What is Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)?

At Jesse Bethel, during the 2004-2005 school year, an integral part of campus scholastics involved the 20-minute-per-day Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) period just after lunch on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. SSR rotates through the six daily classes every three weeks.

To earn credit (applied to the course in which your student is enrolled with any given teacher) during SSR, a student had to do three things (not one less):

1) be on time.

2) have brought to class with him/her a book that he/she is reading for pleasure and, preferably, plans to use as one of his/her book report requirements for his English class. At Jesse Bethel High School all English classes have a minimum requirement of 6 book reports each school year.

3) read for the duration of SSR

If the student is on time AND is prepared with a book in hand AND READs through the entire SSR session, SSR credit is given and added to the regular course's daily points. Each teacher must include SSR credit in the overall course grade at the end of each quarter.

SSR is a mandatory class. A student who attends a morning class but is not present during SSR, he/she will be marked "late" unless prior notification was given by a parent note or off-campus pass that informs of a planned departure from campus.

During SSR weeks, students earn additional (potential of 100 @ 25 pts per day) by completing annotated reading log entries during the last 5 minutes of the SSR session. These daily entries are like diary entries and must be made immediately after a reading session to be valid.

Each day, I also read and write entries in my own annotated reading log. My log entries are often shared with students to model how accomplished readers respond to literature, how to summarize, and make connections to reading. More importantly, when adults share their reading experiences , many students are inspired to read and often the same book. Literacy experts advise teachers to read aloud in class daily to model the characteristics of fluent reading.

To help students meet SSR requirements and discover the joys of armchair travel through books, there is an extensive in-class library with a formal check-in/out proceedure. In the past 3 school years, there have been over 600 book transactions from my personal in-class library comprising over nearly over 400 titles of books at every reading level in a wide variety of genres, including self-help and advice books. The success of the library is due to the inclusion of the latest bestsellers and award winning books of interest to teens AND teacher familiarity with book inventory so that good recommendation can be made for individual students.

This year (2004-05), JBHS will introduce a new, mandatory Accelerated Reading Program (ARP) in conjunction with SSR. Utilizing data on actual individual student reading levels to place students, students are required to reading books that are aimed to advance their reading skills. Students requiring intensive remedial reading work will find the (ARP) books in the IMC (library) and will learn more from their English teachers of the connect between reading improvement and grades.

Parents! Does your student say there's no homework from school? Ask what he/she is reading as an outside reading book for English class competencies and SSR reading.

Research supports SSR progams in schools as an excellent way to improve overall literacy when the SSR program is fully supported and properly implimented. Proper implimentation requires the presence of a lot of books and a reading mentor familiar with the inventory. That is why, each year, I spend a small fortune on my personal, in-class library. My past and current students have the privilage of access to that library and my reading recommendations.

More Links in Support of SSR Programs: