Strategic Reading Resource Center

District	DesMoines
Contact Email
Name of Strategy	Promote Reading: Sustained Silent Reading
Description	I have tried to have students fill out the "apply SQ3R" sheets on reading from articles that they had selected themselves. I was working with a group of 23 high school juniors, approxemately 80% of whom are special needs. I was disappointed by the number of sheets that were returned, as well as the quality of those sheets. It seemed that the materials the students brought were not necessarily something that would maintain their interests for more than a very short period of time. My "new" idea was to try to find something on the internet that would work to motivate them to read something from beginning to end. While it did take some doing, I found a site that had short stories about teenagers, written in first person, many years after the fact. These articles were about young men and their cars, and all the trouble they got into, driving them too fast on the streets.I had to edit the articles somewhat. Here's the site: http://www.gassermadness.com/streetstories.htm
Rank Strategy	Very Useful and Effective
Reflection	I finally hit on something that really seemed to work well with my group. 100% of the SQ3R's were returned. An overwhelming majority demonstrated not only an interest in the articles, but surprising insight as well. I limited the reading time to 30 minutes, and you could almost hear a pin drop, amazing with this group. It seemed as though their understanding and retention was much higher than I would have expected. It does take a lot of time to find the right reading material for your particular group, but interesting material makes a huge difference. While this would have to be described as receational reading, I feel it is a very worthwhile undertaking.
Subjects	The educator applied this strategy to the following subject areas:
Grade Level	The educator applied this strategy to the following grade levels: Grade 11
Rank Readers	Average and Below Grade Level