Disruptive Thinking

Chapter 13 of Disruptive Thinking is all about focused silent reading. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers discusses the idea of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert. Ten thousand hours adds up to approximately 10 years.

We know that students who read for fun is on the decline. As educators, we know that reading improves academic achievement, builds background knowledge and helps develop empathy and personal identity. All these things contribute to future employment and standard of living. If students are not practicing reading on a daily basis, how can they ever be an expert? Students in the 30th percentile are reading approximately 1.8 minutes a day, being exposed to only 106, 000 words in a year. Asking kids to read just an extra 10 minutes a day would expose them to 556% more words. To be a reader, you must read.

So what is focused silent reading?

After teaching & modeling reading strategies, students practice them while teachers observes. During independent practice, the teacher asks students 1) What is happening in the book? 2) Tell me about the person telling the story? 3) Are you enjoying the book? Why? Why not? Should you continue reading the book it you are not enjoying it? What have you learned so far about the character/event? Ask students to give an example of the application of the focus of the lessons. Finally, after reading, students write notes about what they read in their reader's/writer's notebook - this is focused silent reading.

Schools must provide silent reading time for students. Parents to need to ensure students are reading for a minimum of 20 minutes per day.

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