Reading a waste of time during lesson

[chillx]

My son is 13yrs old and reads regularly at home. During their English lesson the pupils sit in silence for 40 minutes in silence for 'reading for pleasure'. I personally think this is a waste of the pupils and teachers time together. I'd rather my son worked on his spellings or actually learnt something from his teacher. Whilst I understand that not every child wants reads in their own time I know plenty that do. It could be set as homework. Am I being unreasonable to think their time together could/should be better spent?

My pupils read for an hour a fortnight. If their parents could be trusted (in general) to get them to do this I wouldn't have to.

Your DS needs to do as he is asked.

If the reading was organised a book club, and I don't mean Literature circles, it might be better. The teacher on their computer is an outrage, they should be reading.

The teacher on their computer is an outrage, they should be reading.

The teacher is running the lesson. What else they are able to do during this time is up to them.

In our school they do have lessons sometimes where they are expected to sit and read. Usually a whole class comes to the library at once. They will be doing something on the computer (we don't have enough for a whole class so they do half and half), and the other half of the lesson they sit and do silent reading.
Apart from the documented evidence of the benefits of reading I have noticed how much calmer they all are as they leave the library, having sat quietly without a screen in front of them for 25 minutes or so. So it's good for teachers' nerves as well :)
www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/sep/16/reading-improves-childrens-brains

The teacher is running the lesson. What else they are able to do during this time is up to them.

They should be modelling the behaviour, unless they seeing individual students about their work.

I'm with echt on this.

I must add that my son has ADHD so sitting still and in silence is almost impossible for him but he does his best to try and curb his behaviour

Drip-feed. Well, you did also say that he 'loves reading'. How does that work if it's 'almost impossible' for him to sit still? When I was at school, we would have 15 minutes silent reading at the start of every English lesson. This added up to around 40 minutes per week, so would have been around the same. It's very, very valuable and as others have said, many don't get the chance to practise at home.

If your son can't cope with 40 minutes of reading, how will he take a 3 hour A-level or university exam? I think I would leave the decision of how to plan the lesson and its usefulness to the trained and qualified teacher, rather than a 13 year boy and his mum.

my son is 13yrs old and reads regularly at home your son is not the only pupil in the class. Just because your DC reads at home doesn't mean others do

The teacher on their computer is an outrage, they should be reading

Maybe they're marking, planning lessons or replying to parent emails complaining that their lesson plans aren't good enough. Doubt the teacher is watching youtube vids or ebaying.

When i was at school we had 15 minutes reading after morning registration every day. The school was in a deprived area and they realised many children weren't reading at home so it was built in every day.

Meamt to add that the teachers would also read but if someone raised their hand theyd come and explain a word.or phrase that they didnt understand

Kids without books are sent to get one from the library. Simple. Ours get pulled from class to do extra reading. A school nearby has a 15 minute slot daily for DEAR. I'm all for it. There's silent reading once a week in form time. I'm going to take my book in for this.

echt: I'm sorry but that is bollocks. Modelling good behaviour is a process over time. It doesn't mean you copy the kids' actions. At times I do read with them. At times I need to prioritise something else. I am the adult, I can make that decision, thanks.

Simple unless there are fifteen of them, all haring unsupervised towards the library like bilbo baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, Fili and Kili, Balin and Dwalin, Oin and Gloin, Dori, Nori and Ori, Bifur Bofur and Bombur and fucking gandalf too, off for an adventure to Middle Earth!

Maybe they're marking, planning lessons or replying to parent emails complaining that their lesson plans aren't good enough. Doubt the teacher is watching youtube vids or ebaying

They shouldn't be doing admin in a lesson.

echt: I'm sorry but that is bollocks. Modelling good behaviour is a process over time. It doesn't mean you copy the kids' actions

The teacher is not copying the pupil, the pupil is copying the teacher. If it's not to do with that lesson, those pupils, the teacher shouldn't be doing it.

The only exception I can think of is if pupils are doing an exam-style piece under their own steam.

echt:

At some point when I gave time I will write a list of the tasks I may need to complete during a lesson. Just because YOU believe I shouldn't, doesn't make those tasks less important.

Have you ever been a teacher? Your pronouncements about my job have such a lovely confidence about them.

They shouldn't be doing admin in a lesson

That's utter crap. Is that just according to you? So if a teacher asks the pupils to, say, complete a piece of writing or work through some exercises in a book, the teacher should be sitting at the front doing that work too?? And should not be permitted to mark books or do other admin work that needs doing? No wonder so many are leaving the teaching profession if this is what some deluded parents think.

Maybe 40 mins is stretching it but I think 10-20 mins silent reading followed by discussing/writing about the text is an excellent idea. It also saves the teacher's voice for a while and stops the teacher from going hoarse or just pure mental from having to speak to a large audience all day long every single day. Teachers shouldn't be doing admin during a lesson?What a load of rubbish. Schools wouldn't run without teachers constantly multi tasking( except if lesson is being observed of course!)

allchattedout - I don't think I've been drip feeding by adding the fact my son has ADHD to a later post. I didn't want the post to be about that, I only mentioned it as it was a reason for him coming across as rude to his teacher. It is very difficult for him to concentrate in a classroom environment. It's actually painful for him to sit still and in silence. I think he does so well to not show it very often. He doesn't want people to know and he's made it very clear he doesn't want to be treated differently. He can read happily at home as he's more relaxed and doesn't have a friend or two distracting him etc.

OK, well a lot of lessons involve sitting down and concentrating for 40 minutes, so I can't see why reading would be different to, say, doing maths exercises. Anyway, the ADHD is beside the point. The fact that your son doesn't want to sit and read in class does not mean it's a waste of time. You mentioned spelling. In fact, the more he reads and the more challenging texts he reads, the better his spelling and writing skills will become. Much better to read words in their context and understand their meaning than spelling out individual words. And by secondary school (yr 9?), surely working on spelling is not something you do in English anyway? By that age, we were reading Romeo and Juliet and A View From the Bridge. Sometimes silently in class.

I find it ridiculous. I've been moaning about it today. My DC does this for a lesson every week. I'm always telling her not to read so much or she'll spoil her eyes. So why she needs to read in a lesson is beyond me.

So if a teacher asks the pupils to, say, complete a piece of writing or work through some exercises in a book, the teacher should be sitting at the front doing that work too?? No, they will have modelled the work before setting the task, or referred to previous modelling. Silent, personal reading is modelled differently.

If they're marking it should be to do with that class. Other work could be seeing individual pupils in that class about their work. They will know from previous work how a pupil is like to progress in the class work, so then is the time to do checks, support and follow up.

I am a parent and a teacher.

spoil her eyes

You're joking, right?

No, they will have modelled the work before setting the task, or referred to previous modelling. Silent, personal reading is modelled differently

What I am asking is what should the teacher be doing when the pupils are all working independently in silence (which they would be at age 13)? Completely idiotic to suggest that the teacher cannot be doing admin work while the class is reading/doing independent work and that you expect them to sit there reading a novel instead. You must spend all your evenings marking in that case. Maybe you're happy with that. I guess at least your pupils get to witness someone reading a book which is undoubtedly really helpful to them. And you get to catch up on your 50 shades during your numerous English lessons, so double-bonus.