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Nov 13, 2011

Ryan rated it:

Whenever we read about education in America, the sky is falling. After all, you can't sell a book, a consultancy, a computer program, a policy, or the reform of a policy unless the sky is falling.

Right on your head!

Unfortunately, it's difficult to have a reasonable discussion of anything when the sky is falling. The sky has been falling on American students for generations, but it has always fallen especially hard during times of economic instability. So in that spirit, l More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

Donalyn rated it:

The latest book from consultant and high school teacher, Kelly Gallagher, explores how standardized-testing mania, whole class novel units, and other types of reading instruction destroy all love or interest in reading for kids.
For those of you who know me (or have talked to me for three minutes!), you can tell that Kelly was preaching to the choir here. The first part of the book was simply validation for what I already believe to be true with a heavy dose of research to back it up. The s More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

Kristin rated it:

How is it that our public schools have degenerated into test preparation centers? Why is it that in preparing our students to demonstrate progress via standardized tests, we've actually inhibited their growth as independent, creative thinkers? Since when are books missing from English classrooms, and what can we do to rekindle students' love of reading? We find the answers in Kelly Gallagher's Readicide.

I think Readicide is a highly accessible book that offers not only good informati More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2009

Claudia rated it:

Just reread this, and I'm even more impressed. Every teacher, English or not, needs to read this, and every school needs to follow these ideas. Gallagher shows how to avoid over-teaching and under-teaching the classics...how to frame the study of a challenging text, and how to support students' efforts. His book list is one I'll share with my students, and his ideas will find their way into our "Literacy Site Goal!"

I got to read a pre-publication copy, and I ordered my own More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

Jeffrey rated it:

This book is definitely worth reading, but I also found its tone annoying at times. The general ideas of Readicide are somewhat accurate. We are damaging the love of reading in our younger generations. I also agree that high stakes testing and reading programs full of lower-order-thinking type questions, competitive goals/prizes, and excessive reading-level limitations are among the culprits for this damage. However, Gallagher views these as the dominant factors in the problem. These issues woul More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Ada rated it:

Although geared mostly at educators in the school, this was a really good look at the ways our educational system has become part of the problem in regards to the widespread decline in reading. Gallagher primarily blames the increased focus on testing since the passage of No Child Left Behind and argues that the teaching methods that have developed since that time are actually bringing about further decline and educational discrepancies. Important reading for anyone who works with kids and you More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 27, 2011

Leslie rated it:

Well, this certainly confirmed my instincts about the Year of Reading I imposed on my junior classes. Instead of using the 26 minutes per cycle I have been allotted for SAT review this year(!?!), I decided that my honors students and I would be reading, all year, for no grade, whatever we chose(1 out of 6 days). Kelly Gallagher wrote a book that delineated all my reasons, and surprise, surprise, my results have been exactly as he predicted. Their reading skills in assigned readings have improved More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2012

Natalie rated it:

This book spoke straight to my heart. I am a reader - a staying up till 3am, books spilling out of the shelves, don't look at my Amazon bill, reader. To quote Thomas Jefferson "I cannot live without books." I am also a teacher. When I started teaching I remember telling people that my number one goal was to help my students learn to love reading as much as I do. I am in my fourth year of teaching and over the years I've noticed that many teachers become disillusioned and the new goal b More...

1 comment like

Feb 09, 2012

Shana rated it:

This book by Kelly Gallagher really put some real problems into perspective. He breaks the book down into chapters that are easy to read and reflect on what he has to say. I feel that so many schools are just going step-by-step through their curriculum that they no longer value the books that are classics. The classics may be long and hard to understand, but it is how people appreciate reading. Gallagher explains in his book that there are different types of techniques, such as the one pager More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Jeff rated it:

Readicide-
Test Prep.
1. A curriculum steeped in multi choice test prep drives shallow teaching and learning. (Edu. Psy.)
2. Rather than lift up strugglers raders, an emphasis on MC test prep ensures that struggling readers will continue to struggle. “Apartheid schools”
Education Trust
http://timss.bc.edu
TIMSS & PIRLS
Questions to ask yourself
1. What do we mean by our school values reading
2. Do higher test scores = long term reading
3. Why the highe More...

