Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop

Front Cover
Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated, 1997 - Education - 255 pages

How do students become thoughtful, independent readers who comprehend text at a deep level?

To find the answers, authors Keene and Zimmermann embarked on a journey into the thought processes of proficient readers - a journey through poems and essays, classrooms and workshops, humor and reflection. "Mosaic of Thought "chronicles that journey, which ultimately led the authors to elaborate on eight cognitive processes identified in comprehension research and used by successful readers. These serve as models for the strategies offered in this book - strategies intended to help children become more flexible, adaptive, independent, and engaged readers.

"Mosaic" proposes a new instructional paradigm focused on in-depth, explicit instruction in the strategies used by proficient readers. The authors take us beyond the traditional classroom into the literature based, workshop-oriented classrooms. Through vivid portraits of these remarkable environments (all participants in the Denver-based Reading Project of the Public Education & Business Coalition), we see how explicit instruction looks in dynamic, literature-rich readers' workshops. As the students connect to background knowledge, create sensory images, ask questions, draw inferences, determine what's important, synthesize ideas, and solve problems at the word and text level, they are able to construct a rich mosaic of meaning.

Straightforward and jargon-free, "Mosaic of Thought" has relevance to all literature-based classrooms, regardless of level. It offers practical tools for inservice teachers, as well as essential methods instruction for preservice teachers at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Indeed, anyone interested in literacy will benefit from the authors' challenge to rediscover the thought processes that inform our own comprehension.

From inside the book

Contents

Mind Journeys
13
What Lies Beneath
29
Connecting the Known to the New
45
Copyright

8 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1997)

Ellin Oliver Keene is the author or coauthor of Talk About Understanding (2012); Comprehension Going Forward (2011); To Understand (2008); and Mosaic of Thought, Second Edition (2007), all published by Heinemann. She has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director of the Cornerstone Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years, where she oversaw literacy and professional learning for teachers in high-poverty schools throughout the nation. She lives with her husband, David, and daughter, Elizabeth, in Denver and works with schools and districts around the country. Ellin Oliver Keene is a Heinemann Professional Development provider. She now provides long-term professional development residencies in partnership with Heinemann Professional Development. Click for an overview of the Keene Residency or to learn more about Heinemann residencies as a long-term literacy action plan. An internationally-known speaker and workshop leader, Susan Zimmermann is coauthor of Comprehension Going Forward (2011) and the educational bestsellers Mosaic of Thought, Second Edition (2007) and 7 Keys to Comprehension (with Chryse Hutchins, 2003). She cofounded and served as the Executive Director of the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, an organization that has spearheaded ground-breaking comprehension work. During her ten years there, she initiated numerous programs to improve the quality of public schools, including the Reading Project, which has been implemented in more than one hundred schools and provides the examples in Mosaic of Thought, Second Edition, and 7 Keys. As part of Heinemann Speakers, Susan also provides Professional development through Heinemann related to comprehension strategy teaching. Visit her Heinemann Speakers page for more information. Susan is also the author of Keeping Katherine (2005); Writing to Heal the Soul (2002), winner of the Colorado Book Award; and Grief Dancers (1996), finalist for the Colorado Book Award and winner of the Exceptional Parent symbol of excellence for its "profound contribution to human understanding and dignity." These wise and inspiring books grew out of Susan's personal experience of raising her profoundly handicapped daughter Katherine, who developed normally for her first year, but then experienced a devastating neurological disorder (Rett syndrome) that left her unable to walk, talk or feed herself. Currently a full-time speaker and writer, Susan has given hundreds of workshops, keynotes, and summer institutes in over 40 states, throughout Canada, and in Mexico on ways to deepen reading and writing experiences for adults and children. A lover of the wilderness and believer in the transformative power of the outdoors, she has been a trustee of the Colorado Outward Bound School and served as the board chair of The Women's Wilderness Institute, an organization that provides wilderness learning experiences for adolescent girls and women. Susan is a graduate of Yale Law School and mother of four. She lives in the foothills west of Denver. For more information on Susan Zimmermann visit her Web site at www.susanzimmermann.com.

Bibliographic information