the late post

As with every chapter in this book, I find that i agree with a lot of the points that Gallagher is making. There are some points that I have a problem with as well however. I especially like the part about the standards: that the sheer overwhelming abundance of standards inhibits the students from learning. This is something that I have noticed many teachers are aware of. There are often so many standards and questions that are associated with those standards that understanding the content becomes difficult. Not only is it difficult for the students to learn, it is also difficult for the teacher to teach. We want these children to learn the content but with so many standards it is hard.
I understand the point that he is trying to make when he says that we over analyze books and make them boring. However, I think that he overestimates the importance and existence of the "flow". There are many kids, who is we did not stop and have them analyze the reading, would not participate. While getting into the zone of reading is important and fun, it does not work for every student. I think that some analyzation is called for in the class because there are students that need to have the content broken down. The slow readers and the ones that are not developmentally on the same level as the good readers need to have the book broken down in my opinion.

Response to Readicide: What is the message? What is your reaction? What are your connections to school experiences? What are ways you now understand will help students read more effectively in your discipline?

When I read the first chapter of Readicide I think that it depressed me more than anything. I agree wholeheartedly with what the author is saying and I don't see any way that this trend is going to change. I think that with every age group there are now less and less readers. While this can be attributed to the parents, laziness of the child, and other more entertaining media outlets, it is obvious that there is a problem in our schools. Schools should be a place that encourage reading any way that they can but they have gotten away from this with every new year and new policy change. The authors message of the dangers of teaching to the test is an important one and I think that all new teachers should listen to it.

I think that we as teachers all saw a little of this phenomenon in our student teaching. Trying to get the students to read is akin to pulling teeth and what they do read they often do not comprehend. I believe that the fostering of enjoying reading has to be instilled at a very young age and continued through out a student's development. However, the educational system seems more interested in statistics than it does the well being of the students that it educates. The test score is more important than the content that went into it and reading gets pushed to the side. I think that one of the best ways to get students to read is to give them choices in the decision. Arbitrarily assigning one text to the whole class never seems to go off smoothly and I believe that if we just gave the kids a chance to choose for themselves they would be more interested in reading. they may only have two or three choices to pick from but at least they have a hand in picking what they want to do. the choices can be educational and on the topic of what we are teaching.