Prices for the classroom materials are quite reasonable. The Project has expanded outside the San Francisco area and now supports a National Writing Project, residing at 160 colleges and universities across the United States. The Web site also includes a helpful on-line newsletter. D.E.A.R D.E.A.R. stands for Drop Everything And Read. During D.E.A.R. time, everyone within a school, students and adults alike, reads silently for a specified period of time.
Some schools have D.E.A.R. time daily, while others opt to use it a couple of times a week.
Generally, D.E.A.R. time lasts from 15 to 30 minutes. This technique also goes by the term U.S.S.R. or Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading. The Web site of Saskatchewan Education in Canada gives an excellent overview of the D.E.A.R. strategy, along with very useful suggestions on how to successful implement a D.E.A.R. program. This is one of the frequent staff development workshops offered by Phi Delta Kappa, the national education fraternity. You're probably familiar with their monthly publication The Kappan.