Sustained Silent Reading and Fluency

 Is sustained silent reading effective for kids, their reading fluency, and their grade levels?  

             In my opinion, sustained silent reading can be effective to improve fluency depending on the grade level and comfort level of the reader. For students in the primary grade level, I think SSR can be effective as practice when used alongside other programs, in which students read aloud and are timed (i.e. Read Naturally), but it is not necessarily effective alone as young students often are not decoding every word accurately and are not able to monitor their own fluency. They are also not necessarily mature enough to select material at their appropriate reading level that could help build their fluency. I think they do need to read silently as this is an important skill that they will need for their future academic career but as far as improving fluency, I am not convinced this is effective alone.

            For middle and high school students, I think SSR can be more effective at improving their fluency, again based on how advanced a reader they are. Often when students are supposed to be silent reading, they may be just staring at the page or depending on how low a reader they are they may not be able to decode all the words. I think silent reading gives students the opportunity to be able to choose reading material that interests them and improve their reading skills through the act of practice, but in my opinion it is hard to conclude if a correlation exists between SSR and increased reading fluency.

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