Kelly Gallagher's Redicide

The first thing that struck me when I started reading Readicide was Gallagher's definition of his word readicide and that is "Read-i-cide: noun, the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools" (2). I've seen this systematic killing firsthand with my niece and nephews. They all range between the ages of eleven and seventeen. They all started out loving to read, but as they have progressed in school, year by year they have slowly fallen out of love with reading in general. One of the aspects that Gallagher brings up that I had never given much thought to is the idea that teachers are over teaching a book while students are reading it. I have gotten lost in my reading many a time, but it never occurred to me that the idea of finding the reading zone was fostered by the extended periods of silent reading that I was given as a student. Gallagher's analogy of how we wouldn't interrupt students if they were watching a movie to discuss the mechanics of filmmaking by the director, but we do this when students are reading a book was fascinating to me. After reading the unit plan that the Los Angeles school district uses for the novel To Kill a Mockingbird I died a little inside. It was a hundred and twenty-two pages long and had twenty different lessons. This unit was super overkill, in my opinion, I Hope to avoid this kind of overkill in my teaching. Instead, I would do as Gallagher suggests and have students find the flow in their reading in the hopes that they eventually become avid readers of their own accord. I hope to be able to use this book to help me find the sweet spot in my teaching.