Chapter 4 Readicide thoughts

In chapter 4 Gallagher has down something that I have seen often throughout my journey with this book. He is constantly overstating the problem without giving any real concrete solutions. At times Gallagher may provide an anecdote here and there such as with his Big chunk/little chunk idea and his Article of the week that he discussed in chapter 2. However most of the chapter is just repetitive of the rest of the book. He gives all these examples of what's wrong but never provides a clear path to what's right. With me entering the classroom soon I want as much help as I can get. I am well aware of the problems we face and with me being an English teacher chapter 4 is sure to be something I have to deal with in the near future, however after reading this chapter I don't feel anymore confident about the struggles I will face than I did before I read it. This is a constant feeling I've had throughout this book. I also feel a certain way about Gallagher's insistence that we as "teachers" must avoid these certain things so that the students can become "lifelong readers". Even as an English teacher and a lifelong reader myself even I know that is not necessary or conducive to success that all of my students become life long readers. I see it as a hobby  that I choose to spend my spare money on purchasing novels for me to read for sheer enjoyment but it hasn't exactly made me more successful than my counterparts who only read for necessity. I don't want to sound so negative about the book because he does a good job at identifying and proving the problems and realities that we are facing as educators, however I am in a place right now where I'm looking for solutions. I'm done identifying the problem.

Chapter 3 Readicide thoughts

In chapter 3 of Gallagher's readicide he discusses the tsunami that teachers provide when teaching a novel. I agree that sometimes there is too much dissecting and not enough reading. There has to be a an equal balance. As with any lesson you want students to be able to relate the work to real life so that they a have a connection to it. Therefore the analysis should be geared more towards real life connections and current topics/issues in society. There should also be time for the students to be able to just read the book so that they can obtain the flow you would be surprised  how much analysis students will do on their own without chopping up te novel if they were just given that space to read.
Another subject that he touched on was the point system for reading books provided by programs such as Accelerated Reader. I worked in a school that uses AR and yes it does use a point system to reward those who have te most points. All of the points that Gallagher made about the program was true however I ave also seen some positive aspects of it. I have seen it spark interest in reading. At our school students were at times allowed to pick out a book tat was not AR as long as they were reading. And even though students were getting books that  had high points instead of interest it still was a positive because the higher the points the more difficult the read.  Which forced students to immerse themselves in more difficult text instead of your picture books and trade books we had second graders reading fourth grade chapter books with minimal difficulty which increased their over all literacy which is what we want right?
I don't know if once they leave the program their reading levels will drop. I find it hard to believe that if the students are eager to come into the library everyweek and pick out the book of their choice that it will majically disappear because they don't get points for it anymore. I have personally seen Accelerated Reader spark a love for reading that makes the program worth its weight.