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Jun 06, 2011

Newengland rated it:

A pithy, well-written indictment of American Education's love affair (driven by the business and political communities) with standardized testing. As Gallagher point out with lots of evidence, it's killing any love of reading kids might learn at a young age.

Also included: how teachers may be inadvertently (or in some cases, deliberately) playing the roles of accomplices to the crime. These include the Scylla and Charybdis of readicide: overteaching a book and underteaching it. In More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 22, 2011

Mikey T rated it:

Readicide. This book was my first foray back into reading teaching based texts. I was a little apprehensive because I had been reading just about anything else, and a manual on teaching did not sound too thrilling. When approaching a text like this, I realized that I had no choice but to find a way to stir up some sort of interest because I had to read it for class. I figured I would give it a try and see what happens. I was surprised to see the Gallagher’s text as accessible as it was. Like his More...

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May 20, 2010

Jenny rated it:

Okay, so I wouldn't recommend that the average friend go out and purchase this book tomorrow. It might not hold your interest.... but as a teacher, it hooked me on about page two. I've typed up 5 pages of comments to share about it with a friend at work who is also reading it, but this is something I'm passionate about. No Child Left Behind and high stakes testing are ruining education for a lot of kids and I am truly scared for our future if we continue on the path we are heading on. Gallag More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 12, 2010

GNOWP added it

Reading is dying in our schools. Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline—poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment. In this provocative new book, Kelly Gallagher suggests, however, that it is time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading: our schools. In Readicide, Kelly argues that American schools are actively (though unwittingly) furthering the decline of reading. Spe More...

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Feb 14, 2010

Lars rated it:

This was a perfect book to read in conjunction with Nancie Atwell’s 'The Reading Zone,' along with my current reading on reading, Louise Rosenblatt’s seminal 'Literature as Exploration.'

All three authors emphasize the need for students to read what they are interested in reading, and to be given the time to pursue those interests. Both Atwell and Gallagher believe kids deserve the freedom to be captured and captivated by books, without having to fill out volumes of worksheets or pa More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2010

Diane rated it:

The author explains how school curriculum and Language Arts teachers, in particular, are destroying the joy of reading in our children. The overemphasis on skills, worksheets, prescriptive reading programs, and standardized tests have 'taught' kids that reading is boring and tedious. He uses examples from his own LA classes in Los Angeles high schools to show how we do this and how we can turn things around.

This is an argument that has been going on for years. I can remember readi More...

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Nov 06, 2009

Eric rated it:

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it offered phenomenal ideas for teaching English, and a very persuasive reminder of the power of reading, which all English teachers occasionally need, especially as we get bogged down in the daily rigors of the classroom.

My problem lies with some pretty huge assumptions Gallagher has made. Basically, his goal is thoughful, intelligent human beings who value reading. He is obviously one of these, as is everyone who reads this boo More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2009

edh rated it:

Anyone who works with youth should read this immediately, and everyone who works with adult readers can read this to better understand how these readers may have developed.

Kelly Gallagher has written a powerful indictment of contemporary educational strategies aimed at turning kids into literate, critically-thinking adults. Instead of producing lifelong readers with deep comprehension skills, a combination of testing and overteaching has created adults who are soured on the very act More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 11, 2011

Jeff rated it:

I don't have a memory of not knowing how to read.

My first memory is of my being at the hospital when my brother was born, followed shortly by my third birthday party. At age 3 I was already in nursery school and started Montessori shortly after that. I was already reading those silly joke books, and I've continued being a voracious reader to this day.

So this book wasn't about me. I can't relate to the problem it presents one iota. That's why this book was so scary and More...

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Mar 22, 2010

Kristin rated it:

I came across this book in my search for a professional book that would help me to become a better reading teacher. This book, an examination of teaching practices, helped me to see the light in so many ways. Kelly Gallagher reaffirmed some of my teaching practices: SSR and teaching one novel to a whole class, while showing me the importance of a more guided approach with my students.

One point that struck me, with the advent of No Child Left Behind and the push to have stude More...

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Sep 18, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This is the most important book I've read about teaching reading. More important that Atwell's In the Middle, which was my former touchstone. That's saying a lot.

I found this book inspiring. What I have to negotiate is the idea that it is impossible to fix all the problems that Gallagher exposes in how we teach literature. I'm inspired enough by his ideas and the research to think that I can make small steps in my own classroom to help the students I come into contact with better and More...

1 comment like

Aug 21, 2011

Daina rated it:

This is a book that all non-reading teachers need to read. The big ideas in this book that address the importance of a high volume of high interest reading, not using the drill and kill approach, not making kids "do something" with every book they read, and making time for recreational reading at school are HUGE, and ideas that I have been preaching for years, only to be faced with questions such as "How do you know they're reading?" "What are they learning when they're More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 20, 2010

Sebah rated it:

كتاب ممتع كثيرا ، يتناول الموضوع من عدة نواحي . لا أدري عن مدى قابلية تطبيق / صلاحية العوامل التي اقترحها في الأنظمة التدريسية العربية ، لكن الوسائل التي اقترحها ممكنة التطبيق بيسر .

وصلت لنصف الكتاب ، تقريبا ، و شاء الله لي أن تطير الاقتباسات / الملاحظات التي كنت قد دونتها مما قرأته . من بعدها فقدت الرغبة لإتمام الكتاب ، من إحباط تفويتي للكثير من الأشياء التي دونتها .

قد أعيد قراءته لاحقا ، إن سمح الوقت / الحالة النفسية .

لكن، بشكل عام ، أنصح به كل مدرس More...

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Jun 26, 2011

Elaine added it

I have mixed feelings about this book. The problem is I completely agree with what the author has to say (with one exception, that I'll address later). I believe Gallagher is preaching to the choir. The people who read this book are already going to be interested in reading and the growing trend of illiteracy amongst our students. They do not need convincing that students need to read more.

Once I got past that though, I felt he had some really useful methods of assisting students More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 24, 2009

Melissa rated it:

I agree with many of the concerns in this book but would love to see this written from the perspective of an elementary school teacher instead of a high school English teacher.

Mr Gallagher is correct when he says kindergartners come to us excited about learning to read. Their love for learning is contagious. However, that love for reading quickly diminishes. Sometimes as early as 1st grade.

As an elementary teacher, I believe many of our teachers overteach texts that More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2012

Beth rated it:

The only thing that bugs me about the time it took me to finish Readicide is that I didn’t read it sooner. I’ve had it on my TBR (to-be-read) shelf since early summer, but just never managed the time to sit down and read it.

Now, I’ll have to sit down with it again (the ultimate kudo for any book I read) so I can absorb its wisdom a second time.

The concept of Readicide isn’t new, it isn’t novel and it isn’t guaranteed to raise your test scores in a single school year. It’s More...

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Oct 27, 2011

Ryan rated it:

I thought this was definitely an interesting read, not least of all because I teach English. It certainly says a lot about how system, how the No Child Left Behind act has done exactly what it proportes to stop. The argument is made that schools are so obsessed with test scores that we cease to teach, to enlighten, to create life-long readers in favor of test preparation lessons and drills. True? Yeah, but most of us already knew that. There’s a lot of studies cited to back the guy up, he sounds More...

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Aug 08, 2010

Karla rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Sep 29, 2009

Debbie rated it:

Gallagher's amazing resource is a quick, easy read that teachers should bump to the top to their TBR piles. He explains, in simple terms, why the focus on standardized test prep is hurting American students.

As a teacher, I hear the phrases "lifelong learner" and "independent reader" being tossed about constantly. We SAY we want these things for our students, but what we DO is to force so much basic comprehension and skill and drill on our students that many wi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 02, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

Gallagher offers a convincing theory on how schools are killing the love of reading, which is ironically the very thing they are supposed to be instilling in their students. He argues that the emphasis on standardized tests coupled with teaching academic books to death means that students stop reading for fun. What's so important about recreational reading? It helps students develop vocabulary, background knowledge, and reading speed. All these elements are important to becoming better readers, More...

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