Readicide: Entry #1

Read more about the book on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/3fqhf4u

Learn more about Kelly Gallagher on his webpage:http://www.kellygallagher.org/

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First, what is readicide?  Kelly Gallagher defines it as: (noun) the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools

I'm about halfway through the book, and here are some of the (in my opinion) most thought-provoking quotes:

• High-interest reading is being squeezed out in favor of more test preparation practice.  Interesting books are disappearing as funding is diverted to purchase "magic pill" reading programs.  Sustained silent reading time is being abandoned because it is often seen as "soft" or "nonacademic."  Fir many students, academic reading, thought incredibly important, had become their only reading.  (How would you like it if the only reading you ever did in your life was Shakespeare and Beowulf?)  To make matters worse, students are drowning in marginalia and a sea of sticky notes.  When you add all of these school practices to the force working against readers outside of the classroom, is it any surprise that mass readicide is occurring? (p. 4-5)
• We are developing test-takers at the expense of readers.  (p. 7)
• Being "held responsible" really means one thing to classroom teachers--teaching to the state- and federally mandated exams administered each spring... Knowing that the tests are coming in the spring and that they will cover an impossible amount of standards thrusts teachers into an unwinnable situation: either they teach all the standards shallowly to make sure the content on the test is covered before students sit down to take the exams, or they slow down and teach deeply, thus sacrificing their test scores by not covering all the content that will be on the exam> (p. 10)
• If students are to read for fun, they need fun books to read.  (p. 52)
• [on constant interruption of the "reading flow" to analyze novels] We don't have students stop the films they watch every five minutes so they can discuss foreshadowing, developing themes, and the director's tone. (p. 61)
• No student ever achieved reading flow from placing a blizzard of sticky notes in a book.  No student ever achieved reading flow from using the same reading strategy ad infinitum.  No student ever achieved reading flow from analyzing every nook and cranny of a complex work.  Students in these reading situations are not coming up for air.  They are coming up for life preservers. (p. 65)
• If they are to have any chance of becoming lifelong readers, they will need what all readers need when they read: access to great books and large doses of uninterrupted time to read them. (p. 73)
• Students need to be reintroduced to the notion that we read for enjoyment.  (p. 82)