""Sustained Silent Reading" Helps Develop Independent Readers (and Writers) Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) -- or DEAR (Drop Everything And Read), as some people call it -- can be one more tool for developing lifelong readers."

"A Word About Reading Workshop Reading workshop gives students the opportunity to read a wider range of material than might be found in a basal reading series and to respond to the material in a many ways (Atwell, 1989). Teachers have used this rather broadly defined model to create various experiences for their students. Generally, a considerable block of time is set aside each day for reading workshop. During that time students typically engage in the following activities: * reading and responding to literature * having group minilessons on skills and strategies * participating in individual conferences with the teacher to review progress, receive individual instruction, and make plans for future activities * sharing reading responses with the group "

The practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) is based on the belief that motivation, interest, self-selection, modeling, and time spent reading contribute to student reading achievement. This article describes a study designed to ascertain the prevalence of SSR in classrooms in a particular geographic area and the degree to which the program's original goals are being met. Seventh-grade teachers were surveyed regarding participation in SSR, organization of the program, material selection, and methods of evaluation. Findings indicate that silent reading is popular in the classroom in part because of the opportunities for instructional decision making it provides teachers. However, the individual implementation of the program has resulted in many aspects of the actual practice of SSR deviating from the original model. Questions regarding the integrity of current practices as compared to the original model are discussed, and suggestions to teachers who plan to implement or revise SSR programs are offered.

"Into the Book is a reading comprehension resource for K-4 students and teachers. We focus on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. Try the online interactive activities, or click below to find out how to get our engaging 15-minute video programs."

This would be great for grades 6 and 7

Reading Strategies

Teaching current events via media

"6+1 Trait® Writing Lesson Plans"

Writing assessment: Developed in close collaboration with our member schools and Measurement, Inc., the WrAP stands apart from nearly every other available writing assessment. Unlike other instruments that provide only holistic scoring indices, the WrAP is scored analytically. Using a six-trait, six-point rubric, information is provided that can help target instruction in writing.

Mentor Text

Some great resources--including mentor texts--to use in the writing workshop

Great resource for finding and using authentic student writing in the classroom

Commentary Unit

"Inference: Reading Ideas as Well as Words Ideally, speakers mean what they say and say what they mean. Spoken communication is not that simple. Much of what we understand-whether when listening or reading-we understand indirectly, by inference. Listening involves a complex combination of hearing words, analyzing sentence structure, and attempting to find meaning within the context of the given situation."

"Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions Read with purpose and meaning Drawing conclusions refers to information that is implied or inferred. This means that the information is never clearly stated. "

"Newspapers & Journalistic Writing"

For commentary unit monologues

Commentary: "Matt Steven can't see the hoop. But he'll still take the last shot."