You Gotta BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents

Jeffery Wilhelm (Teachers College Press, 1997)

Reviewed by

Kim Alexander

Reading. As a teacher, especially one who teaches English or Language Arts, it is hard to imagine that some people do not enjoy reading. Yet as teachers, we know that many of our students are reluctant readers. Recently I had the opportunity to read You Gotta BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents, by Jeffery Wilhelm, and to discuss its contents with a group of my colleagues from various Dufferin Peel schools. This book sheds light on how to use Art and reflection to engage students with learning difficulties, ESL students, and those who simply do not like to read.

Wilhelm believes strongly in Art and Drama as teaching tools. Through a journal kept while he was teaching, Wilhelm shows us how he gets students who do not like to read to do so by visualizing what they are reading (something that many of us take for granted) and thereby increasing their understanding of what they have read. Students respond to Art and Drama because there are no "right" answers, and risks are celebrated instead of discouraged. When performing or creating, students remember more than when they write or listen to someone else speak. By getting involved in the book, students begin to BE the book and enjoy reading.

Concrete ideas appropriate to any grade or book and compatible with the new curriculum, abound in this book. The reading strategy discussed most is the Symbolic Story Representation (SRI) which involves students creating cutouts of characters, themes, symbols, scenes, and settings from the novel they are reading. Students then explain their cutouts and can perform a scene from the novel they are reading using what they have created. Although this may sound elementary, the teachers I met with tried this in both Grade 9 and Grade 11 classrooms to outstanding results. Students use higher order thinking when creating their cutouts because they have to think about how their character, theme, symbol, setting, etc., would look visually. Then, through explanation or drama, students think about how their character would act, what their motivations are, and how they are feeling at that time. Journal writing is suggested by Wilhelm as a follow up to this activity as it gives students a chance to reflect on their own feelings and those of the character.

Wilhelm experienced first hand how to engage readers by interviewing students in his own classroom - something he encourages all teachers to do more frequently. Wilhelm discovered that his highly engaged readers would visualize and reflect both during and after reading. He interviewed three reluctant readers and encouraged them to use techniques such as SRI to enhance understanding. They found success, began to enjoy reading and, as it became easier for them to understand, they felt better about themselves as students. Wilhelm covers a great deal of information in his book. Chapters such as: "Moving Toward a Reader Centered Classroom," "Reader Response," "Using Drama," and "Reading is Seeing," are filled with stories and teaching ideas. At the end of the book, Wilhelm includes activities and questions dealing with bringing Art and reading together.

Our group worked its way through the book reading, discussing, enjoying, and learning new teaching techniques as we went along. With our busy schedules it is hard, but very rewarding, to take the time to read a book together and share opinions. We left the meetings feeling excited about teaching and trying new ideas from Gotta BE the Book . We also left feeling affirmed as teachers. Seeing Wilhelm's reading success stories reminded us of why we started to teach and why we keep teaching - to give every student an opportunity to BE the book in our classrooms.