Silence is Golden: Cultivating Lifelong Readers at Explorer West

Ever notice that we live in a loud and busy world? EW performs a simple daily ritual to quiet things down and gain a little quality time with ourselves – but together!

For about 6 years EW has enjoyed a tradition of 15 minutes of quiet choice reading after lunch, 4-5 days each week. The rules are simple. Sit by yourself (all together in the gym) and read what you like, but not homework, magazines, or comics. Read a book that fuels your curiosity, imagination, or your personal interests. Reading preferences are as varied as the students themselves, from science fiction to mystery and horror, from fantasy to the science, and from teen romance to literary classics.

Here is a sampling of EW student comments about silent reading:

It gives us a chance to get lost in our own world before returning to school.

What I’m reading is like a little movie.

Everyone is together.

You can take a break from your life and get immersed in another person’s life.

You don’t have to read on a schedule.

I get to read horror books that are about vampires and demons.

It opens a world of imagination and opportunities.

Everyone is totally silent and engrossed in their books.

Everyone is connected in silence.

It feels like a library – silent for once.

People don’t yell!

Alone, with a book, you don’t have to care about anything else.

I can slip into my book and block everything out.

EW STUDENTS CAME UP WITH THESE METAPORS FOR SILENT READING AT EW, WHICH IS LIKE…

Silent dew on a mountainside.

The last snowflake of winter.

Going to the movies with your friends.

Living in a book.

The quiet lushness of a high mountain valley.

Eating a pickle. You can enjoy it right now, but not all day.

Research on Sustained Silent Reading has shown that it does not necessarily improve reading comprehension or guarantee higher test scores. That is not our goal with “SSR.” There is broad consensus amongst researchers and practitioners (like us!) that SSR succeeds in developing lifelong readers when choice, regularity, and staff involvement are its central features.

Our outdoor education program helps students learn to be self-sufficient and happy in the wilderness and many of our graduates will pursue the outdoors into adulthood as a source of lifelong recreation and joy. Similarly, it is our hope that by supporting personal reading we are cultivating lifelong readers.

8th Grade Revels on Mt. Rainier

The 8th grade fanned out to three different destinations on Mt. Rainier for early September backpacking: Owhyhi Lakes, Berkeley Park, and Glacier Basin. We enjoyed perfect weather, wildlife and blueberries galore, and spectacular vistas.
Mt. Rainier is absolutely teeming with wildlife! Our early fall sightings included black bears, mountain goats, marmots, pika, a doe with it's fawn, and elk. And we heard coyotes howl!

As usual, the trips sought a balance between the outdoor skills of packing, hiking, tents, cooking and safe, leave-no-trace wilderness travel, as well as the human skills of self-care, cooperation, leadership, and communication.





Diagramming glaciers, journals, group games, solo sits, solo hiking, and talking stick councils were valuable activities.




And no Explorer West adventure is complete without some SERIOUS fun -- like a boys versus girls costume contest!
We look forward to our winter adventures beginning in January with snowshoeing, Nordic skiing, alpine skiing and snowboarding!

6th Graders Explore Weird Properties of Oobleck

"What is it?" "Ew, it's gooey AND hard." "Whoa! Why does it do that?" This is how science class started today. Students were given a container of mystery substance (Oobleck) and charged with the task of identifying as many properties of matter as they could. They quickly dispatched with the easier ones: color, odor, and texture. Phase proved to be the more challenging and thought-provoking property. Sometimes a solid and sometimes a liquid, the students experiemented with different scenarios in order to nail down just exactly when it was each.