Silent Reading Comprehension



Sustained silent reading (SSR) is a form of school-based recreational reading, or free voluntary reading, where students read silently in a designated time period every day in school.An underlying assumption of SSR is that students learn to read by reading constantly. Successful models of SSR typically allow students to select their own books and require neither testing for comprehension nor. Pace the Reading. Although grade level and reading experience has a lot to do with how much time. Silent Reading Comprehension. Example One The assessment was found on TeachersPayTeachers.com, the website is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original educational materials. This assessment focuses on students in kindergarten and 1st-grade, they are measured on their silent reading comprehension in identifying characters. Another way to scaffold silent reading for comprehension is to teach six signals that indicate a need for comprehension repair. These signals function as prompts for struggling readers to help them internalize and routinize comprehension monitoring.

There has been much debate surrounding whether oral or silent reading is more beneficial in developing the skills and fluency of struggling readers. Here, the educators at Lexplore explain the differences between oral and silent reading techniques, what studies show regarding the benefits of each type of exercise and how a balance of both oral and silent reading may be optimal.

What are Oral Reading and Silent Reading Techniques?

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Oral reading is the act of reading printed or written text aloud, and is often used by teachers to track and measure a student’s overall reading ability including reading accuracy, pronunciation, fluency, comprehension and understanding of punctuation. Oral reading can allow a teacher to directly observe a child’s reading skills, including decoding, fluency, and prosody (tone and expression). Many teachers frequently employ silent reading to build fluency. Sustained silent reading is the practice of having students read silently for a specified period of time each day. Some schools include adults in this practice, which may be known as DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time.

What Does the Literature Say About Oral vs. Silent Reading?

Silent Reading Comprehension

Educators and researchers have debated for decades about whether oral reading or silent reading is more beneficial to struggling readers. Some researchers do not favor silent reading, despite its popularity in the classroom, on the grounds that there is not enough evidence that silent reading exercises lead to improved reading achievement. However, other researchers in defense of silent reading exercises argue that there are ways to successfully implement silent reading in theclassroom to boost students’ interest in reading and improve their fluency and motivation. Support for this practice can be found in the book Revisiting Silent Reading by Elfrieda H. Hiebert and D. Ray Reutzel. Proponents of oral reading claim the practice is a sure way to improve students’ fluency, pronunciation skills and overall accuracy, while opponents argue that oral reading is not as necessary a skill as silent reading, particularly for older children.

Is A Combination of Oral and Silent Reading Practices Optimal?

A highly regarded study conducted at Arkansas State University, Comprehension and Rate: Oral vs. Silent Reading For Low Achievers, focused on the techniques of oral reading and silent reading for students who struggled with reading comprehension. The study found that, despite many professionals in the field almost exclusively favoring silent reading over oral reading, a combination of both oral and silent reading, based on the individual needs of the students, is potentially the best way to increase fluency and comprehension of struggling students. In addition, the research concluded that purposeful, intentional oral reading should be given more emphasis in elementary classrooms than it has been in the past. Ultimately this study, along with additional resources focusing on the benefits of oral and silent reading, points to the a combination of oral and silent reading as optimal. Silent reading can increase a student’s understanding of a text and motivation to read, while oral reading allows educators to track the fluency, pronunciation, accuracy and overall progress of their struggling readers.

Speak to a Lexplore Professional About Best Practices for Helping Your Struggling Readers

According to many literacy researchers and professionals, there are benefits to implementing both oral reading and silent reading exercises in your classroom to increase the proficiency of your struggling readers. The educators at Lexplore are passionate about helping struggling readers by ensuring you have the tools you need to understand each student’s reading needs. Lexplore’s state-of-the-art, eye-tracking and AI software can analyze a student’s reading level in just a few minutes and then provide you with recommendations for instruction. For more information contact the educators at Lexplore today.

Silent Reading Comprehension

Silent Reading Comprehension

The Important Evolution of Oral to Silent Reading

Category: Learning to Read

Learning to read is one of the important early aspects of schooling. Learning to read also makes the difference between literacy and illiteracy.
Learning to read fluently is the result of the satisfactory evolution from oral reading to silent reading, a practice which is almost virtually ignored after the third grade.
Knowing the differences between oral and silent reading is vital to an individual's educational lifetime:

  1. Oral reading provides the thought from the printed page, while silent readers absorb the thought from the text.
  2. Oral reading actually follows an instant recognition of a thought, while silent readers immediately get the thought.
  3. Oral reading is a complex process, involving mental interpretations based on eye sweeps of the text accompanied by vocalization, while silent readers simply interpret the material through a series of eye sweeps (without delays resulting from vocalization).
  4. With oral readers, the pronunciation of the words is most important; with silent readers, the meanings of the words are most important.
  5. Vocalization reduces (and limits) the speed of oral readers, a problem that doesn't affect silent readers.
  6. By now, it should be evident that reading rates of silent readers are likely to be considerably faster and varied (according to individual differences), while reading rates of oral readers are likely to be considerably slower, with little variation.

Some of the adverse problems experienced by oral readers include vocalization (reading aloud or with lip movements); excessive eye fixations (reading one word at a glance instead of whole phrases or 'thought units'); distortion of the author's intent (usually a matter of reading so slowly that inattention distracts the reader from the text); and failure to grasp meanings of unfamiliar words (rather than achieving an understanding of an entire thought unit).
Benefits of effective silent reading include steady improvement of educational efficiency; exploration of a wide variety of reading material; learning how to read with purpose; and confidence in dealing with all forms of reading, whether for school, business or leisure.
The successful evolution of oral reading to silent reading includes learning to give proper attention to different kinds of reading material; determining the most important ideas of reading text; grasping main ideas (thought units) with minimum eye fixations; tying together closely related ideas in the text; achieving comprehension of the text without difficult; and subconsciously determining what might be best for recollection later.
In other words, oral reading is vital in the beginning, while silent reading is beneficial for a lifetime.

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