In short
- A session of 30 to 40 minutes has four parts: set up the story, read quietly, check understanding, and say what happens next.
- The National Reading Panel (2000) did not find evidence that unguided silent reading raises achievement, and it called the question unproven.
- Silent reading with light guidance did better in the studies that tested it, but those studies were not with EFL pupils.
- While pupils read, the teacher confers quietly with a few of them and keeps a short record.
A reading session looks simple. Pupils open a story and read. Yet the same half hour can be the most useful lesson of the week, or a quiet room where little reading happens. The difference lies in the structure around the reading. This article gives a plan for one session of 30 to 40 minutes, with the minutes marked. It reports what research found on silent reading time in class, including a long debate. It also covers mixed levels, early finishers, pupils who pretend to read, and the room itself.
What does a reading session lesson plan look like?
A reading session of 30 to 40 minutes has four parts. Open with five minutes that set up the story. Give about twenty minutes to quiet reading, with audio for pupils who need it. Check understanding for about eight minutes. Close with two minutes on what happens next. The table shows a 35-minute version.
| Minutes | Part | What pupils do | What the teacher does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 | Opening | Look at the title and picture. Meet three key words. Predict what will happen. | Sets up the story and gives one question to read for. |
| 5 to 25 | Quiet reading | Read the unit silently. Some follow the audio with headphones. | Confers quietly with four or five pupils. Notes who is stuck. |
| 25 to 33 | Check of understanding | Answer a few questions on the unit. Tell a partner one thing that happened. | Looks at the answers and clears up one point. |
| 33 to 35 | Closing | Hear what comes next and what to read at home. | Names the next unit and the day of the next session. |
The timings are an example, not a rule taken from a study. Shorten the reading for younger pupils and lengthen it for older ones, but keep it the longest part. The text for one session should be a unit that pupils can finish in the time. See how to split a story into units.
Does silent reading time in class work? What research found
This question has a long debate behind it. In 2000, the National Reading Panel in the United States reviewed studies of programs that encourage pupils to read on their own. The best known is sustained silent reading. The Panel described it as about 20 minutes a day of silent reading with no monitoring. Pupils usually chose their own material, and no discussion or written task followed.
The National Reading Panel (2000) found only 14 studies that fitted its criteria, and it judged many of them weak in design. It did not find evidence that encouraging independent silent reading improved reading achievement. It was careful about what that meant. 'It is not that studies have proven that this cannot work,' the report says, 'only that it is yet unproven.'
Garan and DeVoogd (2008) answered in a journal for teachers. They argued that the federal findings had caused confusion, and that data had been mixed with opinion. In their view, silent reading is supported by research once the two are separated. They also offered variations on 'pure' silent reading for teachers to use.
So the evidence is disputed, and the studies are few. The Panel searched for studies of English reading education with children from kindergarten to grade 12. The studies it summarises took place in ordinary school reading lessons. It does not describe any of them as a foreign language class.
What changed when teachers added guidance and follow-up
The Panel's own report contains a clue. It describes a year-long study with fourth graders that tested three versions of silent reading. The National Reading Panel (2000) reports that the pure version led to no greater reading growth than the control group. When silent reading was coupled with teacher conferences or peer discussion, slight improvement was evident.
Reutzel, Fawson and Smith (2008) took the idea further with third-grade pupils. They designed scaffolded silent reading and compared it with guided repeated oral reading, a practice the Panel had found effective. They found no significant differences between the two in fluency and comprehension growth, with one exception on a single passage. They also found that either approach used on its own tended toward tedium.
Reutzel and Juth (2014) describe how scaffolded silent reading runs. Each session starts with a short lesson of five to eight minutes. Pupils then read silently for 20 minutes, from books they can read accurately. Meanwhile the teacher holds conferences with four or five pupils. In a conference, the pupil reads aloud for a minute or two, tells the teacher about the book and sets a goal for finishing it.
Read this with care. It is one exploratory study in third-grade classrooms, not in EFL classes. It shows that silent reading with guidance did as well as a recommended practice. It does not show that the same would happen with your pupils.
What this means for EFL pupils
The studies above were about children in school reading lessons. Your pupils read in a foreign language. They know fewer words, so a text that is slightly too hard stops them sooner. In our view, that makes the level of the text and the support around it matter more, not less.
Day and Bamford (2002) set out ten principles for teaching extensive reading to language learners. Four of them shape this session plan. The words in bold are theirs. The comments are ours.
- The reading material is easy. Pupils can read for twenty minutes only if the text is within reach.
- Reading is individual and silent. Each pupil reads at their own pace.
- Teachers orient and guide their students. The opening and the conferences do this work.
- The teacher is a role model of a reader. Pupils should see that you know the story and enjoy it.
Audio can carry pupils who would otherwise stall. Chang and Millett (2015) worked with 64 EFL students in year 10 of secondary school. For 26 weeks, one group read graded readers silently and the other read them with audio, for 90 minutes a week. Both groups improved in reading rate and comprehension. The audio group improved substantially more, and the gains held three months later. See reading while listening for the wider evidence.
Macalister (2011) adds a warning about the check of understanding. He notes that most learners meet reading in class as a difficult text followed by comprehension questions. Critics say this does not teach learners how to read. Questions can be used well, he argues, when the teacher is clear about the goal of the lesson. In this plan the goal is reading with understanding, so the check stays short.
The opening and the closing
The opening has one job: to make the first page easy to start. Keep it to five minutes.
- Show the title and the picture, and ask what the story might be about.
- Teach three words that pupils need in order to follow the unit. Say them and point to them in the text.
- For a later unit, ask one pupil to retell the story so far in two sentences.
- Give one question to read for, such as 'Why does Sami hide the letter?'
