Readicide Post 1

I think it is safe to say that Kelly Gallagher is my professional soulmate. I loved his book, Write This Way. Only two chapters into this text, and I know that Readicide is another treasure to be scribbled in, sticky noted, and kept at an arm's distance. Before I begin to dive into the last three chapters, I need to develop a symbol for the term, "my kids!" because it is everywhere in this book.

Mr. Gallagher and I were really jiving for the first ten pages. I was nodding along and even jotting down a note or two. Then, he brought out the show stopper. Robert Marzano. Normally I am not a huge fan of the district flying in a PIR day speaker, but Mike Ruyle from the Marzano group the last two years has not disappointed.  Our PLCs are centered around The New Art and Science of Learning.  Not that I was hesitant to jump on board the Kelly Gallagher band wagon, but when I read that my buddy Marzano was coming too, I had no doubt I was in love.

I am the ACT accommodations coordinator for my school. With this, I also do any alt testing. Do you know that as soon as a student takes the alt, it is recoded as a failure for the school no matter how they perform on the alt? And, it that doesn't rattle your feathers, it takes an average of four hours to give the alt. Four hours of my student's education to automatically fail. For students who take the ACT with accommodations, they try for an hour maybe, but then it is shut down city. I'd place my money on another failing mark for the school. Why?! Why, does all this time and energy (and money) go into what I can tell you before my students even take the test? They are going to fail. This test does the student no good. Okay, we can all agree: testing=bad, teaching=good. I agree Mr. Gallagher.

Now, I don't want to admit this because Mr. Gallagher might break up with me, but I do not have my students SSR. Worse than that, I do not allow books to leave my classroom. I know! Teacher fail. However, I need every moment I can get. My students do not SSR when given the time. They do not care if I read, if it is a grade, or if it is the most interesting book of their life. they are off task and I end up mad. There goes the classroom vibe for the day! I also buy most of my classroom books with my own money. If those babies leave, they are not coming back! Help me. I know this is wrong.

Finally, I must address background knowledge. Oh how that can make or break a student. My students have such limited background knowledge. I did something like AoW last year. Why did I stop? Probably because I got sidetracked with testing students for four hours a day. Thanks to the Kelly Gallagher website, it is coming back kids!