Independent Reading/SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) for Purcell
All students are required to read a MINIMUM of 800 pages a trimester. All IVCMS students are expected to read a MINIMUM of 20 minutes a day. (Minimum 20 pages a day= minimum 100 pages a week=minimum 600 pages in six weeks very easily.) How each teacher records this varies. Go through this document carefully to make sure you understand my requirements for reading.
* All reading must be books, not comic books, graphic novels, or magazines.
* You may read any type of book you’d like. Try to choose something at about your grade level of reading, not too easy or difficult.
For each quarter, you must turn in AT LEAST 400 pages of completed book or books before the end of the deficiency period. You may choose one 400 page book, several shorter books, or a longer book. If you choose a longer book, one that may get your reading done for the whole quarter, you still MUST turn it in by the deficiency. If you know you will have trouble with a longer book, don’t do it. Choose books YOU like and feel comfortable for you. You should be turning in a book every two/three weeks.
You will get a grade for the first half of the reading and the second, which will add up to about 20% of your grade.
A week before the end of the quarter is the LAST day to turn in the rest of the minimum 800 pages due. NO ONE should wait until the last day to turn in anything.
Books need to be turned in with chapter summary sheets (typed or handwritten is fine) as SOON AS YOU FINISH, preferably every two/three weeks. You must bring the book (or reader) and the summary sheets to do this. I will talk to you for a few minutes about the book. This is very easy if you read it. You may do this during appropriate class times, before school, after school, lunch, break, etc. This is the easiest way to do reading.
DO NOT wait until the last days to turn in reading. I expect everyone to have turned in a book the first three weeks. Students who wait until the last week to turn it in will get progressively less than 100% (60% last day, 70% two days before, 80% three days before, 90% four days before.)
The chapter summary sheets or book review sheets are designed to be simple, but make sure you do them correctly. They are also designed to practice writing a concise summary for each chapter so they are practicing their writing skills, also.
I have read the requirements for independent reading in Ms Purcell’s class and understand them. I will make sure to do the reading as required, or support my child in doing this.
_________________________ ____________________________
print student name student signature
_________________________ ________________
parent signature date
The chapter summary sheets or book review sheets are designed to be simple, but make sure you do them correctly. They are also designed to practice writing a concise summary for each chapter so they are practicing their writing skills, also. They do not need to be neat or perfect--just done correctly. They may be typed or handwritten, whichever is easiest. I will have examples of what they need, but they should do them on their own.
Requirements for reading:
Book name, author, number of pages, publisher, date published.
For EACH chapter, a one to three sentence summary. No more than that, please!
When the book is done, do a three to five sentence summary of the whole book, and a three to five sentence review of the book. ( This was a great book because . . . , the book was OK in some ways, but not in others , , , , I really didn't like this book because . . . )
Parent Help With Reading
If you're having any issues with reading with your child, there are many ways you can help. Figure out what is the best way for them to read. Are they better off reading 20-30 minutes daily, or putting in a couple of hours over the weekend?
You do not need to read the book to check on your child or ask them questions. (Though it would be great if you read the same book and discussed it!) You can set up a time after they read to discuss this with them. Ask them general questions about the book that can apply to anything:
--What is going on right now?
--Who are the main characters? how do you feel about them? Why?
--Do they seem realistic to you? Can you think of someone you know they are like?
--What is the setting? Where would you make a movie of it? What would be there? (Time as well as place.)
--What do you think the author is good at doing and not so good? (Realistic characters, exciting plot, creating good images in your head, beautiful language, interesting ideas, etc.)
--What do you think is going to happen next? What will this character do?
--How would you have written the story?
All of the follow up of those questions to encourage better thinking is, explain, what examples show this, what would it look like?
Your conversation with them works to not only check on their reading, but to help teach them verbalize their understanding of the book in a way that is understandable to prepare for writing down a summary. If you are noticing a lack of being able to explain in a way that makes sense, they are either not understanding what they are reading, or need to work on verbalizing it. Keep questioning until what they say makes sense. When they write down the summary, see if that makes sense and matches what they told you.
All of this helps strengthen comprehension because they know they will be held accountable and starts to work on higher level thinking skills where they have to give an opinion based on facts and not just summarize.