As teachers our goal is to create successful autonomous readers. So that they are able to acquire meaning from what they read as well as to improve their level of English.
From the power of reading according to Stephen Krashen, we learned that the demands have been increasing faster in the last ten years. As a result, the lowest quartile or 25% has a low level of literacy (second or fourth level graders).
According to Krashen the type of reading that really works is FVR (Free Voluntary Reading), which is the reading you do because you WANT to; and not because you HAVE to. With this kind of reading you will acquire unconsciously vocabulary, grammar, and more… SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) is a program that gives a period of time (10/15 minutes), in which students read(FRV) during class.
Some schools have implemented SSR under a variety of names, such as “Drop Everything and Read (DEAR)” or “Free Uninterrupted Reading (FUR)”.
So, the big question is Should students be rewarded for reading? NO. Why? Because if you give them a reward for reading, you are telling them that just reading isn’t good enough.
Accelerated Reader has three functions:
- Assessment of a student’s reading level
- Suggesting titles of books at that level
- Assessing whether a student has completed reading a book
To encourage students into reading ALL THEY NEED IS: ACCESS TO BOOKS
By: Patricio Santacruz