When I was a freshman in college, I shadowed a teacher who told me that I needed to read this book, because it would completely change how I thought about education and teaching. So finally, in my senior year, I am reading it. I can see why he was so passionate about the novel too. It is wonderful! I have many pages marked already, underlined, and marked up! There is such a crazy amount of good information. Where do I even begin talking about what I have read?
Even within the first page, I have highlighted a few key phrases which I want to point out. "Valuing reading is often a euphemism for preparing students to pass mandated multiple-choice exams." This causes what we know as readicide. Schools are working AGAINST developing good readers, because we are developing test takers at the expense of readers. Wow. Now that is something to really sit down and think about. Several teachers that I have spoken with are always saying the same thing..."We teach to the test. We have to teach to the test." However, Gallagher says differently. It IS important to teach to the test. She gives an example. At the beginning of every unit she does, she gives the students the final exam question. This makes her students more focused and determined readers. "Teaching to the test is not the problem. The problem occurs when we spend most of our time teaching to a shallow test." Shallow tests are what most standardized tests are...it's a mix of multiple choice questions. We are not giving our students the opportunity to become "active and engaged citizens [of reading]. We want them to be creative, have common sense, use wisdom, ethics, honesty and teamwork. How does standardized testing do this? "We are getting higher test scores and lower thinkers." How does this seem right?
It is also interesting to think about how states and schools gives incentives to administrators and teachers. When this happens, there is a greater chance of cheating. This is exactly what happens too. Again, what does this teach our students and future leaders of America? Nothing. Then if and when the students perform poorly on the exams, we respond by giving them an intensified dose of ineffective treatment. Personally, I know how this is. My junior year of high school I scored above average on my PSSA in the reading and writing categories. However, I was below basic in math. (Big surprise...) I spent my senior year in a room with other kids who also performed poorly. We went over worksheet after worksheet so that when I would retake the exam, I would perform well. This was not the case. My score stayed the exact same. I believe this just proves that forcing students to take these exams and then afterwards making them practice over and over again with worksheets that are not truly teaching them anything. It is beyond frustrating...I am actually getting very upset while I type this!
On page 29, Gallagher discusses how our students are in desperate need of large doses of authentic reading which is reading newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites, articles, ect. We are only teaching our students to read through one window when there are THOUSANDS of other windows. Many students are completely oblivious to the world around them. The al Qaeda story was a perfect example of this. Why are students not reading articles in history class or English class about events happening around the world. Integrating different texts are so important and vital. I am beginning to realize this as I plan out my rationale and unit for this semester. I did not have the opportunity in high school to read outside of novels or textbooks, so I know as a teacher that I will try my hardest to incorporate as many authentic pieces of writing as I can.
Also, what I found interesting but never really considered as the point Gallagher made on page 37. Experiences can completely shape how a person takes an exam. Looking at the students from Wyoming and the students from Southern CA, obviously their experiences growing up are very different. This could change the outcome of a test almost automatically.
Another thing that just blew me away was the fact that schools are actually removing novels and books out of their schools. They do not have time for novels! What?! By removing novels, this provides students and teachers with more time for test preparation. Well thank God for more test preparation. I mean, lets test kids on novels and books and how to interpret and read when they don't even know how to read! Gahh, it is so frustrating.
While I did focus on all the negative points that I read about during the reading, I did enjoy his great ideas about getting students involved and how he incorporated reading and discussion into his classroom.
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