Chapter 2: Erin Valentie

When I was in school, I was that student who constantly worried about making the grade. I read textbooks...boring! This was just something I had to do to get the grade. Even assigned readings that I thought might have been interesting became a pain because I always worried about whether I was analyzing it correctly for the big test or quiz. I never had time to read anything just for "fun". If I did have any time, the last thing I wanted to do was read...there had be a good movie or something on that would just let my mind rest, right? Gallagher mentioned that we don't have time to provide interesting reading because we are trying to prepare for tests! Of course we are! Are the tests going to go away? Doubtful. So how do we find time with the many standards we have to cover to fit in reading that is "fun" too? I do like some of his suggestions like the "Article of the Week." That may be an easy addition to the curriculum, but I don't want it to become another thing the students have to do. I do feel like it is part of our responsibility as educators to encourage our students to include the things happening in the world into their overall education.

I feel like Gallagher made some very valid points in this chapter. I agree that students need to be provided with a variety of books to read. I think Ridge View is making good attempts at providing students with more opportunities to read. SSR time is beneficial, but I have to be honest, I don't think I have done well with it in my classes. I make my student get quiet for it, but I know I have only a small handful of students who actually use the time to read, the rest are either texting, sleeping, or using the time to do the homework they should have done the night before. I feel like the purpose is to give students the opportunity to read, not to "force" them to read. The students who are reading probably have been reading since they were little, it is not something new they picked up once SSR started. Most of them don't even stop reading when SSR is over...which leads to a lot of aggravation when it is time to teach...but that is another blog for another time:).

I think Gallagher hit on something pretty important, in that the students background knowledge contributes a lot to how successful they are in testing. I do believe the more they read the better their vocabulary will become and the greater background knowledge they will gain. This will ultimately lead to higher test scores. I just don't think we can fix all of this at the high school level. Getting students to want to read needs to start at home and opportunities to enrich the lives of these students with reading needs to happen early on in education and should follow them all the way through high school. It needs to be an effort that comes from all aspects of the students lives.