Reading Penny Kittle’s book Write Beside Them motivated me to try Silent Sustained Reading in my high school classes. I love reading and want my students to enjoy reading as well.  More and more research shows that there are many benefits from reading on a regular basis, which include better reading skills, better writing skills, enhanced vocabulary, and so much more.

I truly appreciate the efforts of the librarians at Joliet West High School, especially including Amy Lingafelter and Amy Walsh for preparing the library and book talks as well as showing students how to find books in their interest and where to locate them in the library.  I’m extremely proud of all of my students for listening carefully to all the book talks and taking their time in the library seriously while searching for a book of their choice.

Today was our first Silent Sustained Reading day.  In all my classes, the first 10 minutes of class were silent reading and then a few minutes of writing.  I was very excited to see that my students brought their books and truly took the time to enjoy reading in the classroom. I want to set an example so I also brought a book and read with the students during this time.  I think that as a teacher, I need to Practice What I Preach with my students to show them that I truly do believe in the learning activity and want to continue promoting positive classroom behavior and habits.

It’s going to be a great year!  I love seeing so many students reading and as I scan the room, I see so many different types of books.  Students are reading and they had a choice in what they read. I can’t wait for our own book talks once the students start finishing their books and want to share their book choices with their classmates.

Thank you Penny Kittle for the genius idea, proving that silent sustained reading can work at the high school level as well.  I’m excited to see more and more students fall back in love with reading and learning more vocabulary as well as being exposed to a variety of writing styles.  They will turn into better writers as they become better readers.

Here are some of the photos I took of our first day in Silent Sustained Reading.