Blog #4

The first strategy listed in Reading Reminders makes a lot of sense to me but there can be potential problems to it. I saw SSR at work in the classroom that I observed for my field experience last semester. Every single day they had a program that they implemented where each student would read a book for 15 minutes. Most of the students seem to have a good attitude about this except for one or two that had a big problem with sitting still. This is where this program can be a problem. What about the kids with special needs who can't stand silence for more than a minute? How does one regulate their behavior during this time? The teacher that I was observing sure didn't seem to know how to deal with it. Another problem I saw with the way that the teacher ran this reading program, is that she didn't follow through with the kids after they were done reading. What if some of the kids were just sitting there daydreaming? Many of those kids were... Then it'll just be a wasted 15 minutes. If one is going to do SSR they have to make sure to create time to actually talk about what all of the students were reading otherwise the program is virtually worthless. The book suggested that there be a discussion afterwards but that might be easier said than done. Overall, I think it is a really good idea as long as it is done correctly.