Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm is a Professor of English Education at Boise State University where he has been since 2003. A classroom teacher for fifteen years, he has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the founding director of the Boise State Writing Project and a highly regarded author and presenter. Dr. Wilhelm's interests include team teaching, co-constructing inquiry-driven curriculum with students, and pursuing teacher research. His recent research agenda includes studying how student reading, writing, and thinking can be supported through the use of art, drama, and technology. He has studied adolescent boys and their reading, attitudes, aspirations, and the school opportunities available to them for actualizing and performing different ways of being literate. He is particularly interested in supporting the learning of students who are often considered to be reluctant or resistant.
Books
Enriching Comprehension with Visualization Strategies: Text Elements and Ideas to Build Comprehension, Encourage Reflective Reading, and Represent Understanding, Faculty Authored Books (2013)
Deepening Comprehension with Action Strategies: Role Plays, Text-Structure Tableaux, Talking Statues, and Other Enactment Techniques that Engage Students with Text, Faculty Authored Books (2012)
Get it Done!: Writing and Analyzing Informational Texts to Make Things Happen (with Michael W. Smith and James E. Fredricksen), Faculty Authored Books (2012)
Oh, Yeah?!: Putting Argument to Work Both in School and Out (with Michael W. Smith and James E. Fredricksen), Faculty Authored Books (2012)
So, What's the Story?: Teaching Narrative to Understand Ourselves, Others, and the World (with James E. Fredricksen and Michael W. Smith), Faculty Authored Books (2012)
Contributions to Books
A Call for Action: Building Bridges Between Literacy In School and Out, Teenagers and Reading: Literary Heritages, Cultural Contexts and Contemporary Reading Practices (2012)
Knowing and Becoming: Teaching and Reading Literature as a Process of Transformation, Engaging American Novels: Lessons from the Classroom (2011)
Boys and Literacy: Complexity and Multiplicity (with Michael W. Smith), Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research (2009)
In this chapter we provide reviews both of research that documents the fact that boys...
The Role Visualization Strategies Play in Struggling Readers’ Engagement, Comprehension and Response to Text, or “Wait, You Mean it’s Supposed to Make Sense Every Time You Read?” (with Mary Massie and Karen Boran), Handbook of Research on Teaching Literacy Through the Communicative and Visual Arts (2008)
Making it Matter Through the Power of Inquiry (with Michael W. Smith), Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice (2007)
Given all the findings about how boys underachieve in all areas of literacy (see Smith...
Articles
Tapping the Power: Writing to Learn Language, Content, and Process (with Jim Fredricksen), Malfridur (2011)
When we think about the role writing can play in helping our students learn, we...
Inquiring Minds Learn to Read, Write, and Think: Reaching All Learners through Inquiry (with Peggy Jo Wilhelm), Middle School Journal (2010)
The article discusses the importance of inquiry in teaching students. It states that inquiry encourages...
INQUIRY Starts Here, Instructor (2007)
The article talks about inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning is about more than moving desks out...
Meeting the Challenge: Creating Engaging and Powerful Contexts for Literacy Learning, English in Australia (2007)
This article explores the conditions of "flow" experience from two studies into the literate lives...
What Research Tells Us About Teaching Grammar (with Michael W. Smith), Voices from the Middle (2006)
The authors offer research studies and other documented evidence that teaching grammar without a meaningful...
Electronic Publications and Podcasts
Let Them Read Trash: The Power of Marginalized Texts, Beyond the Blue Faculty Podcasts (2012)
Are books such as vampire novels, mysteries, and fantasy “real” literature? Do they have a...
A Conversation with Jeff Wilhelm and Bruce Novak (with Bruce Novak), National Writing Project Radio Show (2011)
Visit with Jeff Wilhelm and Bruce Novak, authors of the upcoming Teaching Literacy for Love...
Presentations
Five Kinds of Knowledge; Five Kinds of Composing, Featured Speech for Adolescent Literacy, NCTE Annual Convention (2011)
Teaching Literacy for Love and Wisdom, Featured Speech, National Literature Assembly, National Council of Teachers of English Annual Meeting (2011)
Inquiring Minds Learn to Read and Write, Keynote, Distinguished Researcher in Education Workshop, McGill University Distinguished Researcher Series, McGill University (2010)
Teaching for Love, Joy and Wisdom, Opening Keynote, Middle School Mosaic at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Meeting (2010)