Final Week: Readicide Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Final Week of Focused on Fifth's Readicide Blog Hop!

This week we will wrap up all the exciting thoughts in Chapter 5 from Kelly Gallagher's inspirational novel!

    If you're just tuning in now, Readicide is the slow death of our students' love for reading.  It's the drill and kill methods we've used.  It's the constant focus on test preparation.  It's those moments we stop a really good chapter book in order to take notes or learn a new objective.  It's the death of readers in general.

   Here's a powerful quote from Readicide chapter 5 that sums the purpose of this book in a nutshell:

Students who read less, read less well, do less well in school.  People who do less well in school, do less well in the workplace and participate less in civic life.

55% of low readers are unemployed!

   Gallagher reminds his readers that students today are technology junkies; however, reading on the internet is a somewhat shallow skill. We read headlines, skim, and look for links.  We're not really challenging ourselves cognitively when we are just getting our reading from websites.  It's no surprise really that 1 out of 3 students drop out of high school. I know in my home state of Nevada, we have closer to a 40-50% drop out rate in most counties.  On average, 50% of all Latino and African American students drop out of high school.  I think all of this data points to one fact we cannot ignore: we're doing something wrong.

   We can point the finger at all sort of political causes, people, and groups for these failures, but deep down, change must begin in our own classrooms first.  These are some action plans I am going to put into place after reading Readicide.

1. Incorporate 20 minutes a day of silent reading time. Studies show that 20 minutes a day will equate to your students being exposed to over a million extra words a year!  That's a lot of words for your students to feast upon!

2. Use the 50/50 approach to literacy block.   Spend 50% of the time on recreational reading (silent reading, fun read alouds, book clubs without tons of worksheets) and spend the 50% of the time on challenging academic reading. This is where you can incorporate reading strategies, cross curricular reading, and reading books that are on a higher grade level to navigate through with your students.

3. Search for academically challenging literature for your students, and provide a guided tour of these books for them.  You should try to find books that are one to two grade levels above the 

4. Try incorporating critical thinking, problem solving skills, and creative pursuits into lessons instead of just basic skills.  

5.  Read the novel Readicide by Kelly Gallagher!

 I have already asked my principal if I can present Readicide ideas to our staff before school starts this next year.  He said he's been reading Kelly Gallagher too, and while it's too far out to make promises, he will definitely think about letting me present.  So, I guess that's a tiny step in the right direction. 

So, now I turn the tables on you! What can you do to prevent Readicide from happening at your school next year?  If you have no idea what Readicide is, then I think your first step should be to buy Kelly Gallaghers book: Readicide!

Thanks for stopping by readers.  If you haven't hopped through all the blogs yet please check them out starting with: