Major Takeaways from Readicide

"I introduce 'readicide' here because it cuts to the central ironic thesis of this book: rather than helping students, many of the reading practices found in today's classroom are actually contributing to the death of reading" (2)

I thought I would begin with the premise of Kelly Gallagher's book Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. Done.

"Students may or may not like the novel, but I want all of them to  understand the value that comes from reading it" (57).

We're human. We want acceptance. We want to be liked. I have never aspired to be that teacher who causes a student to crinkle her nose in disgust and mutter, "I hate that class." Yet, not all students who take my class are going to like every book, every assignment, or every project. That's a fact. Gallagher's statement is a reminder that I'm not in the classroom to be the students' friend nor am I there to ensure they like every book we read. Instead, I'm there to help them find the value in the literature we read and the value in the learning activities I ask them to engage in. I'm there to help them learn.

"Students need to be reintroduced to the notion that we read for enjoyment. To help my students achieve this goal, I have adopted a 50/50 approach in my classroom. To mix up the reading diet of my students, I want  half of their reading to be academic, and I want half of their reading to be recreational" (84). 

    Ok. It blows my mind that one of the most renowned high school English teachers in the country is attempting a 50/50 approach in his classroom. I've read Atwell's In the Middle and Miller's The Book Whisperer, and both of these inspiring educators used a reading workshop approach in the middle grades - but a high school teacher implementing this approach? Not too common.
     My kids absolutely love reading workshop day, which I have typically saved for the last day of the week. Yet, even this one designated day is not sacred, and sometimes students have a mere 20 minutes of free reading time on Fridays. If students could spend 50 percent of the time reserved for reading on recreational reading, they'd enjoy the class a whole lot more. Heck, they might even like reading. Touche, Mr. Gallagher.

Big Chunk/Little Chunk Approach: "In the simplest terms, students do a lot of first-draft reading of large chunk of text on their own (after initial framing from the teacher). This is followed with second-and-third draft close readings of excerpts in the classroom (which require teacher expertise)" (99). 

     I have been guilty of assigning chapters of reading and asking students to close-read the entire thing. I tell them I want to see annotations and evidence of close reading. Sometimes students are given a purpose for their close reading and sometimes they're told to simply note what they notice. Confusion becomes a tangible thing in my middle school classroom when I've done this. 

     In my humble opinion, students shouldn't be asked to close read entire chapters. Should they close-read an article after being given a purpose for the reading? Sure, no problem. But entire chapters? That's tedious. That's readicide. 

   It makes complete sense to me that students read large parts of the texts independently with a reading purpose, and then they closely re-read an excerpt identified by the teacher. If the teacher is unable to identify an excerpt that warrants close reading, then the text should probably be challenged as one not worthy of being read in the class.