Do-do-do-do-dooooo. I’m lovin’ it! I swear if I was smart enough to know how to get that McDonald’s theme song playing on here, I’d do it. This book is just awesome!!! I have so much highlighted in this chapter, I’m finding it difficult to narrow a quote down! Let’s just go with this one…
(Page 40) “Novels are not part of the problem; the problem lies in how the novels are taught.”
Who can tell me who Atticus Finch’s first two clients were when he became an attorney? C’mon, most all of us have read To Kill a Mockingbird. Surely, having that information about Atticus is important, right? It gives us information about Atticus’ abilities as an attorney, right? Ugh! WHO CARES??? I think this is the kind of stuff Gallagher is getting at with the problem of how novels are taught. Sometimes we get so caught up in teaching the novel itself instead of the theme or what we learn from the novel. When teaching a particular novel, ask yourself this question: What do I want my students to get out of this book? By focusing on the theme, we can relate it to students’ lives and make the book more relevant (particularly those books written by the Dead White Men who did not write for a teenage audience). Once we know what we want our students to get from the book, we need to make sure our final assessment reflects that. If we want students to realize the signs of abuse when reading Breathing Underwater, then why ask them who Nick’s best friend is? (Sidebar: I’ve read that book at least a dozen times, I can’t think of the name of Nick’s best friend off the top of my head.) Also, by focusing on the theme instead of the details of the book, I think it helps with students who don’t necessarily love the book. It’s not very often you’ll find a book that absolutely everyone loves, so if it’s approached as using it to examine a theme, then it becomes more of a tool for analysis than just reading a book because it’s supposed to be good. Also, with the classics, there needs to be lots of teacher support for instruction. Again, these are not novels that were written for teenagers, so why would we just have them read the pages without much help? Would you want to read a tax code book without any guidance from an accountant???
Oh, and just in case you’re dying to know about Atticus Finch’s first two clients…they were the last two men hanged in Maycomb county. And just so ya know, I’ve read To Kill a Mockinbird several times but didn’t know that about Atticus. I had to break out the book to come up with that question.
(Page 40) “Novels are not part of the problem; the problem lies in how the novels are taught.”
Who can tell me who Atticus Finch’s first two clients were when he became an attorney? C’mon, most all of us have read To Kill a Mockingbird. Surely, having that information about Atticus is important, right? It gives us information about Atticus’ abilities as an attorney, right? Ugh! WHO CARES??? I think this is the kind of stuff Gallagher is getting at with the problem of how novels are taught. Sometimes we get so caught up in teaching the novel itself instead of the theme or what we learn from the novel. When teaching a particular novel, ask yourself this question: What do I want my students to get out of this book? By focusing on the theme, we can relate it to students’ lives and make the book more relevant (particularly those books written by the Dead White Men who did not write for a teenage audience). Once we know what we want our students to get from the book, we need to make sure our final assessment reflects that. If we want students to realize the signs of abuse when reading Breathing Underwater, then why ask them who Nick’s best friend is? (Sidebar: I’ve read that book at least a dozen times, I can’t think of the name of Nick’s best friend off the top of my head.) Also, by focusing on the theme instead of the details of the book, I think it helps with students who don’t necessarily love the book. It’s not very often you’ll find a book that absolutely everyone loves, so if it’s approached as using it to examine a theme, then it becomes more of a tool for analysis than just reading a book because it’s supposed to be good. Also, with the classics, there needs to be lots of teacher support for instruction. Again, these are not novels that were written for teenagers, so why would we just have them read the pages without much help? Would you want to read a tax code book without any guidance from an accountant???
Oh, and just in case you’re dying to know about Atticus Finch’s first two clients…they were the last two men hanged in Maycomb county. And just so ya know, I’ve read To Kill a Mockinbird several times but didn’t know that about Atticus. I had to break out the book to come up with that question.
8 comments:
Readicide Chapter 2
Diane, I completely agree; Gallagher and Readicide are just awesome.
At the beginning of this year, I was struggling with a student who didn’t find value in the book Slam. At the end of last year, a few of my students who I knew would be returning had asked if could start the year off with Slam and usually it’s difficult to motivate them to show interest in many books, so I was happy to oblige. The student who was struggling viewed herself as a white, non-athletic female who had no relation to that of an African-American athletic male like in the story. Diane, when you asked me what I wanted my students to gain from Slam, I realized that I knew what I wanted them to gain, but I’d never told them. The class and I discussed the fine lines that come with peer pressure, living in poverty, trying to keep up with persona’s that others have of us, getting into a downward cycle and not knowing how or desiring how to get out of it, etc. After that, she understood that she had quite a bit more in common with the character than she thought & was definitely more responsive and open to learning the theme vs. minute details that end up being irrelevant when recalling important information learned.
(pg 30) “We put them in the “race” (in this case, high-stakes reading tests) and ask them to perform well. However, there is a big problem: these students have not been in the pool very “much.” ~ This is something that affects my kids in such a huge way. Every time October and April hit, I start freaking out pretty good about how unprepared my kids are for HSAP. I’m stronger in English, so I do feel I am able to teach them more in depth. However, even at that, I haven’t had the training in Math or English that a core subject teacher has, and for the majority of academic subjects, I’m the only teacher my students will have. For self contained students, having one teacher is what they’re used to throughout their educational career. That’s not a terrible thing, but to me, it does put them at a great disadvantage in comparison to those students who have had the advantage of being taught by multiple core subject teachers. Combined with the fact that they are anywhere from 2-8 grade levels behind their age of peers in reading, I freak out because I know sending them in for a standardized test of the HSAP caliber is often setting many of my students up to fail. Even though we work on questions they will face during HSAP throughout the whole year, I emphasize much more as the test draws near and the kids do notice the pressure that comes with the 100 times they’ll hear me say “You’ll see this on HSAP.” Repeating that phrase drives me nuts, so I’m sure it doesn’t help garner interest in being a life long reader for them.
Readicide, Chapter Two
I’ll have to be a repeat here. I’m lovin’ it, too! Diane, your To Kill a Mockingbird question made me think of my elementary school days when we did Accelerated Reader. It has been a good while. Isn’t that what it was called? Anyway, we had to read so many “points” in the school year. Each book was worth different values. Here’s the kicker. After we read the books, we would take a ten question test on a computer to determine how many points we earned. I remember one time I read a book and was really excited about it. I loved it…read it cover to cover. However, when I took the A.R. test, I hardly passed. I must admit, I remember the moment I saw that grade. And it did everything BUT encourage me as a reader. It’s so very true that we must make it clear what we want students to gain from their reading. Reciting the characters’ names and the plot of the novel do not teach students anything. They must dig deeper and analyze the piece. This is exactly why I agree with Gallagher that it’s important for kids to read novels…longer works…ones that challenge them and that they can grow with.
I found myself like you, Diane. I highlighted a lot. However, one of my favorite quotes was the following:
“People who are undernourished need good food. Readers who are undernourished need good books.”
I couldn’t agree more. We can’t throw endless test-formatted reading passages at kids simply to get them prepared for the end-of-the-year. We must get them ready for life. Many of our kids are undernourished readers, and what they definitely need is a wide-selection of good books. One of my weaknesses is going into Books-A-Million. I love building my classroom library. I love having endless options for my students to choose from. Even more than that, I love it when a student comes up to me and asks for another. I love it when she shares that this is the first book she has read on her own. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what will make a difference in test scores.
Chapter 2 – Readicide
Better late than never, I am finally blogging about this wonderful chapter. Diane, I got a kick out of your post about the questions from To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember when I was teaching sixth grade language arts, and I thought I was so fancy and cutting edge with my ten comprehension questions that I typed up for each of the chapters in The Lottery Rose. I was reading a novel instead of just using the basal, but I sure did kill the joy for that book when I would take off 2 points on every answer for not capitalizing the first word in the sentence, or for not putting a period at the end of the sentence, or for not writing in a complete sentence. Did any of that matter? Who really cares what the lottery number on Georgie’s ticket was? Surely it was more important that the students felt sorrow in their hearts for this poor little boy who seemed to have one bad thing after another happen to him. Yes, every year I had sixth grade boys crying as we read the end of the book. If you have never read this novel, come to my room and borrow a copy, please
Kelly Gallagher is so right when he says on page 43, “This bears repeating: struggling readers who do not read voraciously will never catch up.” Just today one of my sophomores in 4th block said, “We have to do independent reading again. I read in English and in 3rd block already today.” I didn’t reply; I just merely stared reading my book, and guess what? He started reading, also, and didn’t want to quit when I announced to find a stopping place. My students need to read, and they will read if given lots of good books and lots of time.
My absolute favorite part of this chapter is the Article of the Week Concept discussed on pages 47-50. I read about this during the summer and got on Gallagher’s website to look at the articles. I used the one about ten things to be thankful for at the beginning of the year. I am planning on using the one referenced in the book about cell phones causing cancer. I think this is a great concept for helping our students make sense of the real world and all of the things happening daily in our world. Also, our students need to interact with more informational text. It is harder to read, so I did a shared reading with the article at the beginning of the year, and I will probably continue to use shared reading during the year. Diane, I think it would be a great idea for us to start our own library of Articles of the Week at Airport. After we get a good collection, we could share them with the rest of the faculty. You are so good with technology (yes, I’m buttering you up), that I am sure you could get a collection started. Maybe, everyone who is blogging could contribute a couple. In the meantime, everyone should check out the ones on Kelly Gallagher’s website.
Those are my thoughts for Ch.2. Sorry for being tardy with my post!
I, also, LOVE this book. As I went to plan out my response to Chapter 2, I had a very hard time trying to figure out which points I most wanted to respond to because I had highlighted so many. (I read the entire book as soon as school let out in the summer and now I am re-digesting.) Two of my favorite analogies were the 'swimming the race without being in the pool enough' and the 'undernourished readers needing good books'. Thanks to Ruth Anne and Karen for reading my mind and eliminating the need for me to reiterate their thoughts. For these very reasons, the kids in my classes MUST read every day. It's amazing how many ninth graders need to build up their 'reading endurance' so they won't fall asleep while reading for HSAP! I have three students who consistently fall asleep during the current 25-minute time; how will they ever stay awake for three hours! I know it won't likely happen, but the goal is to develop a love of reading in every student. Maybe after a year with me AND a year with you, Pam, they'll get it.
