Talk About Understanding—Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension

Keene, an author who has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, and adjunct professor of reading and writing, provides K-8 teachers with a guide to modifying oral communication with children to help them understand more deeply. She examines what deeper understanding is; identifies a set of descriptors that can be used to reflect on this deeper understanding and indicate outcomes when children understand deeply, like experiencing empathy or evaluating author's intentions; and describes how teachers can interact with students to promote depth in narrative and informational text. She outlines lessons for comprehension strategy instruction and outcomes in narrative and informational texts, then details patterns in oral interactions that may get in the way of deeper understanding. She proposes new guidelines to break out of ineffective language interactions and principles for working in individual and group settings, with lessons demonstrating these principles, from varying tone and syntax to using silence. Classroom videos of Keene modeling the reading instruction accompany the lessons and are provided on the DVD. No index is included. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, non-profit director, 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 and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for four years. Ellin works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad with an emphasis on long-term, school-based professional development and strategic planning for literacy learning. She serves as senior advisor at Heinemann, overseeing the Heinemann Fellows initiative and is the editor of the Heinemann Professional Development Catalog-Journal. Ellin is author of Engaging Children: Igniting the Drive for Deeper Learning (2018), is co-editor and co-author of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching (Heinemann, 2015); co-editor of the Not This, but That series (Heinemann, 2013 - 2015); author of Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Understanding (Heinemann, 2012), To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2008), co-author of Comprehension Going Forward (Heinemann, 2011), Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, 2nd edition (Heinemann, 2007, 1st edition, 1997) and author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) as well as numerous chapters for professional books and journals on the teaching of reading as well as education policy journals. Ellin is a Heinemann PD provider, presenting One-Day Workshops, Webinars Series, and all forms of On-Site PD. She is most sought after for her long-term professional development residencies in partnership with Heinemann Professional Development. Click here for an overview of the Keene Residency. Listen to Ellin and Tom Newkirk reflect on the 20th anniversary of Mosaic of Thought on The Heinemann Podcast. Follow Ellin on Twitter @EllinKeene.