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Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It |  | Author: Kelly Gallagher
Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $17.50
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Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 3309
Media: Paperback
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5
ISBN: 1571107800
Dewey Decimal Number: 428.4
EAN: 9781571107800
ASIN: 1571107800
Publication Date: February 28, 2009
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Product Description
Read-i-cide n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools. Reading is dying in our schools. Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline—poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment. In this provocative new book, Kelly Gallagher suggests, however, that it is time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading: our schools. In Readicide, Kelly argues that American schools are actively (though unwittingly) furthering the decline of reading. Specifically, he contends that the standard instructional practices used in most schools are killing reading by: · valuing the development of test-takers over the development of lifelong readers; · mandating breadth over depth in instruction; · requiring students to read difficult texts without proper instructional support; · insisting that students focus solely on academic texts; · drowning great books with sticky notes, double-entry journals, and marginalia; · ignoring the importance of developing recreational reading; and · losing sight of authentic instruction in the shadow of political pressures. Kelly doesn’t settle for only identifying the problems. Readicide provides teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with specific steps to reverse the downward spiral in reading—steps that will help prevent the loss of another generation of readers.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
Amazing August 9, 2010
Jenna A. Siems
Kelly Gallagher is a great author who puts NCLB into a new perspective. He also discusses the systematic way in which schools are killing reading by the very teaching practices that they use. Gallagher has many suggestions that are helpful for teachers and administrators. I highly recommend this book.
The Proverbial Choir June 25, 2010
V. Miller
I teach at an alternative high school, and my students are the victims of readicide. Reading silently (think Great Expectations), worksheets, chapter question, and pages and pages of vocabulary have turned my students into aliterates.
I loved the book, but then again, I'm the proverbial choir. This would make for a great book study. It would be a great way to validate the teachers who are doing a great job and provide a way for other teachers to rethink their pedagogy.
Readicide: Opening our Eyes to a National Epidemic May 22, 2010
Mckenzie E. Debow
Comparing it with other epidemic-related words such as "supersize" and "gastric bypass", author Kelly Gallagher powerfully introduces readers to a less discussed epidemic that sweeps our country, "readicide", the "systematic killing of the love of reading". As a future school teacher, I was quickly intrigued by Gallagher's brutally honest account of how our school's are playing a direct and strong role in fostering readicide.
Prior to reading this book, I had never really recognized the effect schools are playing in heightening this epidemic. I was quick to blame poor reading skills and students' disinterest in reading on poor parenting skills. Gallagher proved me wrong and quickly reminded me of schools' guilty role. Gallagher criticizes the far too many schools and educators that are creating students who memorize, not students who engage in meaningful learning. Schools are cutting out periods of time for SSR and replacing them with extra blocks of test preparation. Pressures from state standards and acts such as No Child Left Behind encourage a haunting "mile wide and inch deep" philosophy.
In fact, just the other day while observing a 30-year teaching veteran, I witnessed readicide presence at a local school. A student being being kept in from recess for misbehaving was refused the right to read a book he had checked out from the public library. Instead, he was forced to put his head down and simply "think" about what he had done. It was at that very moment that my heart sank and I quickly admitted to myself that Gallagher's idea of readicide is truly a national epidemic taking place in the very schools I hope to one day work in as a full-time teacher. Just as Gallagher points out, schools across the country, whether as a form of discipline (such as the example in my case) or the unending focus placed on creating good "test-takers", are limiting students' authentic reading experiences and replacing sentiments of love towards reading with sentiments of resentment, boredom, and anxiety.
Thankfully, one thing Gallagher does incredibly well in this book is that he choose to address more than the epidemic itself and also focuses on what we as teachers (and future teachers!) can do to alter or even stop readicide in its tracks. Whether encouraging teachers to reintegrate SSR into their daily routine, have students read articles from their local newspaper, or assign fun summer readings, Gallagher provides teachers from every grade level and background with endless opportunities to reflect on how authentic reading can be encouraged, a love of reading can be nurtured, and most importantly, readicide can be eliminated.
WOW!!! An Eye Opener May 20, 2010
Sarah J. Hecklinski (Eugene, Oregon)
From the very minute I opened "Readicide," I was totally hooked. This book gives words to everything I have been feeling about the way teaching reading, and teaching in general is going in this country. The "mile wide and inch deep" problem is all too evident in many schools i have been in, where raising test scores in order to keep much needed funding has moved up to the number 1 position for schools, leaving the aspect of making life-long learners in a distant second. When she speaks of the "Paige Paradox," it makes me wonder "WHY??" Why was this person allowed to do so much damage to our fragile education system, and why is nothing being done, on a large level to combat it? I know she offers advice in here on how to make sure reading becomes important-finding the "sweet spot" is such a great idea, and the 3 ingredients that make a better seem to me to be a bit of a no-brainer! I love to read, and I feel this is because I was given so many opportunities to read, and learn to love it, when I was an elementary/middle school student. Our teachers read novels to us, and allowed us a little corner to curl up and read in. Of course, this was during a time when we had music and art instruction multiple times a week! I can only hope to learn from this book, as a future educator, and not get too bogged down under the ever increasing pressure from above to get rid of reading for pleasure in favor of reading for test instruction. On page 13, she quotes Sternberg as saying "Instead of pounding factoids into our students' heads,...we should be emphasizing those skills that would make our students 'expert citizens': 'creativity, common sense, wisdom, ethics, dedication, honesty, teamwork, hard work, knowing how to win and how to lose, a sense of fair play, and life long learning."
Readicide May 9, 2010
D. Blackburn
Readicide is an eye-opening book that examines how the reading practices in schools are leading to the death of reading. Gallagher frames this book around one important question that all educators must ask themselves: Are we preparing our students for a life beyond exams? This question leads me to wonder, if we teach reading in such a way that students leave school never having the desire to pick up a book again, what have we really accomplished? With the development of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are valuing test scores above all else, and students are leaning how to become memorizers, not thinkers. As Gallagher so elegantly laid out in Readicide, the price we pay for high test scores is we kill a student's love of reading.
Gallagher suggests that as teachers, our goal should be to create life-long readers that see themselves as a reader, even after graduation day. As someone who is going into the field of teaching, I find Gallagher's message to be of great importance to me. Through reading his book, I have come to see how school should not just be a place for students to learn good reading skills, but must also be a place for students to simply learn how to enjoy reading.
In Readicide, Gallagher does a wonderful job of not only laying out his position, but also providing many examples of how to get students engaged in what they are reading, and to find value in it. He provides guidance, support, and honest suggestions about what it takes to go against our current system, and to stand up for our students. He suggests that there is a better way we could do things. In his words, if we're going to teach to the test, that in itself is not flawed. It only becomes flawed when the test we teach to is a bad test. So long as we are teaching to a quality test, students will be provided with a quality education, and that is what we should be fighting for.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
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