Self-Selected Reading the 4-Blocks Way

During SSR, I read a book or books aloud to the class. This is a time to enjoy listening to different types of genres/types of books and hear fluent reading. Sometimes the books go along with our unit and other times I do a short "book talk" to promote new books in our class library. After the read-aloud, the students get to read in books on their own level. We keep about five books in our book boxes.

I suggest that the kids have at least 2-3 books that they can actually read out of. The other selections can be on topics they like or that have caught their eye. I usually put out seasonal the theme related books for the kids to read and look through during this time.

As the kids read silently, I call up students one at a time to conference with. We work on comprehension, word recognition and do quick assessments during this time.

After the time is up, we share something about one of our books with our groups, a few students share their book with the class, or I call on students to answer quick questions about the book they have been reading. We share what we like about the book, where we got the book, and sometimes read a page or show our favorite illustration.

since 7/12/06