Book Nineteen: Readicide

Book Nineteen: Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It
Date Finished: April 15
Pages: 150

Throughout the courses and activities I underwent in preparation for teaching, I have read numerous books that have infuriated and depressed me, and books which have given me great joy and a renewed passion in teaching. I would certainly place this book at the top of the list of books that did both. I found this book to be alternately infuriating and inspiring. I agree whole-heartedly with the author on most points in the book, and certainly plan to incorporate these ideas into my future planning and classroom activities.
Readicide is defined as “the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools” (1).
Kelly Gallagher is no moron; he gives real world examples and some pretty hard hitting studies to back up his assertions. I agree that the way we teach, and the interactions that our students have with books kills the love of reading in them. If we were to teach differently and have different goals-lifelong readers rather than good test takers-we would have the higher tests scores and students prepared for college and the real world. His strategies are things that would make intelligent, modern teachers say “duh.”
His first, and loudest claim is this: “Making sure every student has a book to take home to read is the single most important issue in our quest to develop young readers” (46). He asserts that Silent Sustained Reading in classrooms helps to foster students who like to read. Students should split their time 50/50 between high level challenging academic texts and high interest age-appropriate texts. I also like the idea of augmenting books with authentic real-world text. This means that even if they are reading a novel, the students are also assigned an “Article of the Week” that pertains to the real world around them that they read outside of class. As a teacher I am constantly surprised by how little my students know about the world they live in. These articles give students a glimpse of the world that they will soon by members of, and hopefully create active citizens.
High-stakes testing, teaching to the test, and teaching only test-taking strategies at the expense of real in-depth teaching are some of the problems that help lead to readicide. Over teaching and under teaching are also issues that he discusses, that I think will help be to balance my class discussions and activities in the coming years.
What is the real goal of education?
I would say that, as Sternberg says, we should emphasize the skills that would make our students “creatively flexible, responding to rapid changes in the environment; able to think critically about what they are told in the media, whether by newscasters, politicians, advertisers, or scientists; able to execute their ideas and persuade others of their value; and, most of all, able to use their knowledge wisely in ways that avoid the horrors of bad leadership, as we have seen in scandals involving Enron” (25).
Considering that Mr. Gallagher advocates not following set standards, that following curricular guides, and having students stop and dissect books leads to a lack of learning and turns students off of reading, I find it ironic that Wendy received this book from our English facilitator. He posits that while students need to read academic texts, they also need to learn how to achieve “reading flow”-the point in which you become immersed in what you are reading. “No student ever achieved reading flow from analyzing every nook and cranny of a complex work” (65). Instead he suggests that teachers frame texts, give them meaning before they begin reading, and focuses on the meaningful lessons rather than the trivial. Gallagher tells us not to give them excerpts but rather whole novels, because they need to learn how to read long texts because it affects the brain differently. When students see real value in reading “It’s not just a story; it’s an imaginative rehearsal for living a productive life as an adult” (79).
I’ve read a lot of Nancy Atwell’s books, including In the Middle, and The Reading Zone, and I learned more from reading her books than I did in any college class. Mr. Gallagher has many similarities, and he talks about her quite a deal in this book. I did enjoy having something familiar when he talks about several theorists that I haven’t even heard of. I do not, however, agree with him on the subject of classics. I do not believe that all books that are considered “classics” are inherently good books. Many of these books do not add anything to a classroom, and if they are not within the sweet spot of being difficult without being unattainable, there is no purpose in teaching them. I do agree with this: “I never focus on whether my students will like the books. Sure, I’d like my students to enjoy the books as much as I do, but it is important that they take away something valuable after wrestling with them” (93). The difference that I would stress in his statement, however, is that the teacher has to see the validity and importance in what they are teaching as well. If they don’t, then there is no reason to teach it; the students and the teacher will only be frustrated with the text and with each other.
There are so many other things that I would like to talk about, but I would really just be copying the entire stinking book into my blog, and that doesn’t really serve my purpose. Most importantly, this book has taught me so many strategies that I plan on implementing in my classroom next year. The book made me so angry, because we are doing our students such a disservice, but at the same time, inspired me to become a better teacher. “If we are to find our way again…we must find our courage to recognize the difference between the political worlds and the authentic worlds in which we teach, to swim against those current educational practices that are killing young readers, and to step up and do what is right for our students” (118).

Good Reading,
Caitlin