Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It
As I'm doing some serious introspection on how I will change the amount and type of reading done in my classroom next year, this is right on time.
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I absolutely loved this book (http://enbuscadeequilibrio.blogspot.com/2009/03/readicide-reflection.html) I look forward to seeing your thoughts on the book.
And after that, you should probably put Newkirk's HOLDING ON TO GOOD IDEAS IN A TIME OF BAD ONES. I would love to see your list of ideas you'd fight for...
Have you had a chance to read Readicide yet? If so, what did you think?
hi mrs. v- my good friend ms. x did a great review of it. i'm trying to muster the initiative to write my own. in short, i thought it was a thoughtful and unwaveringly critical look at the issues with standardized testing. i'm not fully convinced that gallagher substantiated his reasons why academic reading is so important. he talks about getting students to think about things such as symbolism without ever getting to the point of doing so. in my way of thinking, less than one quarter of my students will be english majors. at that point, for that less than one quarter, symbolism may have some bearing on their lives. right now, it's much less of a priority to me than getting good books in their hands and having them read them. gallagher mentions cultural literacy as another reason, but so briefly in passing and only in deference to the research & writing of another author that i was left wondering what his own argument was. he takes so much time to pick apart his issues with atwell, i found it odd that he chose to skip right over what i'm assuming is a crucial facet of his argument for the reading of "academic texts."
i also wonder why gallagher assumes that with choice literacy, students will always default to texts that challenge them little. he is continually saying how they do not need help with books like harry potter or twilight, but i'm not sure he makes room for the idea that plenty of students do use independent reading as a space to challenge themselves and take on more difficult titles. it seems that he is dually saying students need to read for enjoyment and assuming that reading for enjoyment always means picking easy books, and in the process seems to skew his argument.
on the whole it was a useful book. i just am still in many ways struggling with the carol jago side of the argument, and deciding where i stand on it.
mary lee--i keep seeing that book and hearing people reference it. i will definitely put it on my to-read list (which just keeps getting longer. . . can we have national SSR time for grown-ups?)
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