The Effects of the Sustained Silent Reading on Senior High School Students’ Reading Comprehension

Wang Xiangqin

Abstract：The research talked about the question：What effect does SSR have on the senior high school students reading comprehension？The research chose the subjects in senior one from the Second Senior High School of Qinan County.The experimental class（EG） and the control class（CG） both had 40 students.The teacher would use the pretest and post-test to examine the changes of students reading comprehension.At last，the thesis used the SPSS 17.0 to analyze the data.By analyzing the data，the thesis got the following conclusion：SSR could improve students reading comprehension.The students in EG got a higher score in reading comprehension part of the post-test.

Key words：Sustained Silent Reading；Reading Comprehension

1 The definition of the Sustained Silent Reading

Gardiner （2005） wrote that the SSR meant that a reading approach which was if students read more and enjoy it more，they will become better readers.Students read quietly，freely and independently during class time and outside of class.

2 Characteristics of Successful Sustained Silent Reading Programs

Pilgreen （2000） found the common characteristics through the studies：access to books；appeal；a quiet environment；encouragement；staff training；non-accountability；non-evaluative follow-up activities to share their reading.

3 Research Procedures

3.1The implementing of the Sustained Silent Reading Program in the Experimental Class

The teacher makes some rules to carry out the SSR which are：Dont notice anything；Dont make a sound.

The students should know and complete a task before and after reading.

The students need to be silent to read for fifteen minutes.

The teacher should model the program by reading books.

3.2After Implementing the Sustained Silent Reading

The teacher should let students discuss and share the four kinds of questions.

Students must record the time，the title，author and pages of their reading materials.

The students must write the Sustained Silent Reading Reflection Log to reflect what they have read during the SSR.

Teachers should let students know how to get a grade for the SSR program.According to Gardiner （2005），I settled on 50 points on carrying out the SSR.I divided 50 points into two sections.The first section was 30 points.The students should finish 10 subjective questions and every question is 3 points.The second part was 20 points.Students could get 20 points by filling in the reading chart；if students didnt read，teachers could subtract 10 points each time.

4 Results of Reading Comprehensions Pretest and Post-test in the Control and Experimental Class

The paper conducted the research to collect the data from the pre- and post-survey of the EC.The result can be shown in the Table 4.1 and Table 4.2.

From the Table 4.1，the paper could conclude that the mean of CC was 28.8250 and EC was 28.7750.The significance of the reading comprehension scores was .922，which was above .05.The results told us that the students in the two classes had the same level of reading comprehension before the experiment.After using the SSR for eight weeks，the paper analyzed the results in the Table 4.2.

From the Table 4.2，the paper could conclude that the mean of CC was 29.8500 and EC was 31.2000.The significance of the reading comprehension scores is .048，which was below .05.The results told us that the students had improved the scores on the reading comprehension after the experiment.

References

[1]Gardiner，S.（2005）.Building student literacy through sustained silent reading[M].Alexandria，VA：Association for Curriculum and Supervision.

[2]Pilgreen.J.（2000）.The SSR Handbook[M].Portsmouth，NH：Heinemann.