Blog 5 Chapter 5 of Readicide

Testing, Testing, Testing.  That seems to be the hot topic in schools today as it seems we are obsessed with monitoring progress and I think to a fault.  We are so desperate for quantifiable evidence of improvement that we alter the tests to give us the results we so desperately need as Gallagher states in this book.  I think the whole system needs to calm down.  Rome was not built in a day and improvement in schools is going to take time.  The deadline of 2014 for all the schools to be up to speed seems quite ridiculous to me.  That doesn't give enough time for any of the changes to show results.  The finding that progress was more pronounced in elementary and middle schools kind of proves my point.   The path to literacy for a student is more easily altered the younger they are in the same way that it is much more difficult to learn a foreign language the older you get.  Its going to another 8 more years for todays first graders to be entering high school and we have to look at it in that way.  The sad fact is that for todays 11th graders the ship has already sailed and there is little we can do to make them readers.  I know that by that age, I hated books and my mind was made up and nobody could change it.  Lets continue to improve and let the results come instead of forcing the results.  Everybody just needs to chill out so to say and quit testing these kids like crazy.  School is stressful enough without shoving test after test after test down their throat and because the teachers job depends on the scores undue pressure is being put on the students to do well.  Come on!  Let them read at their own pace and we need to emphasize learning not test taking!

Blog 4 Readicide 99-109

In this chapter in the book Gallagher talks about how to analyze text and introduces the "big chunk/little chunk" approach.  He talks about how we can over analyze by segmenting the book into to small of portions and therefore disrupting the flow of the students.  Gallagher talks about allowing the students to read a large chunk and then going back over it with the students to analyze it more in depth.  As I have stated before, I am not an avid reader nor an English teacher but this strategy seems to make sense to me.  We need to be able to see the big picture before we can go back and analyze something smaller.  Gallagher also talks about enabling the students to feel okay about struggling through text and the importance to show the students how me the teacher gets through a difficult text.  I think this is important because students from the classrooms I have been in are quick to give up and feel defeated.  Gallagher also talks about the 50/50 approach in which only 50% of the reading is difficult text and the other half is enjoyable reading that does not require multiple drafts and analyzation.  I wish this was implemented when I was in school.  I remember virtually no "fun reading" and because of this I began avoiding books all together.  We need to keep it fun if we want the students to get into reading. 

Readicide 72-85

In this section Gallagher talks a lot about something that I already know.  Teachers take the fun out of reading!  I can speak first hand to this true epidemic in our schools.  I never once enjoyed a book that I had to read in school except for maybe Forrest Gump which I read in the ninth grade.  The teacher in that class was way ahead of his time.  He took all the pressure off and allowed us to actually enjoy the book.  Instead of a test over trivial details that were in the book such as "What color was Jenny's shirt when she and Forrest blah blah blah"  you get the point.  Instead we had active discussions over the book and were allowed to talk freely about the book which made it a lot more enjoyable.  This book also was not a "school book".  The teacher went out of his way to find a book that we would enjoy and it worked wonders.  I wish I could say the same for the rest of my English teachers.  Reading became a chore as I was forced to battle through Ivanhoe, Macbeth, and the Great Odyssey.  The tests over the books were equally brutal and unpleasing.  There was such a pressure to try to remember  every little insignificant detail of the book that instead of reading the book we instead studied the book and I remember taking notes as I read.  Honestly, the entire experience has ruined my desire to read to this day.  The sight of a book brings back memories of those books I was forced to read in high school and it is very hard for me to enjoy it.  McQuillans study is interesting and goes along with my point from my experience.  His study suggests that students will develop a love for reading only if they are not forced to read.  By simply giving them access to good books and time to do nothing else will a student develop a desire to read.  If we remove the pressures and the grading a student will discover that reading is actually enjoyable activity and not a tedious task.  Gallagher also talks about academic texts and how to approach teaching them as teacher.  He suggests that it is important to show value in reading things such as Hamlet.  I think I would have benefitted greatly from this approach.  I hated Shakespeare and I remember thinking as I still do what is the point of this!  We don't speak this way anymore and we certainly don't write this way.  Why do we have to read this.  The reason as Gallagher shows is there is a lot of wisdom in Shakespeares work and while it is tedious to translate it the messages are what is valuable in these texts.  The teachers I had never took the time to "sell" these books to us and instead told us that we had to read it because there would be a test on it.  I assume you would see why I hated reading.  Gallagher talks a lot about how we as teachers should present a book to get the students interested and excited.  I think teachers get lazy and just assume the students will read the book for the simple reason that it is assigned.  We as teachers need to sell these books to our students and get them excited about it and Gallagher talks about a number of different ways we can do this.  I think there should always be a choice in reading.  A program I would implement would have the students pick from a number of books and present each book before the students picked.  I would not have tests over the book but instead have the students divide into groups or book clubs and have them present the book to the class.  I think this would create an atmospher fun surrounding reading and I would translate shakespeare before giving it to the students.  I mean seriously "where art thou romeo"!  Who talks like that anymore.  We might as well be reading latin. 

