Reading IS Seeing is one of the most useful and informative education books I have read. It definitely deserves a place on any educator’s bookshelf. Wilhelm has taken the theory behind visualization as a reading strategy and set it on the solid foundation of the learning-centered model of teaching to create a practical, teacher-friendly book.

There are so many ideas and so much information packed into the book’s 192 pages that you will want to read with a pen in hand and notebook by your side.

Wilhelm notes that good teaching is sequenced. The following model is fleshed out in the book:

1. Pre-Assess: Identify Students’ Needs
2. Modeling: I Do/You Watch
3. Sharing Expertise: I Do/You Help
4. Gradual Release: You Do Together/I Help
5. Assessing Mastery: You Do/I Watch

Sadly, despite the fact that research has proven—over and over again—that using visual strategies help students read better, Wilhelm notes that "visual strategies are rarely presented or encouraged" in textbooks. Therefore, it is "important to explicitly identify the use of visual strategies to create mental imagery as an essential part of reading." The heart of Reading IS Seeing shows you how to do just that.

Wilhelm begins by describing activities that will help students visualize from words. He then offers techniques for visualizing across the text. Here, for example, he models step-by-step a read-aloud and think-aloud using the book Leon’s Story. Written by Leon Walter Tillage and illustrated by Susan Roth, the text allows Wilhelm (the teacher) to "do" while his students "watch." 

Especially informative and inspirational is the chapter titled "From the Known to the New." Most teachers recognize the importance of building background knowledge before launching into material. Wilhelm notes that "frontloading lays the foundation of prior experience. New meanings are built on it, and all future learning of more complex versions of the concept depend upon creating a firm foundation." He then offers a plethora of researched-based, teacher-tested frontloading activities such as timelines, brainstorming, floorstorming, wheels/clusters, webbing, picture walks, picture mapping, detective sketches, roll movies, and grab bags among others.

In addition to the dozens of practical strategies and activities found in the book, readers will also find themselves pondering the thought-provoking comments and nuggets of wisdom Wilhelm has liberally sprinkled throughout the text.  After reading one section on assessment, for example, I found myself reflecting for days on how, exactly, I allow my students "to represent their learning." I also found myself eyeing critically the non-fiction in my room. How well, if at all, did it help readers visualize? One of the most astounding comments Wilhelm makes it that, "teaching in schools is almost always 30-50 years behind research understandings in cognition and learning."

Reading IS Seeing includes both a bibliography and an index. This excellent title is a definite must-have for your professional library.

Reviewed by K.J. Wagner