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Sustained Silent Reading

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Sustained Silent Reading
According to Ivey and Fisher (2005), the use of Sustained Silent Reading has long been a practice in the United States. Lyman Hunt proposed an independent reading program in the 1960s, and it was implemented in many public schools in the 1970s (Jensen and Jensen 2002). Originally it was called Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading (USSR). He noticed that that when students were allowed to choose reading materials, which interested them, the students increased reading levels (Hunt 1997). He asserted that “by emphasizing silent reading and tolerating mistakes” that may surface without direct supervision, students would evolve into better readers (Hunt 1997).
McCracken and McCracken researched independent reading in the 1970s. They preferred dropping the “U” from Hunt’s USSR in Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading. Instead, they chose Sustained Silent Reading. The reason for changing the acronym from USSR to SSR was because of the possible connection to the political unrest of the time between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic. There are various independent reading programs that have been created so that students could read silently, choose their own books, and do it quietly (Gardiner 2001). Many names and acronyms have been associated with independent or free voluntary reading. These include Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), Sustained Quiet Uninterrupted Independent Reading Time (SQUIRT), Free Voluntary Reading (FVR),

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