An Attitude Survey of Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading

Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading, more usually referred to as U.S.S.R., was introduced by Lyman J. Hunt of the University of Vermont in the early sixties. Since that time reports indicate that many elementary and secondary schools in the United States and Canada have installed USSR into their timetables (Jones,1978; Mork,1972; Petre, 1971). There is an abundance of literature describing in general terms this program of silent reading of a self selected book (Allington,1975; Carner,1969; Ganz & Theofield, 1974; McCracken,1971; Noland,1976; Oliver,1970). More recently authors have suggested detailed methods of organizing a classroom in order to maintain a USSR program (Gambreil,1978; McCracken & McCracken,1978). The focus of these recent articles is on the specifics of application rather than on the generalities of organization. In addition, some em pirical research has been carried out on the effects of this kind of program (Evans and Towner,1975; Harvey, 1974; Mikulecky and Wolf,1977; Oliver,1976). There appears to be little doubt that both researchers and classroom teachers have more than just a passing interest in USSR