‘Readicide’ vs love of a good book
Reading instruction in the classroom is a key concern for all teachers. But is our determination to achieve excellence in reading skills in our children killing their love of a good book?
Reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures; many parents report their children return home from school with no inclination to pick up a book and read. How are we to help them become strong, capable readers?
The use of boring home-reading texts in the early school years can be seen as the beginning of this negative cycle. As they progress through their schooling life, there are many other instances of learning reading skills that don’t help to celebrate or foster reading development. Frequently, teachers feel the pressure to give their pupils “just enough” in terms of reading strategies to be able to complete tests, which leaves little time to focus on reading for pleasure.
Kelly Gallagher, a United States high school teacher, outlines the term “readicide” in his book by the same name. He says it’s “the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by inane, mindnumbing practices found in schools”.
Reading for pleasure’s destruction is not specific to US schools. When I introduce my first-year pre-service teachers to the amazing writing of author Shaun Tan, they often emit audible gasps of displeasure.
They believe that the length of time they spend studying and analysing components of texts discourages them from looking at the text or anything similar again. Recent research also indicates that many pre-service teachers are inclined to follow the traditional literacy practices they experienced in their own education.
Teaching children and adolescents key concepts for analysing and evaluating texts is important, but the way it is done can lead to disengagement. As Donalyn Miller notes in her book Reading in the Wild, schools aren’t to blame when it comes to not arresting pupils’ lack of interest in reading, but they have an important role to play in fostering reading enjoyment.
How do we encourage our children to read for pleasure? Children — and adolescents and adults — need to know it is okay to read whatever they want whenever they want. Giving children the chance to read what they like when shopping at the bookshop is a great place to start.
When parents are avid readers and actively talk about books with their children, they establish a home climate in which books are valued. When your child brings home required reading, make sure that this isn’t the only reading they do.
By helping children and adolescents to see the need for reading practice at school and the joys of reading for pleasure at school and home, we are giving them the best possible opportunity to develop the skills they will need to be literate, passionate readers. — theconversation.com