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Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop
How do students become thoughtful, independent readers who comprehend text at a deep level?
255 pages, Paperback
First published April 21, 1997
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July 8, 2011
Mosaic of Thought was the first book I read about teaching English. Ten years ago, on the verge of leaving graduate school, I was introduced to Mosaic. I was blown away: it was as if the authors had taken off the top of my head, had observed my thought process while I was reading, and then held up a mirror to make me aware of what I was doing.
In the years since I have returned to Mosaic many times over, using it as a seed text to pull teaching points from. I found that Keene and Zimmermann offered me ideas and theories, while Atwell, Calkins, and Harvey and Goudvis offered me actual strategies to use in the classroom.
This newly revised version is exciting in that it offers new ideas about the value of comprehension strategies. Where I was disappointed was that I felt the authors never truly defined comprehension and understanding. It's the vague but sought after goal. What does it mean to comprehend? Is it the ability literally repeat the material? How do students demonstrate that they have comprehended a text? Is there a “good enough” comprehension? A “better” comprehension? Really, how do adults know when they have comprehended a text? I'm left with more questions and frustrations than answers. Perhaps if the authors had spent less time on cutesy "Into the Classroom" descriptions, they would have been able to focus on these questions.
In the years since I have returned to Mosaic many times over, using it as a seed text to pull teaching points from. I found that Keene and Zimmermann offered me ideas and theories, while Atwell, Calkins, and Harvey and Goudvis offered me actual strategies to use in the classroom.
This newly revised version is exciting in that it offers new ideas about the value of comprehension strategies. Where I was disappointed was that I felt the authors never truly defined comprehension and understanding. It's the vague but sought after goal. What does it mean to comprehend? Is it the ability literally repeat the material? How do students demonstrate that they have comprehended a text? Is there a “good enough” comprehension? A “better” comprehension? Really, how do adults know when they have comprehended a text? I'm left with more questions and frustrations than answers. Perhaps if the authors had spent less time on cutesy "Into the Classroom" descriptions, they would have been able to focus on these questions.
April 7, 2008
This book changed the way I teach reading! It opened my mind to the possibilities of helping children with comprehension and awakening children to the wonderful world of books. Each chapter has a wonderful breakdown of how to go about teaching each skill as well as wonderful examples of children's literature for teaching that reading comprehension skill.
November 17, 2019
Everything I've ever wanted in a teaching book.
September 2, 2023
I am responding to the 2nd edition.
In Chapter 1: Creating a New Mosiac I took away that think-alouds can be done effectively with picture books, even in high school, and that, as with all instruction, it's best not to jump right from teacher modeling to individual practice, but add intermediary steps of working in "small groups" (11) and "pairs and trios" (20). Also in Ch. 6, the authors say that "ideally, [think-alouds] evolve into a give-and-take between the teacher and students and then between students. The teacher stops to share her thinking using one or more strategies, then invites the students to share their thinking, first in pairs, later in different configurations of peers" (146).
I also realized that I need to long-term plan so that I don't randomly and sporadically use think-aloud but rather use "many think-alouds over a long period of time" (10).
The key to teaching reading comprehension, which I've done before using the book 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It!, is teaching kids to be "metacognitive," that is, to teach them to think about their thinking as they read (16).
A lightning bolt hit me as I review that instead of always doing for extra credit the-person-who-raises-their-hand-first-with-the-answer-gets-it check for understanding (CFU) questions at the end of each day, I can switch it up with an "all play" (all class exit ticket on Google Forms) related to metacognition (e.g. what's one new thought that occurred to you during our class period today--what generated that thought?) or a CFU.
Also, somewhere the idea hit me to change my pedagogy: instead of beginning right away with silent reading, start with a hook and a quick lesson on a reading strategy so that students can use that strategy right away during their silent reading.
Chapter 2: Changing Times
Although the seven reading comprehension strategies are taught individually (referencing, of course, previously taught strategies), "the goal... is to have children use all these strategies at once" (28). However, "there are times when children should purposefully use one or two strategies, turning up (or turning down) the volume on a strategy [depending on the demands of the text]" (p. 36).
"As a rule, [surfing the Internet, playing video games, and playing on one's cell phone] require less mental engagement [than reading]. They tend to foster shorter attention spans" (31). This quote resonated with me. Having taught The Scarlet Letter, I've realized that we as a society have lost the attention span necessary to read this book.
"There should be times when children read independently for the pleasure of reading, and there should be times when they are asked to employ strategies to deepen and amplify their understanding" (33). In other ways, too, a balance is needed: between reading aloud and silent reading, direct instruction and modeling, and small group work and independent work.
"In the same classroom, all children will be studying the same strategy, but applying that strategy in different levels and genres" (35). This is a helpful tip for how to implement classroom differentiation and another argument toward book clubs and away from whole-class texts. In book clubs, in addition to small group discussions, a concluding large group discussion could be valuable in which members from every group can share their insights with the whole class. Also, "providing [students who are avid readers] more challenging texts" is key (43).
"Two factors are vital: providing time to read and time to talk.... It is also helpful to provide a natural and 'safe' environment--one in which varying opinions are welcomed and honored" (38).
