"Readicide" Response

“27 percent of adults in this country did not read a single book in 2007” (Gallagher, Readicide).

In the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher, attention is brought to the changing levels of enthusiasm for reading. Forcing reading in school is most literally, killing reading. As I sat in my home this summer, I looked upon my book shelf. My book shelf was filled with book waiting to be read; most being brand new from the bookstore. I wanted to read the books SO BAD, but I didn’t. As an avid book lover, it makes my heart hurt to say, I just didn’t feel like it. I use to get lost in books. I could stay up way past midnight just to read “one” more chapter. That feeling was flown away because I’m tired of being forced to read dry, irrelevant material. I had to give my brain a break from reading, and that makes my soul ache.

The first thing that really stood out to me was that Gallagher pointed out that multiple choice tests don’t help struggling readers, it allows them to continue struggling. In the same section he points out that teaching to the test and giving students a purpose in their reading is part of good teaching. Although, shallow tests are a waste of everyone’s time. Teaching to a multiple-choice test with no real substance is a problem. Going through this program I’ve been told over and over we don’t want to teach to test. But I think there is a difference between teaching to the test and helping students gather knowledge and teaching the test. Teaching the test would be more of just giving answers and help for a multiple-choice scenario, that isn’t what we want to do. Gallagher points out that it’s all about the level of thinking students need to use. Our students thinking shouldn’t be limited to the standards and being able to pass a state test. Test driven curriculum is what leads to the death of reading… Readicide.

I like the Michael Phelps anecdote Gallagher provides. Students are not practicing enough authentic reading but are still expected to perform well on reading tests. Teachers aren’t worried about putting good books in front of students. It’s an issue that just isn’t really addressed. In my opinion, we should be giving students interesting material that they want to read in our classrooms. Added to that, students are spending too much time prepping for tests in school and not enough time reading. I don’t understand why all these studies are done and no one listens to them. If it has been proven that free voluntary reading helps students, why don’t more schools practice that?

The big question is: what can educators do to prevent readicide? Well, one thing we can do is teach students to value reading the texts we assign. Hopefully, educators don’t just assign things for the hell of it. There should be a specific reason to assign a text or passage and something a student can gain with that passage. In many cases, an old text can be compared with a modern text to give more meaning to the students. I feel like relevancy is the biggest factor in choosing text, you need to know why it’s important before you assign it. Finally, my favorite idea, is to adopt a 50/50 approach. Recreational and academic reading is so important, so student’s literacy can grow just as much as they can as young adults. I love the idea of having students read one book of their choice and doing a simple “one-pager.” It helps students read things that they are interested, improve their reading skills, and start to love reading. This book is filled with amazing tips, tricks, and explanations but this one was by far my favorite. I hope one day my students will love reading and literature as much as I do… Or at least want to read for pleasure or to better themselves.