Wilhelm Chapter 5

Wilhelm Chapter Five
Reading is Seeing

I loved the little story at the beginning of this chapter. It’s so true, I have never thought about this. I think that it’s funny that Wilhelm talks about the pains that Walter and Tommy present in his class and later states that he likes them. I think that Wilhelm does an excellent job describing his students, this way the reader can fully understand what he is dealing with and what we may encounter. This chapter has a nice transition from the previous introducing visualization to his students. Visualization is very important part of reading, and some students simply don’t understand how to do it.


I love the idea of using art in classroom. Having the students draw a scene from a story sounds like fun and interesting idea to get students to ‘see’ the text. Wilhelm states that there are three significant aims of art education: 1) to increase the variety and depth of meaning people can secure in their lives, 2) to develop cognitive potential, which is achieved only through the exercise of various opportunities, and 3) to achieve educational equity. Doing this activity would promote community in the classroom and a response to literature. Wilhelm provides some really great activities to use to get students visualizing. I personally really enjoy the Picture Mapping idea. Using pictures and drawing pictures rather than note taking would be so much more interesting than the other option, and could be a useful tool for future classes.


I can totally understand why using artistic responses could engage readers. I think that this chapter offers great alternatives to reader response activities.