An Opportunity to Make a Positive Impact on NCS Students' Future Academic and Personal Success

1. An Opportunity to Make a Positive Impact on NCS
Students’ Future Academic and Personal Success

2. Reading Is a Skill
Ask any sports coach, the orchestra teacher, the debate
club sponsor, the dance instructor, or a chess
champion.
What do I do to become good at something?

3. Answer:
 PRACTICE

4. Students Are Not Doing Enough
Reading in School
 Less than one third of 13 year-olds are daily readers, a 14
percent decline from 20 years earlier
 The percentage of 13 year-olds who read for fun on a daily
basis declined from 35% to 30%, and for 17 year-olds the
decline way from 33% to 22%.
 On average, Americans ages 15-24 years-old spend almost
two hours a day watching television, and only 7 minutes of
their leisure time on reading.
 Nearly 50 percent of all Americans ages15-24 years old do
NOT read books for pleasure
 Source: Gallagher, Kelly. Readicide: How Schools are Killing
Reading and What You Can Do About It. Portland, ME:
Stenhouse Publishers, 2009: p. 41

5. Why Is SSR a Valuable Investment?
1. Students who read the most for fun score highest on
standardized reading tests.
Source: Ibid., pg. 35

6. Why Is SSR a Valuable Investment?
2. Students who read the most for fun also had the
highest writing scores.
Source: Ibid., pg. 36

7.  Reading as a leisure activity is the best predictor of
comprehension, vocabulary, and reading speed.
Students who do the most recreational reading
become the best readers.
Source: “The Power of Reading: Enhanced SSR.”
www.miami.k12.ok.us/downloads/ssr.ppt.

8.  The only kind of reading that relates to higher
academic performance was novel reading, which
predicted better grades in English classes and higher
overall grade point averages.
 Source: “The Power of Reading: Enhanced SSR.”
www.miami.k12.ok.us/downloads/ssr.ppt

9.  How Does SSR Succeed Over Curriculum-Based
Instruction?

10. 1. It improves their vocabulary.
Students learn an average of 45 words with each novel
they read.
Source: “The Power of Reading: Enhanced SSR.”
www.miami.k12.ok.us/downloads/ssr.ppt

11.  Word Meaning is picked up 10 times faster by reading
than intensive vocabulary instruction.
 Source: “The Power of Reading: Enhanced SSR.”
www.miami.k12.ok.us/downloads/ssr.ppt

12.  It improves their writing. Both style and complexity of
sentence structure is increased as the amount of
reading increases.

13. NCS Lower School Library Research
y = 0.0197x + 50.123
R² = 0.0011
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Stanines
# of Books Checked Out
IN %
IN %
Linear (IN %)

14. NCS Lower School Library Research

15. How Does SSR Develop Reading
Strategies?
 As they read, students:
 Recall prior knowledge before, during, and after reading to glean
understanding
 Engage in questioning before, during, and after reading to clarify
understanding and focus their energy
 Activate sensory images to deepen their understanding of the text
 Determine what is important (main point vs. details)
 Infer to predict, draw conclusions, make judgments, and form
unique interpretations from the text
 Network new information with existing knowledge to create
original ideas and interpretations and make critical evaluations
 Overcome comprehension problems by consciously and
independently applying appropriate strategies

16. What are the Best SSR Conditions:
Research Findings
 Increasing the amount of reading material available to
students dramatically increased their reading
achievement. Choice is a motivator.
 Source : Garan, Elaine and Devoogd, Glenn. “The Benefits
of Silent Sustained Reading: Scientific Research and
Common sense Coverage.” Reading Teacher vol. 62
(December 2008): p. 336-344

17. Monitored vs. Unmonitored SSR
 Should Students be left to read unmonitored? If a
teacher permits students to read as she sits at her desk
and reads too, will children actually read?
 Some research supports that they will. Other research
suggests that many students won’t and that some
teacher monitoring may actually enhance students’
comprehension of and their appreciation for literature.
 Source: Ibid., p. 341

18. An Appealing Physical Environment
 Teens reported that “an appealing physical
environment (a comfortable and well lit space with
access to books and without access to television and
video games) motivated them to read.”
 Source: Krashen, Steve D. The Power of Reading: Insights
from Research. 2nd edition. Englewood, CO: Libraries
Unlimited, 2004, P. 63

19.  The presence of a peer reading community is an
extremely significant factor in encouraging and
maintaining the pleasure reading habit. Many teens
describe a cyclical relationship between friends and
pleasure reading. Teens read the same materials as
their friends are able to participate in conversations
about their reading and exchange books which further
strengthen friendships, and firmly establishes group
membership.
 Source: Howard, Vivian., “Most of the Books I’ve Read,
I’ve found on the Floor: Teens and Pleasure Reading.”
VOYA (October 2009): p. 301

20. How Can Faculty Members Support
SSR
Preempt Avoidance Behaviors
- Remind Students to bring a book to SSR
- Place a time limit on selecting a book
- Remind them to use the restroom before they come to SSR
- Tell them that the book that they choose will have to be the
one for the duration of SSR

21. Practice DEAR when the
opportunity arises
DEAR: Stands for Drop Everything and Read
When: extended homerooms, after a test, etc.

22. Sources:
 Gallagher, Kelly. Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do
About It. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2009: p. 41
 Garan, Elaine and Devoogd, Glenn. “The Benefits of Silent Sustained Reading: Scientific
Research and Common sense Coverage.” Reading Teacher vol. 62 (December 2008): p.
336-344
 Howard, Vivian., “Most of the Books I’ve Read, I’ve found on the Floor: Teens and
Pleasure Reading.” VOYA (October 2009): p. 301
 Krashen, Steve D. The Power of Reading: Insights from Research. 2nd edition. Englewood,
CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2004, P. 63
 Krashen, Steve D. Anything But Reading: Insights from Research. 2nd Edition. Westport,
CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004.
 “The Power of Reading: Enhanced SSR”. www.miami.k12.ok.us/downloads.ssr.ppt.
Accessed 1/6/2010.
 Rich, Motoko. “In Web Age, Library Job Gets Update.” New York Times (Feb. 16, 2009): p.
1-3
 Rich, Motoko. “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” New York Times (July 27,
2008): p. 1-6
 Rich, Motoko. “Students Get New Reading Assignment: Pick Book You Like.” New York
Times (August 29, 2009): p. 1-6