Wilhelm Chapter One

While reading Wilhelm's first chapter it made me realize the importance of gaining students interest in reading when they insist that they hate reading. Wilhelm insists that reading should be instilled as meaningful and have a personal connection to students. "Again, I think that these students have never been helped to pursue reading in any personally meaningful way. By the time they arrived in my classroom, an intense demythologization of the reading act was in order." This quote struck me as something that seems to be going to happen in my classroom when I embark on teaching. Students tend to show a lack of reading and it is my job as a teacher to help them as readers and as future readers. "If literature does not speak to student lives, then what good is it? If students don't come to love reading now, when will they ever read later?" this quote speaks the truth students need to be trained to enjoy reading and feel comfortable in reading. If students feel comfortable and engaged then students will enjoy the reading process.