Describes the author's voluntary reading program in her second-grade classroom. Describes how her basic Drop Everything and Read program needed to be added to and tinkered with to keep students interested and motivated: paired reading and discussion, visual reading records, and praise and occasional rewards. (SR)

Recommends Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) in grades 2-12 to improve students' reading and to teach them to love to read. Outlines rules for SSR, and offers notes to the teacher on its implementation. (SR)

Argues that the ascertainment of reading levels based on number of errors is problem-creating and stresses the importance of Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading" for slow readers. (RW)

Advocates a supplementary reading program for kindergartners and first graders that is a combination of modified sustained silent reading and Booktime, after an investigatory study showed that, although highly thought of, SSR was difficult in practice in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. (NKA)

Discusses what research says about silent and oral reading and the implications this has for reading instruction and instruction in the content areas. States that students are more attentive during silent reading and participate more in follow-up discussions of silent reading than in oral reading. (MG)

Discusses a study which compared informal reading inventory formats and which found that the most accurate measurement involved silent reading followed by oral reading. (MB)

Offers several strategies for increasing reading rate without descreasing comprehension. (FL)

Discusses books chosen by teachers to read themselves during sustained silent reading. Selections are arranged under the following headings: professional books, activities books, and children's literature. (FL)

Describes an attempt to introduce SSR in an English language school near Bombay, India. Shows that the fourth grade students involved in the program improved both their attitude and their reading achievement. (FL)

Presents descriptions of six class activities: students writing in journals at home; a vocabulary development activity; a two-week unit on publishing for first graders; word maps for adjectives and verbs; a program to sensitize fifth graders to the elderly; and sustained silent reading. (RS)

Six contributors suggest ways to (1) improve handwriting, (2) help children choose reading materials, (3) develop sight vocabulary, (4) use phonics with ESL learners, (5) use Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading, and (6) teach reading comprehension. (FL)

Compares the reading strategies used by a high achieving English as a second language (ESL) student and a low-achieving native speaker of English during silent reading and concludes that the major differences between the strategies of the two were in the contextual area of reading. (FL)