Sustained Silent Reading: On the Verge of Extinction?

At TWRCtank.com (“TWRC” rhymes with “work” and stands for think, wonder, reflect and connect), Julie Peterson has posted some excellent notes and reflections on Silent Reading which she gleaned from the International Reading Association’s 55th Annual Convention in Chicago.

She also goes a bit into the idea of stamina in reading, which I took a shot at a few weeks ago here.

Check out Julie's whole article; definitely worth a read! Also be sure to see some of her earlier posts for some real gems in the areas of reading and instruction. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Reading Comprehension and Mind Theory

Katharine Beals, PhD, author of Raising a Left-Brain Child in a Right-Brain World: Strategies for Helping Bright, Quirky, Socially Awkward Children to Thrive at Home and at School, posted a great write-up of a recent New York Times feature on Reading Comprehension and Theory of Mind.

The source article says that

Literature, like other fields including history and political science, has looked to the technology of brain imaging and the principles of evolution to provide empirical evidence for unprovable theories.

That's good news, since too often our grade level peers will argue that their subjects are more difficult to teach since they deal in hard, provable facts; literature, they argue, is fuzzy and subjective by nature and instruction and assessment of it is hit-and-miss at best. I tend to argue 1) that's not true, and 2) if it were, doesn't that make teaching literature that much more difficult?

If you, like me, are constantly trying to juggle the variables involved with reading comprehension, you might find that post (and the author's book) will challenge and broaden your thinking on the topic.