“You Gotta BE the Book”

Part 1

While reading this section of Jeffery Wilhelm’s book “You Gotta BE the Book” I found myself totally engaged the whole time, not drifting away in thought. It is a really quick and easy read but also very informative.

In high school I wasn’t an active reader, although that has changed a lot since then, the points he has made were very eye opening to me and I could easily relate to some of the situations. In the first chapter he states, “once students have learned how to read, and move through middle and secondary school, reading is still regarded as a passive act of receiving someone else’s meanings”. This statement really stuck out to me because, today in most classrooms students have to read a book and then explain what it is about but, there is no room for interpretation. I think by having students read and then give their meaning of the theme of the book and shutting them down by saying no pushes students towards not reading.

I think that the “new criticism” that teachers use in their classes doesn’t work toward influencing students to read more. I think that it does take away the fun of reading.

Another point that stuck out to me was what makes valid reading. While reading stories I could think one thing means something and the person next to me could think that same thing means something completely different. And for books with authors who has passed away we may never know the actual meaning behind symbols and text. So why do we tell students that their interpretations are wrong? As long as we all agree on the outcome and theme of the book I don’t believe teachers should be able to tell students that their ways of thinking about it are wrong.

A different point that was brought up in this section of the reading was about grading reading. I think that students who read for fun and then come to school and have to be quizzed on the reading tend to stray away from reading for fun. First we are forcing the students to read books in class that they might not even be interested in and then we go and we grade them on their understanding and the content that they have read. This goes along with what I was saying before, students all have different interpretations of what things mean so why is that our job to tell students that their ideas and thoughts are wrong?

I thought this chapter was very informational. He gave some very good ways of grading reading and what makes reading valid without shutting down the students. I really like this book so far and I’m excited to read the rest of it.