minutes of reading and three minutes of discussion, four times per week. Student reading is monitored by reading partners, who also grade the quality of the student-led reading discussion. Parents typically serve as these partners. Of course, guardians, child care workers, grandparents, and older siblings can serve just as well. For older students, peer partners can certainly fulfill that role. Discussion partners grade the quality of each daily reading discussion, then total the points and sign the Reading-Discussion Log. I collect and record these logs bi-weekly and count this homework as 15% of the student's overall grade. Do kids or discussion partners cheat on this? Rarely... and not as much as teachers might think.

Advantages of This Model

This reading-discussion model builds relationships, reinforces internal monitoring of comprehension, promotes reading as a dynamic process of conversation among reader, peers, and author, and motivates readers to read more. Reinforcement and feedback is immediate, not delayed as in the case other reader response assignments such as dialectical journals turned in at the end of each week or book reports completed after a novel has been finished. Students are required to apply the reading strategies we learn and practice in the classroom. For example, I pass out reading strategy bookmarks that that help students frame, but not limit, their book discussions.

What Kind of Results Can Teachers Get?

I get similar participation rates 80-90% (compared to the Von Sprecken, Krashen research) at my lower-middle, 70% free and reduced lunch, middle school, but remember that's for homework, not for classwork. I would guess that the few students who do not do the independent reading at home would be the same ones that would not do the SSR in the Von Sprecken, Krashen study. Both parents and students love my "only homework is reading" policy. Some of my students prefer to participate in online book clubs in lieu of the parental discussion. I require a daily posting and response to other book discussion colleagues. Hunger Games was big with my students this year. Of course, I get to eavesdrop on their discussions.

My results are a bit less than Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller, achieves in terms of books read per year, but I've got a lot more time in class to teach other things I value because I don't use SSR in my classroom.

Mark Pennington, MA Reading Specialist, is the author of the comprehensive reading intervention curriculum, Teaching Reading Strategies. Designed to significantly increase the reading abilities of students ages eight through adult within one year, the curriculum is decidedly un-canned, is adaptable to various instructional settings, and is simple to use-a perfect choice for Response to Intervention tiered instruction. The program provides multiple-choice diagnostic reading and spelling assessments (many with audio files), phonemic awareness activities, blending and syllabication activities, phonics workshops with formative assessments, 102 spelling pattern worksheets, comprehension worksheets, multi-level fluency passages recorded at three different reading speeds and accessed on YouTube, 644 reading, spelling, and vocabulary game cards, posters, activities, and games.

Also get the accompanying Sam and Friends Guided Reading Phonics Books. These 54 decodable eBooks (includes print-ready and digital display versions) have been designed for older readers with teenage cartoon characters and plots. Each book introduces focus sight words and phonics sound-spellings aligned to the instructional sequence found in Teaching Reading Strategies. Plus, each book has a 30-second word fluency to review previously learned sight words and sound-spelling patterns, five higher-level comprehension questions, and an easy-to-use running record. Your students will love these fun, heart-warming, and comical stories about the adventures of Sam and his friends: Tom, Kit, and Deb. Oh, and also that crazy dog, Pug.

Or why not get both programs as a discounted BUNDLE? Everything teachers need to teach an assessment-based reading intervention program for struggling readers is found in this comprehensive curriculum. Ideal for students reading two or more grade levels below current grade level, tiered response to intervention programs, ESL, ELL, ELD, and special education students. Simple directions, YouTube training videos, and well-crafted activities truly make this an almost no-prep curriculum. Works well as a half-year intensive program or full-year program.

Book Whisperer, comprehension strategies, DEAR, DIRT, donalyn miller, free voluntary reading, independent reading, literature circles, Mark Pennington, oral reading, popcorn reading, read arounds, reading comprehension, reading fluency, silent reading, silent reading fluency, speed reading, SQUIRT, SSR, stephen krashen, sustained silent reading

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O.K. So my title is a good hook. I'm an ELA teacher, so you'd expect no less. However, I'm also an MA reading specialist, so you'd expect me to be passionate about getting students to read and read well. I do believe that independent reading is vital to reading improvement.

