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AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR KELLY GALLAGHER
Kelly Gallagher, a high school English teacher at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California, has twenty-five years of experience in working with teens. He has written seven books, including Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It (Stenhouse 2OO9). Gallagher is an advocate for recreational and authentic reading in schools. He also employs an academic reading instructional strategy that combines close reading as well as pre-reading discussions to increase students' understanding of complex texts, resulting in what he calls "the sweet spot" of instruction that gives students just the right amount of support to literature.
Gallagher has graciously allowed us to use his term "readicide" as the theme for this issue oí Knowledge Quest. On November 17, 20I0, he took time early in his busy teaching day to answer questions about his views on reading.
I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Kelly Gallagher and hung up smiling. How could I not? He said being a school librarian at the end of his career is one of his "fantasies."
RUTH COX CLARK: The term readicide - "the practices educators employ to raise reading scores that actually kill students' love of reading" - is based on your experience with teens. Is there any incident that comes to mind that helped bring this term to life?
KELLY...