Essential Question: How can we avoid "readicide" and

instill a love for reading?

Do Now: Think about:

•First book read to you?•First book you read alone?•Favorite book?  Why is it a favorite?

What was the impetus to read it?•Are your students readers?•What (if anything) drives them to read?

2006 report on adolescent literacy by the NationalCouncil of Teachers of English:

• calamitous, universal falling off of reading occurs around the age of 13

• secondary school students are reading at a rate significantly below expected levels

• one in four secondary students are unable to read and comprehend the material in their textbooks.

• one-half of students are ready for college-level reading

What are the culprits behind the decline in reading?

• poverty• lack of parent education• print poor environments• second language learners• over scheduling of children• electronic media competition• readicide

Read-i-cide

noun, the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane,

mind-numbing practices found in schools.

• The development of test-takers.• Overteaching • Limiting authentic reading.• Underteaching

The Four Factors Supporting Readicide

The Elephant in the Room

Test Prep

What are"Beating the Odds" schools doing?

Test prep does not mean mere practice of test related items. Rather the focus is on the underlying knowledge and skills needed to do well in coursework and in life   Lessons  have relevance to students' lives, often connecting the learning to other classrooms, as well as with the outside  world.    

  

What are"Beating the Odds" schools doing?

Students are taught strategies for thinking. "The tenor of the instructional environment is such that, even after students reach instructional goals, English language arts teachers move students beyond them toward deeper understanding   of and ability to generate ideas and knowledge" "English learning and high literacy (the content as well as the skills) are treated as a social activity with depth and complexity:• (36)  Students participate in numerous meaningful discussions about their reading and writing."  

Reflect and Make Notes

When was the last time you were completely engrossed in a book?

The Reading Flow: Where All Serious Readers Want To Be

  

Avoiding the TsunamiAvoid Over-teaching

The Chop-Chop Curriculum

    

The Kill-A-Reader Casserole • Take one large novel.  Dice into as many pieces as possible.

 • Douse with sticky notes.

 • Remove book from oven every five minutes and insert

worksheets. • Add more sticky notes.

 • Baste until novel is unrecognizable, far beyond well done.

 • Serve in choppy, bite-size chunks

Overanalysis of Books at the Expense of the Meaningful

Great books as springboards  

To Kill a Mockingbird offers the opportunity to examine racism in today's world

               * Obama - first African American president               * Blink - car buying experiences               * Disparity in School Funding                    Shame of a Nation - separate and unequal                *Former First Lady Laura Bush's comments about                            conditions of Houston Astrodome                  * Racial Profiling                                                   

Students aren't coming up for air.  They're coming up for life preservers!

"You don't have to burn books to destroy culture.  Just get people to stop reading them."                             Ray Bradbury

Reflect and Make Notes

Endangered Minds

AOW - Article of the Weekhttp://www.kellygallagher.org/resources/articles.html

What are "Beating the Odds" schools doing?

• Novels/Classics

• Time to read in class.

• Enough books.

• Authentic, real world text.

Reflect and Make Notes

Finding The Sweet Spot   

Avoid Underteaching: 

Atwell- students learn how to selectGallagher doesn't agree

Students need to wrestle with demanding works:

 *Shared cultural literacy

*Adequate practice with reading demanding texts

*Rigor is not avoided

Translation 

The pitcher's stuff was filthy.The pitcher had excellent control, and his pitches were very difficult to hit.  He was bringing cheese.He was throwing the ball exceptionally hard.

He mixed in some chin music.To keep batters from crowding the plate, the pitcher mixed in some high and tight pitches.

Along with the heat, Uncle Charlie would occasionally show his face, producing a number of bowel-lockers. Along with his fastball, the pitcher occasionally threw curveballs.  Some of them were so effective they froze the batters in their tracks. Only two batters got a knock.Only two batters got a hit.  No one came close to dialing 8.No one came clsoe to hitting a home run (8 is the first number used in most hotel rooms to dial long distance

The Importance of Framing

TheImportance

ofFraming

The Importance of Framing

*Preview of final exam essay - setting a purpose *Vocabulary preview  *Historical context & how it contibutes to the meaning of the work. *Background on author and what he was trying to accomplish *Discussion of WHY we are reading this book and the value it offers to the modern reader.

The Value Found in Second-Draft(and Third-Draft) Reading

First Read- Survival Mode-struggling to understand the text on a literal level

Richer level of craft -  a level of beauty that is usually not discovered until students revisit the text

Most students will discover the deeper, richer level of comprehension only with

the guidance of a teacher.

Mr. Utterson was cold, dreary. He was a lawyer. He spoke quietly. Something "eminently human beaconed from his eyes." He enjoyed the theater. A reference is made to the Bible. He was a good influence . . . He liked to help.

He was an upright citizen.

Mr. Utterson was lovable. He didn't like to talk. His actions spoke loudly.

The humanness never found its way into his speech.

He never went to the theater.

A reference is made to the devil. ...on downgoing men.

He did not like to reprove.

He sometimes looked at his defendants "with envy."

Why have them revisit the text?

Starting with the end in mind.   The final exam essay question:  Discuss Stevenson's idea of dualit in Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde and share how this duality is still found in today's world.

Mined some value Better equipped to read and negotiate today's world Sharper lens to view the world

Big Chunk / Little Chunk PhilosophyHelping Them Find the Flow

       *Ease them into large chunk reading.    *Frame the book.    *Shared Reading- model how readers                 cope with confusion- it's normal    *Stretch them to read larger chunks    *Focus their reading - establish a purpose          -Keeping the end in mind     *Close reading / rereading - one small piece

 

 1.  Read with a pencil in hand, and annotate the text.2. Look for patterns in things you've noticed about the text- repetitions, contradictions, similarities.

3.  Ask questions about the patterns you've noticed - especially "how" and "why."                    Patricia Kain's,  "How to Do a Close Reading" 

     

Student:  I read the chapter last night  but I don't                 get it.

Teacher:  What didn't you get?  

Student:  All of it. 

All of it," is Code:  I don't know how to monitor my comprehension"

  

Metacognitive Sweet Spot

Classrooms that Underteach  Strategies

 • given little or no help in

understanding what good readers do when the reading gets tough

• discussion on what text says- little or no attention to how to understand reading

           

Classrooms that Overteach Strategies

• too much time spent on noticing what you notice 

• text gets lost in overanalyzing what is done to 

"You don't have to burn books to destroy culture.  Just get people to stop reading them."                                      Ray Bradbury

Reflect and Make Notes

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