In chapter 5 Wilhelm talks mainly about the students that weren't responding well to the Drama exercises and how he planned on appealing to their artistic nature to get them to read better. As I read this chapter I realized that you could play on a thousand different likes and dislikes, not just artistic capability, to encourage students to read. I thought about my own younger brother and how he loves to play video games, and I thought about the millions of different activities that could be done like that. Something like "If this scene in the book, or this story, were translated into a video game, what kind of video game would it be? Who would you play as? Would there be "boss battles?" Or even something so much as having younger students make Pokemon cards or just playing cards in general that are based on the characters they read about in a book. There are so many different ways to relate to the students that it's hard to believe there are so many students out there who don't at least enjoy reading a little bit.
Mainly I found the story about the ESL student fascinating. After being in Japan I definitely recognize the fact that even having some scratch paper to draw on does wonders when trying to get something across to someone when you only half speak their language. I think this is something that could be used extensively for all ESL students regardless of their artistic abilities, and encouraging them to draw what they're saying to help them in class could help open whole new levels of expressiveness for them.
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I think that it is very true about being many different ways to reach a student. I think that the main thing teachers have to deal with and why there are still students out there who don't enjoy reading is because it may be hard to find something to fit everyone. Even as Wilhelm said, he wants to reach 3 out of every 5 students. It is very hard for a teacher to reach all, say 30 students, and be able to make a meaningful activity for that one student because it might not be helpful, or enjoyable to the rest of the class. I think that teachers have to try and find the majority, and then try to find time to work with the other students individually. I am not saying it can't be done, but i think it is one of the biggest struggles teachers have to deal with.
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