Daily Reading Assignment
Each day, every student is expected to SQUIRT a minimum of 50-60 minutes. SQUIRT means Sustained, Quiet, Uninterrupted Independent Reading Time. Researchers say that kids in 5th grade need to read, uninterrupted for at least 50-60 minutes per day in order to maintain their current reading level, and/or continue to grow. During the school day, there are simply not enough hours to allow students to read for this amount of time, so every day, kids should plan to have reading homework. Our guided reading time will include time to get some of this reading done, but there will also be other requirements, so the extra reading time should occur at home each night.
The students will set goals to read so many minutes, or so many books each quarter. They will also have at least one book talk assignment each nine week period. In addition, the students will do weekly journal response entries in their reading response journals. All of these requirements equate to lots and lots of reading!
Why do we do all of this reading? Because reading research is clear...the more you read, the more fluent you become, and the easier it gets to apply reading comprehension strategies, and the smarter you become. After all, that's why we are here...to get smarter!
The students will set goals to read so many minutes, or so many books each quarter. They will also have at least one book talk assignment each nine week period. In addition, the students will do weekly journal response entries in their reading response journals. All of these requirements equate to lots and lots of reading!
Why do we do all of this reading? Because reading research is clear...the more you read, the more fluent you become, and the easier it gets to apply reading comprehension strategies, and the smarter you become. After all, that's why we are here...to get smarter!