Am I killing my students' love of reading? I recently finished the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher and felt compelled to write about it. I've been on a Gallagher kick this last year. On one hand his ideas have changed my teaching for the better. On the other hand, his ideas make me question everything I do, sending me into an existential crisis. Okay, maybe not that far, but you get the idea.
One thing in particular that struck a cord was Gallagher's harsh words about Accelerated Reader. I have struggled for a while to make sense of AR, but Readicide was the first logical argument I have heard against using it. In Gallagher's classroom, students are required to read one recreational book a month and complete a "one-pager", a short assignment that asks students about their books. No points, no quizzes, no logs. There is less accountability and less reward with this approach, but Gallagher stands by it. Notably, he stressed that it is essential to give students time to do recreational reading at school. I agree that we are wrong assume that students will read at home--let alone have time to read at home.
The book also talks about the thin line between over-teaching and under-teaching texts. I have been guilty of trying to "teach all things in one book". I can remember taking five weeks to tackle Hoot by Carl Hiaasen my first year of teaching. My students created a book along with the novel that included things like symbols, figurative language, themes, daily summaries, big projects, tests, etc. No wonder we were all so sick of that book by the end. Gallagher talks about how ridiculous it is to interrupt the "flow" of reading too frequently. He explains that as adults we would be extremely annoyed if we were asked to answer twenty questions at the end of each chapter we were reading, so why would we ask that of students? However, we should be using complex texts, and students need scaffolding. There has to be balance.
Instead of a comprehensive unit plan, Gallagher offers several solutions. One involves showing his students the end-of-unit essay question when starting a text. This immediately gives students a reading purpose and helps frame the text for them. He also described a "Big Chunk/Little Chunk" strategy for teaching texts. Here, he recommends easing students into difficult texts by reading it aloud to them, framing it for them, and giving support where needed. Once the teacher has modeled the reading for the students, then bigger chunks of texts can be read by the students (again with a purpose for reading). To teach skills, teachers can pull short, but important sections of the text for close reading skill building.
Gallagher stresses several times that schools need to ask 'hard questions' about how they are approaching reading. It was a great reminder that as an ELA teacher, I need to be a loud advocate for these essential skills our students need to succeed. Readicide is a great place to start for having those tough conversations.
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