Chapter 4 Towle

Readicide is all about the contradiction. Everything that is recommended in one chapter is denigrated in another. There is a lot of reading logic in this. Each theory/philosophy can be right for one group and not another. The key, as always is to know your students. Overteach, underteach, it is all relative. This is not your father's reading assignment (get it-all relative!)?First, it is let them read what they want, then give them books in the canon. First it is teach it , then it is stay out of it. I have always felt that if students read and have "good" reading modeled , they will get it. The lower the skill level, the earlier the training, the more I read with them. The more I play up the, "I wonder what he meant by that" act when they are new to reading in depth. Eventually, they internalize. As the year goes on I leave them more alone, but if the questions and comments do not come in after reading, and I know they have read, then it is back to square one. I assume they will read the lightweight stuff on thier own. I will stick with them through the struggle. I want them to struggle with me , without Spark Notes, so when they get to a tough book that does not have SN, they will be awesome. By the end of the year they usually tell me they cannot even sit down to watch a movie without seeing symbolism and Christlike figures, etc. That is the place for an evil laugh, and my work is done.