Readicide by Kelly Gallagher

For a previous course, I read material by Gallagher and am fond of how he writes. He writes from the perspective of a teacher who truly cares about student success and does so in an approachable way. In this text, I remained engaged and never had trouble comprehending the material. This is critical, as many education texts are dense and difficult to understand-- let alone implement into the classroom.
 Readicide is a quick read that says outright they schools are killing a love for reading, explains HOW this is being done, and offers multiple solutions for the issue. Not every students will enjoy every text that I assign, that is normal and not the issue. The issue, Gallagher explains, is the emphasis we put on testing and the way students are being forced to read. State tests will often test kids on their recollection of data and when students are taught to read in this way, there is no way to draw enjoyment from the text. Reading is meant to be an active and personal task where the reader is consistently making connections to the text for themselves and connections with other material. That is the fun way to read and actually does lead to the critical thinking skills we wish all students to have when they enter the world as adults.
Gallagher does not call for the complete removal of state tests-- he recognizes that the presence of them is very real and will remain. Instead, he proposes that we teach kids not how to read for the tests, but to teach them to read actively and critically. Good readers will pass any test and with real knowledge of how to read rather than simply knowing how to be good test takers. Teaching with less emphasis on the tests will make reading more enjoyable for students and inevitably, they will take more away from the texts.
Again, what I love most about this text is that Gallagher is not simply pointing out an issue, he is giving tips on how to solve it. This will be exceedingly helpful as I see my own students lose interest in what we teach. Students will come in knowing how to read in its most basic sense. The way we read as English students is far more involved than simply knowing what words are on a page. By playing an active role in showing students how to read at a more meta-cognitive level and giving them to read how they want, readicide can be prevented.