Spark Your Spontaneity
What's happening during silent reading time?
Teachers are the overseers of their students. As the overseers, teacher have a bird's-eye view of what exactly is going on in the classroom.
Some schools are required to have independent reading time. If this describes your school, perhaps your reading time is called Silent Sustained Reading (SSR), Guided Reading, Accelerated Reading (AR), 100 Book Challenge, etc. Are students reading during independent reading time or are they pretending to read, socializing, and enjoying their middle schools days being off-task?
Ask the overseers. They know the truth. Of course, not every student reads when they are told to do so.
Students vocalize their wants and needs through their actions. I've witnessed several middle school classrooms where 30-60 minutes have been wasted because reading time is not reading time. Perhaps 30-60 minutes is a long time for some students to solely read their independent reading book.
Spark your spontaneity! Give students motivation and in the process, learn about their likes or dislikes. In an ideal classroom, students can have the same timeframe to use their skills and show how they can apply it to their goals. If the overseer notices some students need practice with grammar, sentence structure, organization, speech, or any other practice, students should spend time developing those skills. If your students wants to read book for 15 minutes instead of 30 mins and work on grammar for the remaining time, they should be able to do so. If your students prefer to read a magazine or comic because he/she is "not in the mood" to read their daily book for 45 minutes, why not? Students will be motivated to read and truly enjoy the beauty of English Language Arts due to “classic choice” and a positive classroom culture.
Switch it up every once in a while and see where it leads your students and classroom environment. Allow your students to express their ideas and areas they want to see personal academic improvement.
Spark your spontaneity before the sparks only spark by force!