Anticipation Guide

Directions: Before reading, if you agree with the statement put an X in the
correct column. Then, read the required reading and find the evidence that
supports that statement. After reading, place an X in the text column by
statements that the text agrees or disagrees on.
Before

Statement and Evidence
After
Agree Disagree Agree Disagree

1.
Statement: What is causing readicide?
Evidence:
Schools value the development of
test-takers more than they value the
development of readers.
Schools are limiting authentic
reading experiences.
Teachers are over teaching books.
Teachers are under teaching books.


2.
Statement: Readicide: The definition of
readicide is children love to read, its the
practice in schools today.

Evidence: Readicide: Killing of the love of
reading, often exacerbated by the inane,
mind-numbing practices found in schools.


3.
Statement: The emphasis on test
preparation harms young readers in two
ways:

Evidence:
A curriculum steeped in multiple-
choice test preparation drives
shallow teaching and learning.
Rather than lift up struggling
readers, an emphasis on multiple-
choice test preparation ensures that
struggling readers will continue to
struggle.


4.
Evidence: When teachers try to cram
twenty-two years of curriculum into a K-12
time frame, everyone wins.

Everyone loses. The teachers are forced to
adopt a shallow approach, sprinting through
material. Students develop into memorizers
instead of into thinkers. And both teachers
and students motivation are irreparably
harmed.


5.
Statement: Teaching to the test is not the
problem.

Evidence: The problem occurs when we
spend most of our time teaching to shallow
test.


6.
Statement: When instruction is driven by
narrow assessment, instruction itself is
narrowed.

Evidence: When students spend most of
their time memorizing facts their vital
thinking skills, those skills foundational to
turning them into expert citizens are
buried.