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I believe that before we can see any progress within in the SSR program we need to get to the bottom of a student struggle to read. This might not also be a what we know as a traditional struggle.

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Is SSR really the answer to getting students to read more?

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"I can't read." Every year I have at least one student say this to me. Sometimes it's tinged with frustration, sometimes anger. Other times it is very matter of fact, as if they were telling me their favorite color. Being a nonreader has become, to them, a part of who they are. I teach many students who have reached fourth or fifth grade without perceiving themselves as readers, or mathematicians, or successful students in general.

These struggling students are all at different points in their journeys. Some have resigned themselves to the idea that they'll never "catch up" to "everyone else" and just try to blend into the cinder block on the walls, hoping the teacher lets them float along the year, unnoticed. Others compensate for their academic struggles by becoming the class comedian, bully, or the extra-helpful one. They all find some way to mask or dull their sadness. Reading is just one example; it could be any subject area where a student struggles.

These students most likely have been exposed to the basics more than a few times. So what can we, as teachers, do? What can we offer that is so different than all the instruction these students have already had?

Regardless of the age level or ability, in order for someone to be able to learn something, they need to believe they can. Until they are open, learning is not going to happen. For example, at some point you learned how to tie your shoes. You may have been the kid who jumped into that and learned right away. Alternatively, you may have been the kid who it didn't come to easily and had to practice many times before you got it. If it was hard for you, think about it: At some point, through the struggle, you persevered and decided that this was something you could eventually master. You would never have learned had you stood there telling yourself that you would never figure it out. At some point, you took the risk to be vulnerable and kept trying.

Helping struggling students to believe in themselves

That hope is exactly what we need to inspire and nurture in struggling students in order for them to succeed. Over the years, here are some tips I have begun to keep in mind when working with such students:

Meet them where they are.

If you're lucky enough to be able to spend some one-on-one time with the student, work with them and figure out exactly where they are in terms of level. It is no use starting out two or three grade levels above the student's head if they are not there. This will only cause frustration for you and for them.

Set realistic expectations.

Let them meet success. To do this, the tasks may start out as very simple. One year I had a student who was average but really had little-to-no literacy skills for a variety of reasons. We found a book that looked like the size of a paperback that his peers might be reading, but the reading level was actually that of a beginning reader. He was able to meet success with this book. He took it home night after night and became more and more confident with it.

Encourage, encourage, encourage.

It can get easy for us to overlook the small successes a student may have. True, she still can't zip up her coat, but the fact that she now puts it on herself is a step in the right direction. I always remind myself to make sure I celebrate those small successes with the student. No matter what their age, students need to get that verbal praise at every step along the way.

Help them succeed in the bigger picture.

Once they have some confidence in their new skill, encourage them to use it as part of a larger group in the classroom. That student who took that book home and memorized it to help himself learn to read? Eventually he got to the point where he would read aloud in class. I would always preread with him to make sure he would be successful. The idea was that he felt good enough about reading to take the risk and do it in front of others.

As teachers we are so much more than instructors, although it certainly is our responsibility to instruct our students. The instruction will not stick, however, until the student believes that they are capable of learning. It is that balance of coaching, supporting, and instructing that allows a teacher to make a difference for a struggling learner.
How do you nurture a struggling student's self-perception? We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, be careful what you tell your students, because they'll believe you.

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Nurturing a Struggling Student's Self-Perception

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"I can't read." Every year I have at least one student say this to me. Sometimes it's tinged with frustration, sometimes anger. Other times it is very matter of fact, as if they were telling me their favorite color. Being a nonreader has become, to them, a part of who they are.

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Tips for making SSR successful in the classroom

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Tips for making SSR successful in the classroom

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SSR- Sustained Silent Reading.
During this time students are given a chance to read anything of their choice without distraction and without paperwork. This time is meant to make reading fun again

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How do you get reluctant readers to pick up a book and actually read it?

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Why do so many middle school students, including 4th graders, dislike reading?

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I am researching the effects of 10 minutes, or more, of sustained silent reading (SSR) daily on students because I want to find out if their reading stamina, reading levels and reading comprehension will improve to show the importance of daily SSR built into a schedule.