Book Review: Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About it - 4 views
started by Michaela Klusman on 06 Mar 12
started by Michaela Klusman on 06 Mar 12
started by Michaela Klusman on 06 Mar 12
I ran across the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher while searching for books on Amazon. I got so wrapped up in the description and the reviews of other readers that I knew it was one I NEEDED to read. So, I talked with an administrator with which I work closely to redefine our grading and assessment practices. She paid for me to order the book and then asked me to read it and report out to administration if I believed it to be valuable. After having read it, I most certainly do believe it to be so.
Kelly Gallagher writes as an experienced English teacher about the perils of championing breadth over depth in instruction as well as the exorbitant amount of time spent (or wasted) on "test preparation." Schools are actually killing the minds, creativity, and interest in lifelong learning of their students. These are all things that I already noticed and believed. However, the observation that struck the deepest for me, as someone who LOVES getting "lost" in a book and who has taught English in the past, was the ways that readicide is occurring the most within our Literature classrooms.
One of Gallagher's greatest complaints is the way that books are "chopped up" and "beaten" beyond recognition. Students are never able to enter into "reading flow" because they are either stopped every moment or so by a teacher trying desperately to cover all the standards in each individual book or are given difficult works and no support in comprehending them. As Gallagher repeatedly states, it is in the balance of these two extremes that students' minds will be fed and that they will be most likely to finish their education with an amiable sentiment towards reading.
This book has radically changed the way that I approach reading and teaching reading. It has made me bolder and more willing to fight for the best interests of my students. Also, thanks to Gallagher, I have ammunition in the form of data to provide evidence for the existence of readicide in my own school and to do something to change it. Every student deserves the opportunity to love reading.