Finally, a book about teaching English by an actual English teacher! OK, hyperbole aside, I do value the insights Kelly Gallagher put into his book, Deeper Reading. He addresses many of the issues that I have had with teacher preparation programs. The colleges and universities give you tons of theory and concepts, which are valuable and give teaching a credible background of research and knowledge, but it doesn’t tell you what to do when you’re faced with teaching The Scarlet Letter to Juniors on Monday.
Gallagher, a h
igh school teacher in Anaheim, takes that challenge and breaks down what teachers need to do to make sure their students are scaffolded to understand the context of the work and move them from comprehension, to analysis, to interpretation. And he does it with examples that I can use in my classroom. He basically gives the theory and concepts in college a practical application. Most importantly, he makes sense doing it.
One of the issues that I’ve struggled with as an English teacher is that many of the books about teaching English are for Elementary and/or Middle school. Focusing on these levels usually means that they will address reading skills rather than reading, literary analysis, and real-world application. That’s usually thrust on us secondary teachers like your older sibling’s old jacket. The problem is many high school students don’t like reading, don’t know how to move beyond barely comprehending what they read, and don’t know what to do once they’ve read it. Most high school teachers weren’t given the same training to teach reading comprehension like our elementary colleagues were. So there ends up being this education gap between Elementary and Secondary and the students are falling through it.
It’s been my goal to address these needs even if it means adapting some of the lower grades’ resources. But thankfully, I came across this book (I don’t even know where now) and I’m glad I did. Gallagher sees the same problems and has taken the steps to outline how to take reluctant and struggling readers and make them literate in order to be successful in life. I appreciate that he also doesn’t take literature too seriously. Like he says, what’s the importance of teaching Hamlet, if students can’t see false advertising and skewed statistics in order to identify the best cell phone plans for them? It’s a tall order for teachers, but those that are truly passionate about teaching will appreciate the value of Gallagher’s insights and will finally be able to relax on Sunday evenings because now they’ve got a solid unit plan in store.
