Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop | 
 enlarge | Authors: Susan Zimmermann, Ellin Oliver Keene
Publisher: Heinemann
Category: Book
List Price: $29.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 190950
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 276
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 0435072374
Dewey Decimal Number: 372.47
EAN: 9780435072377
ASIN: 0435072374
Publication Date: April 21, 1997
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Product Description
You will be reluctant to set this book aside until you have visualized, inferred, synthesized, and questioned the immediate application to your classroom. - Kansas Journal of ReadingHow 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
Very helpful to a parent November 15, 2008
This is one of the most useful books that I have read in terms of reading comprehension and how to help my child with his own acquisition of comprehension skills. It merely breaks down some of the key tactics that good readers use regularly but aren't even aware of. Most of it is very simple and certainly possible for a parent that does a lot of reading aloud.
I didn't take it to be another take on whole language at all, as most of the cases in the book were already reading but weren't actively engaged in the books that were being read to them. I tried some very simple commenting about connections that I was making as I read to my children and my child who has issues with comprehension definitely became more engaged and was able to comment more himself. I didn't see anything in this book that would lead me to believe that the authors wanted to "replace" phonics in anyway. There's decoding and then there's acquiring meaning and pleasure from reading and some children, like mine, don't always acquire both without a little extra nudge.
 Wake up and smell the RESEARCH people! June 26, 2007
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
Whole language lives on, only now it is under the guise of 'balanced literacy' or Mosaic of Thought. Does anyone out there think perhaps that one of the most prolific readers and writers of our time (Thomas Jefferson) used any of this fluff when comprehending author's such as Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, or Shakespeare? The purpose of literacy is to gain new knowledge rapidly. It is the key to our economic and political well being. Spending hours on an inane piece of text that does not increase the child's knowledge base is useless. All these 'comprehension' strategies are taught to the point of insanity. I have news for you Zimmerman, there is a difference between learning a strategy and using it. Children are not using these inane strategies when it comes time for real life application. I could go on and on about the uselessness of these so called 'new ways to teach reading', instead I will give you a list of worthwhile texts that are far more grounded in what advanced readers REALLY do while examining text. HOW TO READ A BOOK, by Mortimer J. Adler. This book is over sixty years old and well worth your time to read. It was first published well before idiots like Ken Goodman and Stephanie Harvey came on the scene with their backwards way of thinking. Second, THE KNOWLEDGE DEFICIT by E.D. Hirsch-very thought provoking look at all the stupid strategies American schools are injecting into their curriculums. Third, READING INSTRUCTION THAT WORKS by Michael Pressley. Again, if you really want some bare bones info on improving comprehension - read this. Please teachers, wake up and question your research. It must ALWAYS be questioned. Don't believe that just because someone was published, they are correct. In order for research to be valid it is first and foremost peer reviewed. That means a third party with no vested interest in the success of the program leads a well designed study on it's effectiveness. SEcond, valid research is replicated many times over. This way multiple researches are testing the same technique and for the most part producing like results. Look for references in publications such as the Journal of Educational Psychology, or another reputable journal. Just because someone had their 'research' printed in The Reading Teacher, does not make it valid. GET INFORMED PEOPLE AND REMEMBER...DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ. HEH HEH.
 Interesting and useful, once you get past the lengthy digressions June 16, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Although I enjoyed this book and found the strategies exciting and compelling, it was horribly frustrating to read. Here's a comprehension strategy to use when reading this book: Skip the first 5-6 pages of each chapter. The author starts each chapter with text that connects, in some abstract way, to the theme of the chapter. While the points are usually valid, they could easily be summed up in a page or so - not 6. While I think I understand her overall point that we as teachers should be aware of the strategies we use as we read, her constant modeling of this gets to be really, really, irritating.
 Mosaic of Thought : Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop March 2, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is an excellent reference for teaching comprehension strategies in the elementary classroom. As a teacher, I refer to this book often. The authors have presented a straight forward guide explanining the importance and logic of their teaching methods. I have used these techniques in my own classroom. I have seen definite improvement in my sudents' comprehension. These improvements have been apparent in boh informal assessments as well as formal evaluations. I would definitely recommend this book to other teachers and homeschooling parents.
Excellent book for the progressive teacher February 19, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
As an educator, I try to look for teacher's literature that goes beyond the worksheets and attempts to get at the belief system and structure of what is considered "best practices" in education. This book challenges teachers to delve/question their belief systems, practices and own schema to help better understand how our students think and eventually teaching them a new and deeper way of looking at literature.
If you are looking for photocopies and cookie cutter projects, then go to your local teaching store for the newest Carson Dellosa or basal reader. This will not be the book for you. If you want to teach kids how to think, analyze, question, visualize and deeper comprehend literature then this is the book for you. Enjoy it with your colleagues. It really changed my teaching practices for the better.
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