Readicide by Kelly Gallagher

[callmekaro]

Kelly Gallagher's Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It is a must-read for today's language arts teachers. How many of us have not bemoaned the fact that secondary students seem to lose any interest in reading once they leave elementary school? Well, Gallagher gets right to the point in explaining why the love of reading is dying in our schools. One big culprit is the emphasis on standardized testing, but we teachers have a part to play as well.

Gallagher stresses the need to find the "sweet spot" of instruction--not over-teaching novels, but not under-teaching them either. Further, he stresses that students need time to read in school and that the books they read must be relevant and of interest to them.

So, how did schools get themselves in this position of killing the love of reading? Gallagher explains how the madness of standardized test preparation got started through his description of The Page Paradox and the "The Texas Miracle." What it will take to reverse these negative effects, are teachers who are willing to really look at how their instructional practices are helping--or harming--students' reading habits and who will take on the challenge of change.

I recommend Readicide to any educator interested in helping students develop into life-long readers. I liked it so well that after I read the Kindle version, I bought the paperback so I could fill it with highlights and notes for future reference.