DEARtime (Drop Everything and Read)

http://www.whydev.org/missioncreep-4-arseholes-perceptions-and-books/

This program is being implemented in Pines City National High school to improve the reading comprehension of students and to instill the love for reading. It gives students time to read what they want to read, share what they have read, and receive the support they need for further reading explorations and reflections. Daily reading sessions last for 10 minutes. They will have a conference with their English teachers as soon as they had finished reading the book, to share what they have understood. A daily DEARtime project provides students with much more than a just-sit-there-and-read experience since, during their English subject the teacher is able to evaluate the students’ progress in reading and comprehension. It gives the English teacher a structured time to touch base with each student over a period of time, assess improvement, and target instruction. To measure students’ oral reading speed and accuracy, teachers will do the procedure that uses regular classroom texts to determine the number of words that students can read correctly in one minute. To obtain a words-correct-per-minute (WCPM) score, students are assessed individually as they read aloud for one minute from an unpracticed passage of text. All teachers implement this program but only English teachers can measure students’ improvement.

The theory about literacy instruction and learning; they think that Students learn best in a community of learners, in a safe environment, and when they are being guided by teachers’ instructions and of course independent practice. This Theory about the daily reading program where students select their own readings and share their reactions to the texts with others in the learning community will help them to become competent in the future.

This program is being practiced in other western countries not only by students who are in the classroom but also by people who have little free time to relax. Pines City national High school used the diffusion approach in order to implement this program, teachers got the instructions/message from the person who initiated the DEARtime program, and explain it to their respective advisory classes which will be followed up and monitored by the English teachers and students will accept this program for their development.

On the other hand, some teachers think that this program is not useful for students; they say that 10 minutes will not be enough for students to develop their reading habit and because of that students’ improvement will take some time.