The closing takes two minutes. Say which unit comes next and when the next session is. Set the reading for home. Then ask one question that the next unit will answer, so that pupils leave wanting to know.
What the teacher does while pupils read
Quiet reading time is not marking time. It is when you find out who is reading. Work through a short routine.
- Scan the room for the first two minutes. Check that every pupil has the right unit open and has started.
- Confer with four or five pupils. Sit beside each one for two or three minutes. Ask the pupil to read a few lines quietly, then to tell you what has happened so far.
- Note what you find. Write one line per pupil: too hard, about right or too easy.
- Rotate. Over four or five sessions, every pupil should have had a conference.
- Scan again before the check. See who has finished and who is far behind.
The conference follows the routine that Reutzel and Juth (2014) describe. The rotation here is adapted for a class that reads once or twice a week. Keep your voice low. If a pupil cannot tell you what happened, the text is probably too hard. See how to match students to the right graded readers.
Mixed levels, early finishers and pupils who pretend to read
The advice in this section comes from practice. None of the studies cited here tested it.
Mixed levels in one room
If the class reads one story together, support the weaker readers without slowing the stronger ones. Offer the audio with headphones. Seat weaker readers where you can reach them first. Accept that some pupils will finish the unit and others will finish most of it.
Pupils who finish early
Decide the rule before the session and say it in the opening. A pupil who finishes early can read the unit again with the audio. They can write three new words with the sentences they came from. Or they can read on in a story of their own choice. Do not reward speed with a game, because pupils will start to race.
Pupils who pretend to read
Pretending is usually a sign. Look for pages that turn too fast or not at all. Then check the cause. The text may be too hard, or the pupil may have missed the unit before. A conference finds this out in two minutes. Extensive Reading for Reluctant & Struggling Readers has more ways in.
The room
Seat pupils so that you can walk behind every chair. Put headphones and devices out before pupils arrive. Write the unit and the question to read for on the board. Agree one signal for 'I need help', such as a card turned over on the desk.
An example session for one class
The example below is invented. It shows how the parts fit together.
Classroom example (invented)
Grade 5, 24 pupils, reading at A2. The story has four units. Today is unit 2.
0 to 5 minutes. Amira retells unit 1 in two sentences. The teacher teaches 'borrow', 'promise' and 'ashamed', and asks: 'Why does Sami hide the letter?'
5 to 25 minutes. Pupils read unit 2. Six follow the audio with headphones. The teacher confers with five pupils. One cannot retell the first page, so she moves him to the audio.
25 to 33 minutes. Pupils answer five questions on the unit, then tell a partner why Sami hid the letter.
33 to 35 minutes. The teacher names unit 3 for Thursday and sets ten minutes of reading at home.
After the session. She records 23 pupils present and notes two pupils to confer with first on Thursday.
Keep the check short. How Many Questions Should a Reading Quiz Have? discusses the number. Record who was present as part of every session. How to Track Attendance in Reading Sessions shows what to do with the record.
How iRead handles this
In iRead, a unit is a reading milestone inside a story, and a session is a live class, online or in school. Many stories have narrated audio synced to the text, so a pupil can follow the words while listening. A quiz runs after every session, with questions generated from the story itself. Attendance is recorded automatically.
The core principle: Give most of the session to reading, and spend that time beside pupils, finding out who understands.
See it in iRead: A session is a live class, online or in school, and attendance is recorded automatically. Many stories have an audio read-along synced to the text.
See live reading sessionsKey takeaway
Set up the story, let pupils read, check briefly and say what comes next. Use the quiet minutes to confer with a few pupils, and match the text to the reader.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a reading session be?
Thirty to forty minutes suits most classes aged 8 to 16. Give about twenty minutes to quiet reading, five to the opening, eight to a check of understanding and two to the closing. These timings are a practical example, not a figure from a study.
Does silent reading time in class improve reading?
The evidence is disputed. The National Reading Panel (2000) did not find evidence that unguided silent reading improved achievement, and called the question unproven. Reutzel, Fawson and Smith (2008) found that silent reading with teacher guidance matched a recommended practice for third-grade pupils.
What should the teacher do during silent reading?
Confer quietly with four or five pupils in each session. Ask each one to read a few lines and to tell you what has happened so far. Note whether the text is too hard, about right or too easy. Every pupil should get a turn within four or five sessions.
How do you run a reading session with mixed levels?
Give weaker readers the audio with headphones and confer with them first. Let stronger readers finish and then read on in a story of their choice. Chang and Millett (2015) found that year-10 EFL students who read with audio improved more than those who read silently.
Sources
- National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. Reports of the Subgroups. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Washington, DC. Chapter 3: Fluency. www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf
- Garan, E. M., & DeVoogd, G. (2008). The benefits of sustained silent reading: Scientific research and common sense converge. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 336-344. doi.org/10.1598/RT.62.4.6
- Reutzel, D. R., Fawson, P. C., & Smith, J. A. (2008). Reconsidering silent sustained reading: An exploratory study of scaffolded silent reading. The Journal of Educational Research, 102(1), 37-50. doi.org/10.3200/JOER.102.1.37-50
- Reutzel, D. R., & Juth, S. (2014). Supporting the development of silent reading fluency: An evidence-based framework for the intermediate grades (3-6). International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 7(1), 27-46. eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1053594
- Day, R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten principles for teaching extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 14(2), 136-141. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66761
- Chang, A. C.-S., & Millett, S. (2015). Improving reading rates and comprehension through audio-assisted extensive reading for beginner learners. System, 52, 91-102. doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.05.003
- Macalister, J. (2011). Today's teaching, tomorrow's text: Exploring the teaching of reading. ELT Journal, 65(2), 161-169. doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccq023