I’m so excited that you all wanted to continue with the professional book blog. And I’m even more excited that we’re reading more of Kelly Gallagher! Seriously, how fabulous can one person be? McDonald’s words best describes my feeling about Readicide: I’m lovin’ it! As usual, Gallagher packs so much punch into a small space that I had a hard time choosing just a couple of quotes to pull. I didn’t want to use more so I wouldn’t steal what someone else wanted to bring to light. I ran into Christy last week and she wants to get together just to talk about the book! So, keep that thought in the back of your mind…we may have to have a study group reunion and chat! It won’t have to be at school. This reading is by all choice—no grades or anything attached—so we can go somewhere fun if y’all want! On to the text…
Introduction
(Page 2) “Today, more than ever, valuable classroom time presents the best opportunity—often the only opportunity—to turn kids on to reading.”
I think I’ve told y’all before, but one of the things I miss about being in the classroom is getting to read for 90 minutes every day. (3 classes x 30 minutes of SSR each day = 90 minutes) Life outside of school is busy—for teachers AND students. How many students do we have who have to take care of siblings after school? Work to help pay the bills? Involved in extra-curricular activities? Just deal with crazy drama at home? All of that other stuff can make it difficult to have time to read. By giving students that time at school (hence school-wide SSR) we are introducing students to the world of reading just for the heck of it. My only concern about school-wide SSR is the teachers who don’t value the time, and the students don’t value the time as a result of teacher behavior. I’m not saying everyone needs to read a novel—that’s not realistic real world reading. But how can we get the teachers who are not so excited about SSR to realize that they do actually read—be it the newspaper, magazines, et cetera—so they can translate to students that reading is important?
Chapter One
(Page 21) “Less than 14 percent of low-income students are reading at grade level.”
Alright, let’s think about this for a minute in terms of Airport. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60% of our students on free and reduced lunch. Free and reduced lunch is an indicator of poverty. That means roughly 840 of our students are low-income students, so when going by the statistic Gallagher provides, we’ve got about 720 students who do NOT read on grade level at Airport High School. If around half of our population are not able to read on grade level, why in the world would we assign them textbook reading without any guidance? Why would we have them read classic novels—that were written for an adult audience—for homework and expect them to understand what they read? I’m not saying that we shouldn’t set high expectations for students and not utilize the resources. (Well, okay, maybe I wouldn’t mind skipping most of the classics!) What I am saying is that if we are going to use these materials, we’ve got to provide MUCH support IN class, so that students can get something from it. Are students learning how to think from the material we’re using, or are they just “playing” school? Are we just dispensers of knowledge, doling out what we think students should know, or are we letting students discuss readings with their peers and the class so they can THINK and discover new knowledge?
Introduction
(Page 2) “Today, more than ever, valuable classroom time presents the best opportunity—often the only opportunity—to turn kids on to reading.”
I think I’ve told y’all before, but one of the things I miss about being in the classroom is getting to read for 90 minutes every day. (3 classes x 30 minutes of SSR each day = 90 minutes) Life outside of school is busy—for teachers AND students. How many students do we have who have to take care of siblings after school? Work to help pay the bills? Involved in extra-curricular activities? Just deal with crazy drama at home? All of that other stuff can make it difficult to have time to read. By giving students that time at school (hence school-wide SSR) we are introducing students to the world of reading just for the heck of it. My only concern about school-wide SSR is the teachers who don’t value the time, and the students don’t value the time as a result of teacher behavior. I’m not saying everyone needs to read a novel—that’s not realistic real world reading. But how can we get the teachers who are not so excited about SSR to realize that they do actually read—be it the newspaper, magazines, et cetera—so they can translate to students that reading is important?
Chapter One
(Page 21) “Less than 14 percent of low-income students are reading at grade level.”
Alright, let’s think about this for a minute in terms of Airport. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60% of our students on free and reduced lunch. Free and reduced lunch is an indicator of poverty. That means roughly 840 of our students are low-income students, so when going by the statistic Gallagher provides, we’ve got about 720 students who do NOT read on grade level at Airport High School. If around half of our population are not able to read on grade level, why in the world would we assign them textbook reading without any guidance? Why would we have them read classic novels—that were written for an adult audience—for homework and expect them to understand what they read? I’m not saying that we shouldn’t set high expectations for students and not utilize the resources. (Well, okay, maybe I wouldn’t mind skipping most of the classics!) What I am saying is that if we are going to use these materials, we’ve got to provide MUCH support IN class, so that students can get something from it. Are students learning how to think from the material we’re using, or are they just “playing” school? Are we just dispensers of knowledge, doling out what we think students should know, or are we letting students discuss readings with their peers and the class so they can THINK and discover new knowledge?
