Removing the Silent From SSR: Voluntary Reading as Social Practice

Abstract

This article describes a small-scale project designed to help engage reluctant adolescent readers in voluntary reading practice during sustained silent reading (SSR). Three teachers worked with a secondary school reading expert to identify and agree on elements of effective instructional conversations and then implemented these “book talks” with a small group of students about once a week over a school year. The talks focused on making explicit the practice of choosing and engaging in text, especially the features that made text memorable or enjoyable. Sample transcripts and interviews with teacher and student participants show how the conversations went in practice. The associated challenges are identified. For the teacher, they included the tension between achieving instructional aims and relinquishing control of the conversations and keeping a conversation alive and dominating it. Positive outcomes for students include “getting into reading.” They reported enjoying the experience, and three-quarters of them made progress in terms of the goals of SSR. Teachers reported focusing more on the purpose of SSR rather than the form and found they came to know their readers.