IAL Chapter 4 and Readicide

The first thing the author talks about is to not simply teach definitions.  When I was in high school, we had something called vocab workshop in which we learned 20 new words a week.  However, all we did was learn the definitions and then basically match the definition to the word.  I agree with the author that this is utterly useless.  First of all, the knowledge does not stay long when you are simply memorizing and simply knowing the definition of a word does not mean you are able to use it. I think vocabulary should be taught through the reading of stories and texts in which a word is used in a sentence and not by teaching definitions.  The author goes on to talk about how words can be classified into labels and concepts, the need to find different words to describe things such as said, and how to teach words with multiple meanings.  I really think that no matter how much we stand up on a whiteboard and talk about words the only way kids are going to use words is if they are exposed to it in a natural environment such as a book or conversation.  The section in mathematics was particularly interesting to me.  It talks about teaching the vocabulary in context which I think is the only way to do it.  In my first student teaching, I taught a class on scatter plots.  I first gave them the definition of a scatter plot and then asked the class "so who  knows what a scatter plot is now?"  They all looked at me with a blank stare. Definitions are useless in mathematics without a visual or mathematical understanding of what the term means.  For example, I could tell you the definition of a hyperbola but it does you no good unless you know how to apply it.  An example of a hyperbola and how to arrive at a hyperbola should be shown first and then say to the class "okay now this is called a hyperbola"  not the other way around. 
In readicide they talk about the decline of reading amongst teens.  I'm sorry but there is nothing we can do about this.  Technology unfortunately has nearly killed reading for pleasure when there is TV, video games, etc. at kids disposal. 40 years ago when none of that existed, of course kids read more.  This is just a fact of our times and there is little we can do about it.  We just need to focus on keeping the reading levels where they are or increase them but I do not think we can achieve the reading for pleasure numbers of 30 years ago.  Again Gallagher touches on what we make the students read as a problem and it was certainly a problem for me.  I hated Shakespeare because I couldn't understand it. I used to say "We don't talk like that anymore, what is the point!"  Like anything else if it doesn't have some enjoyment value,  kids aren't going to do it.  I think Gallagher makes an excellent point about bringing the library to the students.  I think that students have been forced to read so many unenjoyable books that they assume whatever is assigned will not be enjoyable.  I'll be honest,  I still feel that way today.  I was not excited at all about reading The Giver because due to my past experiences I figured it would be boring and awful.  I was surprised. I think by  getting the kids excited about the book by telling them a little about what it is about encourages the students to have an open mind.  Thats all I've got. 

Readicide and IAL Chapter 2

The chapter discusses multiple reasons why we are failing as educators to promote reading.  It mentions teaching to a test as long as the test is not shallow. I think this is important we need to promote interpretation and analysis rather than just asking for facts about the books.  Students will retain the information of the book is they are asked to think more deeply about the book instead of just regurgitating facts.  The chapter also discusses the texas miracle and explains that it was flawed and the program was actually detrimental to the progress of reading.  It pointed out that SAT scores actually dropped during the time of the program.  Chapter 2 of IAL discusses classroom and school structures that support adolescent literacy development.  The chapter explains that collaborative learning fostersgrowth for involved.  I think this is true because it invokes thought and discussion which deepens understanding of the material.  The chapter also discusses think pair share where the students are asked a question and then discuss their answers among peers.  This again fosters a deeper understanding of the material.  The chapter also discusses reflective teaching where the student evaluates their own performance and determines how to become more effective.  We as educators should never stop trying to get better because if we are standing still in our teaching methods our teaching will become stale and not as effective.