Speed? I am Speed.

Pop some popcorn. Sit back. And relax. This post is going to tinsel town.

In the Examining Theoretical Issues essay of chapter 5, Williams suggests that, “Reading speed therefore is crucial to comprehension.” As a parent of a two year old completely obsessed with Pixar’s film, Cars, I couldn’t help but think of the film’s opening sequence where Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) creates his own appropriate metaphor that echoes Williams’s sentiment:



For me, this reading served dual purposes. Not only did it break down in accessible detail the two sided debate between Whole Language Learning and Phonetics, but it also served double duty as a guide to parenting. I want what all parents want: to be a good parent. Or, to put it another way, I want to create at home an environment that enhances – not prohibits – Luke’s educational progression. This chapter provided plenty of insight on how to do so effectively. And the most poignant point Williams makes is that no one single approach is the correct approach; writing is a discipline by its very nature requires an approach that is multifaceted: “language acquisition involves ‘an elaborate, interactive matching procedure that connects linguistic input and output with internalized models of reality’”(162)

With this in mind, one of the examples of the success of a multifaceted approach to writing that stood out in the reading can be found at the bottom of page 167. A student’s life was changed when he went to see Star Wars for the first time. And because this post is meant to be more about my son than it is about me, here is a fun parody of arguably the most famous scene in Empire Strikes Back as done by the creators of Luke’s second favorite film, Toy Story 2:



As aspiring teachers – regardless of level – it would seem prudent to take the lessons and theories Williams presents in this chapter seriously. As Williams warns, teachers all too often fall back into the literature-reading-produces-good-writing paradigm: “This is an unfortunate turn of events insofar as it greatly limits the opportunities students have to study a variety of genres. In literary models, students will not find analysis, interpretations, and argument – the very basis for most writing beyond public school.” (169)



The End.