Thursday, September 17, 2009

A bright spot in my day

As you probably know, SSR has been a focus of ours over the past couple of years. The SSR program got off to a great start this year! We did staff development before school started so everyone was ready to go on Day 1. The allotted SSR time is longer this year--closer to 20 minutes everyday--and some teachers are beginning to work in some extension activities: discussion, booktalks, etc.

But so far the most gratifying comment has come from a science teacher, and it was about HIS reading during SSR time. He told me that over the summer he managed to read only one book, but within the first few weeks of school he'd already finished a book. The difference, he said, was SSR. "I read my book during SSR, then I'm so interested in it that I take it home and read more in the evenings," he told me.

It made my day to hear this, and I hope SSR is having the same effect on students--increasing both the amount of time they spend reading and their reading enjoyment.