Readicide

The decline in student interest for reading has been a controversial topic for a while among educators.  As standardized testing becomes more popular, Kelley Gallagher mentions that reading interests decline.  I thought this was an interesting statement.  There is still resistance to use standardized testing and there’s debate around that as well.  So when Gallagher states that some teachers may not focusing on interest reading but instead teaching reading to the test, students lose interest in reading.

I could see this being an issue.  As a future teacher, I try to focus on finding texts that will interest my students before I introduce the material to the class.  Then, I will give the students background knowledge and explain the importance of the text and how it relates to them.

I have some students that are at a lower reading level that love to read.  I was one of those once I figured out why I was having a hard time reading myself as a student in elementary and middle school.

I also remember not learning how to “critically” read a text until almost 8th grade.  Many times the teacher would read and we would follow along and journal about what we read afterwards.  I didn’t learn to ask “why?” or “what did I just read?” until 7th and 8th grade.  I had already created reading habits that didn’t work well for critically analyzing a text.  I was a “fake reader.”  As Gallagher mentions, many students are falling into this.  I am happy that there are methods given on how to help students avoid losing interest in reading.