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To Understand: New Horizons In Reading Comprehension (2008)

by Ellin Oliver Keene(Favorite Author)

4.17 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0325003238 (ISBN13: 9780325003238)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Heinemann Educational Books

review 1: Keene picks up where "Mosaic of Thought" left off and shows why the comprehension strategy instruction we've learned isn't enough. I appreciate this. Back when "Mosaic of Thought" came out, I was Reading Dept. Head in a large urban school district and these strategies were gospel. Unfortunately, I learned fairly quickly that they didn't deliver as promised. Sometimes making a text-to-world connection or using a sticky note to write a question just seemed like yet another teacher hoop for students to jump through. While the principles of these comprehension strategies are solid (e.g. we do synthesize when we comprehend), the instructional act of making such thinking explicit didn't seem to go anywhere and eventually, I stopped using them. Thankfully, Keene also saw this hol... moree and wrote "To Understand" to show us where comprehension strategy instruction must go in order to be truly meaningful and to push student thinking. There is far more here than I can share in my review, as the book is dense with concrete "stuff" that teacher-readers can take directly into their classrooms (the appendices are especially packed) as well as examples of how these ideas work with real students. For this reason, I will be including this book in one of my E/LA methods courses in the fall. However, I do have some slight criticisms of the book. Foremost, the structure (four repeating sections per chapter) may have seemed like a good idea, but in execution unnecessarily complicates the reading. In fact, the "Mentor" sections (at the beginning of each chapter) could be cut altogether without losing any meaning and may even help focus it a bit more in the process. Also, Keene's use of rhetorical questions is initially a distraction that quickly turns annoying. I realize that with this book Keene is trying to change thinking (she says as much) and using this device is part of her attempt to persuade readers, but lengthy paragraphs of non-stop questions crop up multiple times in each chapter and are not only ineffective, but seem downright lazy.
review 2: This book is amazing. Ellin Oliver Keene builds upon the amazing work she did in Mosaic of Thought by probing what it means to "understand". She artfully ties the work of great artists and writers to reading instruction. She wants children to be Renaissance Learners and to dwell in ideas and to engage in discourse. Sounds lofty, but she gives practical strategies to make these outcomes happen. I will definitely be incorporating her ideas my classroom this year. less

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