Silent Reading In Schools

School districts are constantly seeking various strategies that will improve student motivation to read and increase their reading comprehension level as well as increase the success level of the state assessments of academic readiness. Although the expectations from the teachers in elementary and secondary schools in the United States have been consistently, the instructional time to teach is declining as the students progress through elementary school to higher grade levels and accordingly, there are fewer instructional minutes available to spend on the task of learning to read. Trelease (2001) stated, “there have been no significant change in students’ reading scores between 1971 and 2000” despite numerous reform efforts, incentives and higher standards which have been set by the states’ and federal level. Over more than two decades computer-base reading programs have been considered an effective way of improving students’ reading …show more content…
The report explained that priority needed to be given to independent reading, for the more time students spent reading the greater their reading proficiency (Kirby 2003). Anderson et al. (1985) states “independent reading is more effective in developing reading ability than the skill and drill workbooks and practice sheets normally associated with a basal reading program” (75–76). Initially SSR termed for a school-wide daily reading time for students in which reading material was not monitored nor were students evaluated on their reading. SSR first was proposed over forty years ago by Lyman C. Hunt, Jr. of the University of Vermont in the 1960s (Trelease 2001). Manning-Dowd (1985) reviewed research on SSR and concluded that SSR has a positive effect on reading comprehension and reading attitudes at all grade