Page 38 talks about students with the broadest base of knowledge being the ones with the highest chances of scoring well on exit exams. All of my personal experience backs this up. (I haven't yet looked at Gallagher's Article of the Week website because I'll get side-tracked and never do this post.) For the past two years, my goal has been one news article per quarter. Baby steps - or my kids' case, bug steps! It's amazing to see how difficult it is for the students to comprehend a standard newspaper article. They can read the words, that isn't the problem. We'll see how they do with our next article which is about a state proposing to raise the dropout age to 18. They typically can't identify the purpose of the article, they can't find support for the advantages of a given position, and they can't find the transition words to signify the support for the alternative position. But I keep plugging away because it is so important that they a) understand real-world issues and b) don't give up until they can make sense of words on a page.
And Diane, Nick's best friend is Tom. (Reading it now!) This year I'm trying something different. Shelley and I are doing the novel at different time, so I had each kid check out their own copy from the library.
I, for one, was scared by Healy's conclusion that if we fail to meet certain developmental windows, parts of a student's cognition may never be developed! (39) Leaving the parental responsibility out of this (although, as Jim Trelease pointed out, a parent has considerably more time with any one child than a teacher will), it is vital that we as teachers are challenging and stretching our students' thinking to develop those parts of the brain.
I also appreciated that Gallagher addressed the fact that the point isn't to read something that everyone will like; rather, the point is to read something for the themes. Karen, I think it's really cool that switching your focus to the theme helped your student understand Slam better.
Man, there was just so much good stuff, I can't figure out what to talk about.
I guess I'll mention this: On p. 32, Gallagher quotes Maryanne Wolf, saying "It is not simply a matter of the number of words unheard and unlearned. When words are not heard, concepts are not learned." For me as a language person, this is especially relevant. The German word for checkers is "Damenspiel" or "Woman's game." I try every year with my German 1 classes to get them to figure that out. By that time, they know "spiel" means game, so I try to get them to connect Damen with Dame, as in Dame Judi Dench. But I am always floored, by the fact that next to none of my students recognize the word "dame." I mean, haven't they at least watched South Pacific? But in addition to their English vocabulary and cognition affecting their German development, we in the American school system also seriously underrate the affect that learning a foreign language has on basic, overall cognitive development. In the same way that learning a native language develops and stretches the brain, foreign language instruction helps to develop more than a code to be able to talk to other people. And yet, as a whole, language instruction is pushed aside, perhaps to surface for a few semesters is high school - because parents don't want their students' learning to take away from things that will develop their brain!! Pardon me if I sound like I'm on a soapbox, but I am! We are missing the prime window of opportunity to develop children's brains by denying them learning that will in fact enhance their cognitive ability! Language - any language - develops the whole person and as such needs to be an overwhelming presence in a student's education and environment.
Whoa. Did not realize how strongly I felt about that. Soooo, talk to you all in a few weeks!
I have to share this story with y’all. I went to the Twilight trivia at lunch on Thursday (I’m a Twilight fan in case you didn’t know. :-)), but I didn’t know half of the answers to the questions. I was sitting at a table with a student and an English teacher, and the English teacher made the comment that she was questioning herself as an English teacher since she didn’t know most of the answers either. I told her I think it just goes to show that you can enjoy/love/obsess over a book and not know the little details. I mean really, just because I couldn’t remember the name of Charlie’s friend who died does that mean I can’t have an appreciation for the book? I think my devotion to going to the midnight show on Thursday proves otherwise! Oh, and the English teacher made the comment that she might have to rethink some of the grades she has given to her students!
READICIDE: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It
One of the things that I am most appreciative about teaching at Airport High School is the fact that our administrative staff supports the school wide SSR program. This program provides the opportunity for students to read when they put forth the effort, as in any student program individuals do not always realize the future benefit until later in life. If only all the students will take advantage of this time. I agree whole heartily with Gallagher’s statement on page 43—“This bears repeating: struggling readers who do not read voraciously will never catch up. On a personal note, I have seen a great deal of my students take advantage of this which is pleasing and awarding. My students that take advantage of this time I have seen improvements in their writing as well. Diane, do you know what the statistics at AHS on the effects of SSR towards the HSAP? Did the HSAP scores improve or increase since SSR became a part of Airport.
I have found this book to be another awesome book by this author. It would be fantastic if this great author could be in a leadership position or role that effects the decisions that governs education in the United States. Maybe, our schools and students could rank as #1 in reading in the world instead of Finland. Am I being far fetching or dreamy, but it really would be outstanding.
Deb, I don't know that any data has been done on Airport's SSR-HSAP correlation. To have a true measurement, though, we would need to compare the kids who were in classrooms where SSR was expected/enforced by the teacher to those students who were in the classrooms that allowed students to use the time as a study hall.
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