The End of Readicide
This is my last post, covering chapters 4 and 5 of Kelly Gallagher's Readicide . In chapter 4, he talks about how to find a "sweet spot" of giving students enough instruction on academic reading. Throughout the book, he emphasizes how overteaching reading--breaking a book into a million small pieces to be analyzed--kills students' love of reading, and can ruin classics. He says to find a balance between smaller chunks and larger chunks where students aren't interrupted. Any student will get frustrated if you hand them an academic text with no guidance, and any student will get frustrated if you guide them too much. So, what to do? He devotes a lot of time discussing the importance of framing. This includes activities like reviewing difficult and archaic vocabulary, discussing the background of the novel, and giving students a preview of the final exam question. I like how his exam questions often compare situations to the book to real-life, current issues. F...