My colleagues joke about my “inner German,” but to be honest, my German is pretty much on the outside too. I don’t apologize for my love of order and my dedication to rules. If there is a rule, it should be enforced. We need structure: It is a building block of society. My students often don’t understand what this has to do with chewing gum, but they kindly acquiesce and consequently my trashcan is a pile of gum at the end of each day. This love of order also instructs how I teach English. There are ways for us to approach texts; we will have homework and we will analyze together. Kelly Gallagher’s new book Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What We Can Do about It challenges my inner German. His argument that in order to fuel the love of reading that is often lost in students sometime between third grade and seventh grade, we need to have unstructured reading time with texts that will not be closely examined. He wants students to experience the “flow” if reading. This much freedom would send me into a swivet. How will I know if my students are actually doing the reading? How will I hold them accountable? How could I possibly take classroom time to let students sit around and read and not feel like I am reverting to elementary school tactics? Despite this discomfort, I really think he has a point.
Right now I am trying to drag 43 reluctant 10th graders through A Tale of Two Cities. I think it would be easier to take them all to the dentist and then off to do some yardwork. They literally have looks of physical pain while we are doing this. And that leads me in two directions. First it is causing me to articulate my approach to this novel more carefully and secondly, seriously consider Gallagher’s suggestion. These students would not be in so much pain if they were better readers. Dickens’ is tough and, as Gallagher argues, they should not be tackling this text alone, but when this may be all they read, their skills are not improving. It is like trying to train a high school pole vaulter by setting the bar at the world record. They aren’t going to like the sport for long.
So Gallagher’s 50/50 suggestion makes sense to me. We need to find a balance between structure and the freedom to explore. And I hope my discomfort will lead to some newly engaged readers. I still will not be about to embrace this with 100% certainty. I look forward to the online discussion with others across the country. Locally, I would like to try to invite the other members of the 10th grade team into this challenge and perhaps create some Nings that are moderated by each of us. Each semester we can select a list of books that we have read and then moderate these groups throughout the entire 10th grade class. I can get to know some new students; the students can engage with each other across the classes and we can all read some books together.
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I suggest more than the 10th grade team get involved in the discussion and the reading nings. In fact, it seems he made some interesting observations about current events and reading articles that could transcend English class and involve the other departments and the library. Students need to read Newsweek and Popular Science and should articulate their opinions and responses- thats where writing and blogging might find a place. What does this mean for summer reading?
I agree with Elizabeth; a broader approach would be a good idea for all of us. I liked what he said about the dearth of reading for students fosters a certain cultural illiteracy that we cannot afford.
Bravo, Lynn. It's scary, giving up control of the classroom, but I know that some of the best gains in reading skills have happened for my students during the weeks when I turn over the space to them to read and write on their own. As Team 11 retools the Author Project into this year's debut Living Voices Project, I want to make sure that I give my students real classroom time to read and engage their authors. It's strange for me to pencil in "workshop" on all those days up to and after spring break, but I am certain that my reluctant readers will grow during these 4 weeks and my avid readers will look forward to putting their gifts to work.
Bravo, Lynn. It's scary, giving up control of the classroom, but I know that some of the best gains in reading skills have happened for my students during the weeks when I turn over the space to them to read and write on their own. As Team 11 retools the Author Project into this year's debut Living Voices Project, I want to make sure that I give my students real classroom time to read and engage their authors. It's strange for me to pencil in "workshop" on all those days up to and after spring break, but I am certain that my reluctant readers will grow during these 4 weeks and my avid readers will look forward to putting their gifts to work.
I think accountability during workshop days is still something we have to think through. How do you hold them accountable and foster love of reading too? I know workshop days are good for some kids but some just don't engage and use them well because there is a perceived lessening of accountability (I'm speaking as a parent now who watched her son do nothing on workshop days unless he had to reflect and blog for Ms. Shepley). I don't have an answer but the reflecting and blogging are as close as I can come. Of course I think blogging is better than the paper journal as the more public forum tends to make them write a little more carefully and that might offer a way to kill two birds with one stone- increase love of reading/reading ability and increase writing skills.
If we have them read current events articles, the use of WebNotes to make annotations they can share with others could have some merit too. http://www.webnotes.net/
I think this conversation has larger academic ramifications beyond reading. It demands an even larger conversation about how we teach in general. How much leverage and control are we willing to give students in what they study and focus on? While there are certainly curricular requirements, the learning impulse is something we should also be nurturing. I think that is perhaps the larger import of readicide for all of us as educators.
I'm with Elizabeth & Scott: the pleasures and wisdom available through reading have to begin their growth in whatever soil the reader has available. My best conversions/conversations with kids about books have been those one-on-one meetings that start out to be about something else and then wander into the land of "oh, if you are interested in that, then you should read..." We get smarter along all our margins, not just our literary ones; at least some of reading in school ought to have room for picking something suddenly connected to a curiosity or a love. The reflection through blogs or journals or talk is an extension of how we understand or love what we read. In my late years I have given up book clubs and now just have Reading Buddies; I share a book I love with whomever I think will also love it. There ought to be some sort of structure we can give kids that will give them control over their choices and the social connection to make those choices known in the world. When it works, it's called thinking.
You can actually engage in an asynchronous conversation with Gallagher, the author, here: (until Jan. 22)
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/2009/01/voicethread-gallagher-and-readicide-.html
I have a two-page comment about this, but I know better. Needless to say, I think his missing some generational aspects to our lack of reading. I take issue with the idea that I'm taking the books apart for the sake of it or to give them test-taking skills.
I do agree that students need more freedom with their reading and a little less mechanics, but I'm not ready to blame readicide on study guides.
The imminent apocalypse of literature is sometimes as absurd as 2012. Should we be doing something to promote reading? Yes. But to say that freedom is what they need is simple and overconfident. A little freedom is a but start to building strong readers.
The internet taught me how to be a reader and English class followed. This is a new world, and we'll never return to the old one where people gather at the "parlour" to hear their father recite poetry or psalms. Once we start to value other mediums of creativity and communication with the same weight as we do books, we'll make progress.
Lynn, I feel your pain. I am @snobles' colleague, and I have returned to the classroom for one year (after working as a tech coordinator for 7 years). My ninth-grade students struggle with difficult texts, too. I dreaded Frankenstein, thinking it would be torture. I approached it by framing Frank in pop culture, having them consider current scientific/medical advancements (pros and cons) involving ethical and moral dilemmas. I also have had them annotate with highlighters and sticky notes, taking time each day to have each student share a line or passage that meant something. We are working through it together (much as I did A Tale of Two Cities with my 8th graders years ago.) This tie to their lives, making this novel relevant, seems to be working. Two students said today it was their "favorite school-assigned book ever." Oh, and Elizabeth's comment about blogging? This has made a huge difference. We found some college students reading the novel who were willing to jump in with some comments, but even getting into conversations with each other online seems to have made this book matter more. I hope your is going well, too. I'm sure your thoughtful approach will produce similar results. (Take a look at our blogs if you want: http://fablogs.org/smorgan)
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