Readicide

Readicide
by Patrick Woessner | Mon, 01/19/2009 - 13:30

read-i-cide: noun, the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.

--Kelly Gallagher

Thus begins Gallagher's latest book, Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. Gallagher and his publisher, Stenhouse, have graciously made Readicide available as a free download in advance of its hardcopy release later this spring.  As an educator, and parent of a reluctant reader, I jumped at the opportunity to get a "sneak peak" at this important and informative work.

Gallagher asserts that there are four major factors that contribute to readicide:

• Schools value the development of test-takers more than they value the development of readers
• Schools are limiting authentic reading experiences
• Schools are overteaching books
• Schools are underteaching books

Through the course of Readicide, Gallagher expands these points and builds a compelling argument for why we have collectively failed to instill a passion for reading in our students and offers some fresh and practical advice for improving the situation.  Rather than detail his ideas here, however, I would encourage you to read his work first-hand and then share your thoughts with the author and other professionals via his five stop blog book tour.

For the next few days, Gallagher will be visiting with Bill Ferriter and his readers on The Tempered Radical.  Ferriter is using VoiceThread to foster asynchronous conversations, and the comments and exchanges that have occurred thus far are quite interesting.  Anyone concerned with the state of reading and reading instruction would be well served to peruse Readicide, take Gallagher's recommendations under consideration, and join the online discussion. 

It's not too late to save reading...or our students.

 

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