Readicide by Kelly Gallagher Response

This was a very frustrating read. It melts my brain that we have let education come to this point. As a product of standardized testing, I can honestly say I feel a little cheated out authentic, genuine reading experiences. My honors English class teachers in high school were wonderful and let us fully absorb classics, mostly because we didn't have the added pressure of the standardized test. Yes, there was the AP test, but that was way less pressure packed. Anyway, I am incredibly turned-off of standardized tests. I understand holding educators accountable to what their students learn with valuable standards, but as was stated in the book, it creates an incredibly shallow learning experience. A child should not have to be home schooled or attend an expensive private school to have a more meaningful educational experience. So, I can rant and rave about this all day, but was inspired by Gallagher's call-to-action to stand-up for educational issues and contribute to a meaningful classroom environment. Also, I think it was very helpful to get methods to combat shallow teaching/learning. I hope that no matter what curriculum guidelines I am required to follow, that I can create meaningful experiences with the material and my students.

I particularly liked the Big Chunk/Little Chunk method. I definitely related to the frustrations of chop-chop reading where I lacked the time/ability to get into a flow only to be interrupted by a worksheet or shallow group discussion. To allow students the chance to read 1/3 of the book and then analyze a key piece, gives them a chance to get into the flow, collect thoughts and details as they go without the pressure of a worksheet, and give them a sense of accomplishment for getting through a large portion of the book. For me at least, I feel a lot better seeing my book mark move deeper and deeper into a book. I also think that this would be a more effective way to reach multiple CCSS without making the experience shallow. The unit can be designed to allow for multiple reading sessions and then thorough time to identify things like theme, author's purpose, character analysis, and seeing how characters evolve throughout the book.