Readicide: Endangered Minds (week 2)

It's week 2 of our book study blog hop. If you missed week 1 you can check it out here.

I am absolutely loving Readicide by Kelly Gallagher!  In our data driven teaching world, it always amazes me when we ignore the data and continue doing things the same way. As if all of a sudden we are going to finally get the results we want. Chapter 2 is packed with research that  again and again shows one thing "students get better at reading/comprehension by READING." So why are children reading so little at school?

I don't even know were to start. There is so much I want to say about this chapter. 

            KEY POINTS: 

Students Need Authentic Reading

There is a Dearth of Interesting Reading Materials in Our Schools

Many Schools Have Removed Novels and Other Longer Works to Provide More Test Prep

Students Are Not Doing Enough Reading in School

Students Need Authentic Reading

Gallagher suggests that students should be exposed to a mixture of reading experiences. Students should experience longer challenging novels, works of nonfiction, as well as lighter recreational reading. 

In my school we are strongly encourage to use our anthology series each week that focuses on nonfiction text and excerpts from novels. Very few of the stories are of high interest to my fifth graders. I do have a few class sets of novels but it is hard to fit them in to the ELA block with all our other "requirements".

There is a Dearth of Interesting Reading Materials in Our Schools

I have been teaching fifth grade for ten years. My classroom library has grown tremendously over that time but it is still lacking. I have a lot to improve on. Our media center is in a small room and most of my students have read the majority of books on the shelves. In my own children's school, there will not be a media center/library next year. They need that room for a classroom. Media/library class will consist of a few books on a cart, wheeled into the classroom. I don't worry about my children because they  both have a bookshelf in each of their bedrooms that are packed and we go to our public library at least once a week. My concern is for those students whose only access to books happens at school. We are failing them.

Many Schools Have Removed Novels and Other Longer Works to Provide More Test Prep

Our novels haven't been removed but they are definitely collecting dust as we are encouraged to do way more test prep each year.

Students Are Not Doing Enough Reading in School

I can remember when D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) time was the "big thing" in school. Time to enjoy reading what you liked to read. Reading for the sake of reading.

This is again something that has been pushed aside to make way for more test prep.

Gallagher's connection between Olympic swimmers and reading was perfect. "An Olympic swimmer swims hundreds of thousands of laps before being judged in a medal race." "We put (students) in the "race" (in this case, high stakes reading testing) and ask them to perform well. However, there is a big problem: these students have not been the "pool" very much."

I also love how this chapter takes you step by step through ways to begin to solve this problem.

My two favorites:

Establish a book flood zone
 Don't expect students to go to the library, bring the books to the students.

This is something I started doing last year for my students. If a student gets "hooked" on a book series and I only have the first two novels, I will go to my library and check the next ones out for them. If I have two students that want to read the same book and I only have one copy, I go to the library and check out another copy.

Recognize and fight against summer reading loss.

My current 5th graders will leave on summer vacation at the end of the week with a novel in hand. I usually order 20+ copies of a novel to give it out each year. Then every year I have one or two students who look disappointed and I find out they have already read the book. This year I took a different approach. I spread out a box of 30+ books and gave each student a slip of paper. Everyone wrote down there top three choices. This way, each student not only goes home with a book they have never read, but one that they are interested in.

I am still processing all the information in chapter 2. I have a lot to think about and many changes I want to make next year. Now I just need to figure out how to do it.

What are you doing to prevent Readicide?

Hop on over to Erin's blog and check out what she thinks of chapter 2.

Check back next week when we discuss chapter 3 "Avoiding the Tsunami".