Response to "Readicide"

          We don’t want sustained silent reading to give way to test preparation.  SSR seems to be the sacrificial lamb in school districts throughout America and, by and large, teachers are going with the flow.  The burden of all the standards for children to pass school, and the temptation to “teach to the test” has the minds of teachers weighed down, forgetting their responsibility as teachers.  Kelly Gallagher reminds us of why we chose this profession and encourages us to be the voice in our schools to keep reading from dying.  In his book Readicide, Gallagher give us suggestions on how to keep SSR and a good stock of books in our schools, up to going to the local media.  At that point, you as a caring teacher may have to be ready to take a job elsewhere.  In this, I admire the author’s passion and concern for the youth.  Short of having to make some noise within the school district and beyond, I found Gallagher’s ideas of keep reading alive to be quite fun and interesting. 

            Another acronym I learned is FVR, free voluntary reading (pg 42).  That would be a terrific supplement to SSR, if the students and teachers had that option.  The focus here is to let the kids read, read, read.  Whether it’s a classic, or for recreational purposes where they choose their book, the good news is that they look down between pages.  What I am very mindful off, as I begin to plan for and put together my 3-week unit plan, it not to chop up the book and weigh down the curriculum with CCSS standards, like the 122 page monstrosity for To Kill a Mockingbird.  That kind of micromanaging would get any child to hate reading. 

            Some of Gallagher’s ideas I would like to apply, beyond Atwell’s approach of letting kids read large chunks at a time, is “framing” the text.  The baseball analogy on page 95 was brilliant.  We must know when students need guidance and when they are to be turned loose.  I really like the exercise for Hamlet that Gallagher had the seniors do, translating the advice from Laertes’ father to modern English.  That could be a useful exercise for much of Shakespeare.  Bottom line, try to get the kids engaged in lots of reading, so much so they must “come up for air.”

            After reading Tovani’s book on how to get kids to read, followed by Readicide, how to keep them reading, I feel I am very well equipped to interest students in this lifelong activity