The Secret of Silent Reading

If I could climb into a child's mind and listen to them read, I do believe I could possibly solve their reading difficulties. The best we can do is interview our students about their thinking. I had an epiphany about three years ago: good readers read with expression in their minds.

Think about it: As a reader do you read text with a slow, dragging beat? I know that when I read in my mind I read with expression. I read the sounds of the text in the same way I hear the sounds of music. Each character has a distinct voice. The narrative has a particular sound. I read inside my mind like a drama queen.

One day I was listening to a student read out loud. Slow. Choppy. Boring. I asked the student, "When you read silent in your mind do you read the same way you read out loud?" The answer: yes. Teaching requires a certain amount of experimentation. I said, "Listen to how I read this paragraph out loud." After I completed the reading, I asked the student to mimic me by reading the paragraph out loud with expression -like a drama queen (or king). The difference was amazing. I then asked the student to read the paragraph in the same way silently.

Unfortunately, I can't read my student's minds. I can't hear if they are really applying expressive reading to their silent reading, but after trying this with several students, and expressing to them that I would like them to practice reading with expression in their minds, I received positive reports and noticed a distinct difference in their comprehension of text.

I've continued my little experiment over the past two years. Now I teach mini lessons on expressive reading. We begin practicing out loud and then change over to silent mode. I impress upon my students that each character should have different voice and that the narrative should flow like a song in their head. I model, model, model. I might not be able to climb into their minds, but I do believe I've hit upon something important. Struggling readers can improve comprehension when they improve silent fluency. Fluency is more than rate -it's expression, inflection, character voices, rhythm, beat, music. Silent fluency is the first step in taking student's comprehension to the next level. Once they become fluent in their minds, they can concentrate on the thinking that occurs during reading.

There is research about oral fluency. It is said that student's comprehension improves as their oral fluency improves. How many teachers have heard students with beautiful oral fluency that can't comprehend a text to save their life? I believe the missing piece is transferring oral fluency to silent fluency. Teach your kids to become drama queens and kings -in the silence of their minds.

Teacher 2 Teacher MEGA CONTEST!

I confess that I'm just a little bit excited about the contest put together on the Teacher 2 Teacher blog. Why? Well...I spent hours upon hours putting it together! Thirty-three fantastic teacher-sellers from Teachers Pay Teachers donated some of their best classroom friendly products for the contest. There are 3 entry categories: K-2, 3-6, and Middle School / High School (MS/HS is divided into five subject areas: English, math, science, social studies / history, and fine arts). Pop on over and enter for your chance to win!

TEACHER 2 TEACHER MEGA CONTEST

Super Cool Sites for Teachers

I've ran across a number of super cool websites lately that have lots of potential for the classroom. Let your imagination soar with the possibilities. This is my top ten list of super cool sites for teachers:

1
Linoit Virtual Sticky Notes Bulletin Board
Create a free virtual canvas of sticky notes. Ask a question. Allow students to answer on a sticky. Instead of creating an anchor chart together using chart paper, create a virtual anchor chart! Brainstorm ideas, concepts, questions, and more.

2
Quizlet Flashcards & Flashcards Creator

This super cool site allows teachers to create virtual flashcards and quizzes for languages, math, vocabulary and more. 

3

Sqworl Visual Bookmarks

Do you want to give your students a limited selection of websites to explore? Set up a free sqworl account and create a visual bookmark page. 

4

Tools for Educators

This site is definitely worth checking out. Create worksheets, word searches, dice, gameboards, crossword puzzles, bingo games, mazes, dominoes, certificates, and more!

5

Storybird

Create virtual short, art inspired stories on this site. This site is a lot of fun, and perfect for writing classes.

6

Wiggio

Wiggio is not only free, but an awesome way to communicate with parents and students. You can even use it to set up groups for projects and book clubs. This site provides comments, events, files, meetings, messages, to do lists, and polls.

7

Popplet

Popplet is crazy cool! You can (or your students) create graphic organizers and galleries of information. Students can collaborate together or work alone. You can create popplets for presentations and more!

8

Win Calendar
This site allows you to customize calendars. It's a great way to keep track of school events, print calendars for students, and more!

9

Teachers Pay Teachers

This site is packed with thousands of free and low cost classroom resources created by thousands of classroom teachers. It's an open marketplace for teachers to buy and sell classroom materials, units, lesson plans, worksheets, PowerPoints, and more. 

10

Google Docs

Google Docs provides free templates for documents, spreadsheets, forms, and more. Utilize Google Docs as a way for students to complete assignments, fill out surveys, add information to forms, and spreadsheets, etc.