Wilhelm Chapter 3

The third chapter of Wilhelm's book was fantastic. It was really interesting to see the different ways he was able to get into the heads of the students and the different results of his research. Mainly I thought it was hugely beneficial to hear about the amazingly complicated things his different students were doing to read, and at the same time the chapter had me thinking about my own reading styles. It strange because thinking about it now, I've always been an avid reader but I don't think I do nearly any at all of the kinds of things some of these kids do when they read. It did have me wondering how many students actually are like that. I realize he's mainly taking the things he found from some of his most helpful students but it still skews things because it's hard to keep in mind that there are probably plenty of students out there that don't have any of the same reactions at all when they read.
I'm amazed by the complexity of the SRI exercise and I've already been able to think of many ways to incorporate this method into my own kinds of teaching, and the different ways it can be used to help students improve their reading skills. His classifications are a bit technical, but the very specific anecdotes he gives from Ron, Cora and Joanne are fascinating.

Wilhelm Chapter 2

In chapter 2, Wilhelm raises some interesting questions about the nature of reading. I found it interesting that he does in fact value the concept of valid reading, and he recognizes the fact that even though it is very important to simply get the kids reading, the most important thing is that at some point they're actually reading for meaning. Wilhelm has started to present some of the interesting things he discovered through the conversations he had with his students. It's hard for me to believe that even in a large class there were even three kids that were so open and ready to talk about the reading experiences they had, reading experiences that they actually enjoyed! Of course it's no surprise that the biggest complaint the students have is that the reading they do at school isn't anything at all and isn't nearly as enjoyable as the reading they do by themselves at home. Wilhelm then goes on to cover the same ground that most other literature teachers are covering these days, mainly the fact that students need to have access to a very wide selection of reading material so that there is a lot of things for them to choose from and there for there's a higher chance that all of the students will find something interesting. Because after all, simply getting them to read is always step one.

Wilhelm Chapter One.

Well, I just finished chapter one of the Wilhelm book, and maybe I'm feeling more belligerent than usual today but this book is driving me crazy. Having read the full introduction and the first chapter the list of actual information I've gleaned so far is ridiculously short.
Mainly:

• Reading is good.

• Some students simply don't want to read, this is terrible.

• The reason these students don't want to read is because they've been encouraged to read only to look for meaning.
• Wilhelm's daughter Fiona is very cute.

It reminds me of one of those old Bill Nye episodes where Bill takes a simple scientific fact and expands that information into an hour of entertainment without really adding anything else. Of course I'm expecting the book to become more practical as I progress through it, but I really didn't think the first chapter had much to offer.

The main thing I did learn from the first chapter is that for a long time kids were turn to look at text in a very scientific way, searching just for meaning and not concentrating on the different emotions and ideas that the text elicits from them. It's easy to see why this was such a dominating way to teach because in many ways it's the easier path, and grading and lesson plan creation are likely simpler. It's also easy to see why a reading philosophy based on Efferent reading can let a lot of students slip through the cracks.