Thoughts on reading chapters five, six, and seven of Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension by Jeffrey Wilhelm. 

As an aside – don't forget that if all the students remember is the marshmallow, then you probably haven't taught them much. That is to say that all of Wilhelm's strategies sound fantastic, but if they are not grounded to the content that you need to teach, or want to teach, then students will probably remember having fun but not much else.  

Remember that Gee talks about mentorship, so while you try out such things as the "Mantle of the Expert," be sure to foster student growth along the way. I think that if you directly tie some of these activities to a specific lesson where there is a clear learning goal that students can demonstrate, then you will be implementing theory and practice embedded in your strategy.  

Chapter five, “Mantle of the Expert,” really makes use of the practice of shared authority in your classroom. I would highly recommend you try this concept out! “’Mantle of the Expert’, trains the muscles necessary for gaining and practicing expertise” (p. 98). There is a twelve step model for planning on pages 104 through 109.  

I would say that this activity would especially be good for efferent texts as brought to us by Rosenblatt in “The Transactional Theory of Reading and Writing.” It would be a different way, and a creative way, for students to explain what they know about events in history, or scientific concepts, or things we have looked at like bats and the use of coal.  

Different roles can be taken such as documentary maker, web site designer, museum designer, and so on (pp. 109 – 113).  In a discussion group of four students, assigning roles, can be an effective tool for assessment -- everyone has a job, students can produce tangible results through their job, and can help assess their learning process.

I would try to use this with my students in some sort of a researcher role, because as adult learners in the university setting this would be the best skill set to develop for all of their coursework. I would craft roles like archeologist, social worker, environmentalist, hydrologist, and health care worker – because these types of profession connect directly to the advanced degree work happening in our community.  

In chapter six, “Tableaux,” we learn about visual and kinesthetic methods, “this technique can be adapted to include some movement, speaking, and other features” (p. 116). 

Wilhelm includes a list of benefits on page 117, and guidelines for students that would be very easy to adapt on pages 118 and 119. The most interesting framework is for “enacting tableaux slide shows” where students essentially become a living PowerPoint presentation (p. 120).  

There are 18 variations included, and some that would work for my students are kamishibai (where students tell their story and use visual aids at the same time), human issue trees (like a web map but of human issues from the text), and story boards. Honestly, I thought this chapter would be the one where I would make excuses and say, “nah, not appropriate for my students.” But with the variety of variations every teaching style can find at least one take away from this chapter. 

Chapter seven, “Reenactments and Interventions,” asks us to explore the notion of authorial reading and let students really own their process and be acknowledged for that “reading is a powerful way of expanding and transforming our understanding, but only if we have the willingness and the tools to see other points of view, reconceptualize our understandings, and change our thinking and behavior” (p. 137). 

Wilhelm shares a letter from a teacher about her students working with reenactments and chemical reaction. This again speaks to the ability for these strategies to be utilized with any content area. On pages 146 through 150 there are different strategies that can be used which include: what if, alternative endings, game show, MTV videos, and others.  

One strategy I could see using with my students in the fall is called “trials,” which puts characters on the stand and allows students to play out prosecution and defense teams in order to explain the issues in the text (p. 150).  

I would recommend "Reading From Different Interpretive Stances: In Search of a Critical Perspective" by Liland, Ociepka, and Kuonen. What we learned from the Rosenblatt article connects well to this, and it will help seat whatever strategies you want to utilize in critical pedagogy. This article includes six stances (aesthetic is one) and a section on multimodal experiences.