Research confirms that "kids who think well test well," highlighting that reading comprehension strategies are really cross-curricular thinking strategies (29).
"If we want students to be articulate about their thinking, they need daily time to practice talking. To encourage this, we often ask students to 'turn and talk' to one another in the middle of a large-group lesson" (41).
Chapter 3: Mindful Reading
"In many ways, monitoring is the umbrella under which the other comprehension strategies fall" (p. 49). Teaching students the monitoring strategy, which is really metacognition, will thus pay dividends not just in all of English but cross-curricularly. I realize, too, to be open with students about the skill I am trying to teach them: "This skill, which will help you throughout all of school, is called monitoring, or metacognition, which means being aware of and thinking about your thinking process..." The authors suggest monitoring would be a great 2-4 week unit at the beginning of the school year.
This book gives a lot of play-by-play examples of classroom teaching. Reading one such example—Cris Tovani doing a think-aloud for her high school students on an opaque reading research article--—gave me an idea: a think-aloud using an excerpt from The Scarlet Letter for my English 11 class.
Part of the monitoring reading strategy is being aware of why you are reading: "Proficient readers.... are aware of their purpose for reading and what will be required of them" (64). It's important that to students I stress—and set up assignments that require—the aesthetic purpose for reading instead of the efferent purpose.
Chapter 4: Using Schema to Understand and Remember
On the topic of schema (aka background knowledge): "A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept its wonders" (71, attributed to John Steinbeck).
"How different [the experience of Ellin's students during her first year of teaching] would have been had she known that the process of recalling or activating background knowledge should be taught explicitly" (74). This quote hit me with the word explicit: I must be explicit and completely open with students about what I am trying to teach them and why.
A powerful anecdote helped me see to rephrase a question when students give you crickets. If "What do you already know about the Civil War?" doesn't work, try, "Do you have background knowledge about times when things were unfair for a whole group of people? Can any of you think about times when terrible conflicts existed between groups of people in this country and their government?" (74-5).
"Prior to launching her study, Kathy assessed her second graders' understanding of background knowledge using the Major Point Interview for Readers (MPIR) from Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies" (80). This is a weakness in my teaching—failing to really understand where my students are when I begin a unit. I should start each unit with a pre-test, interview, even a whole-class discussion. This can tie into my survey at the beginning of each unit seeking what students see as relevant about the unit material.
"Initially, Kathy asked them to 'turn and talk' on the rug, giving partners about a minute to share background knowledge that helped them better understand the book. The children were familiar with the turn-and-talk procedure in which they sit cross-legged with their knees nearly touching and look at each other. It is a quick and effective strategy to involve all children in early attempts at using a strategy" (88). This quote is a healthy reminder for me to establish (through explicit teaching and modeling) procedures in my classroom for repeated use.
"Linking [through text-to-self, -world, -text connections] new understandings to other stored knowledge makes it easier to remember and reapply the new information... Proficient readers can articulate how they use schema to enhance their comprehension in all forms of text and in all learning situations... Teachers help readers in activating their schema [and] building schema (helping them create background knowledge on a given topic, author, text structure, etc.)" (100-1). This comes from the chapter summary; while I wouldn't do a six-week unit on schema in my high school English class, I do appreciate this reminder of the value of practicing with students schema activation as well as explicitly teaching them the term, how to do it, and why it's important.
Chapter 5: The Art of Discovery, Questioning
"We do [students] an even greater disservice [than ignoring their questions] if through our educational process we extinguish their need to question" (108). Like Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, I have noticed a lot of critiques against the school system in America, which I heartily agree with. Implicitly we teach students that our questions are better and more important than theirs. Restoring student's curiosity and joy in learning is my number one priority as a teacher; the nuts-and-bolts question is how do I make this happen in my daily practice? One thing I know to do is to be explicit with students that restoring their curiosity and joy in learning is my goal. Another thing to do is allow students to ask "tough questions," even when they disagree with what I am trying to teach them (108).
As I teach students to question, I should begin with my own model think-aloud, then have students think-aloud together in small groups, then advance my teaching my teaching them categories of questions they can ask: "clarifying, speculative (predictive or exploratory), rhetorical, and about the author's intent and style" (113).
I like the idea of using The Wretched Stone as a think-aloud text.
This chapter reminded me to hang student work on the walls, trust students to solve classroom problems (such as who gets to use the flexible seating during SSR), and modeling for students my life as a reader, writer, and learner (116). Moreover, this chapter drumbeats the importance of giving students choice, conferring with students, and using groups of various sizes (117). Also, I liked this reminder: "Clarity about the teaching intention, or objective, leads to precise and elegant language in the lesson, and precise and elegant langauge leads to a tone of rigor and intimacy" (119). It also builds students' vocabularies.
After a mini-lesson about some reading strategy, I should charge students to carry on that new skill in silent reading time (119).
It's important to give ample wait times when asking students questions, to (1) give them time to think deeply about the question and thus to implicity show that deep thinking is important and (2) not convey the idea that I will answer the question ultimately anyway, so they just have to wait till I tell them the answer (121).
I was surprised that Ellin and Char, who were co-teaching a first-grade class, would interrupt silent reading to ask students to turn and talk about a question they've come up with as they have been reading. Should I interrupt silent reading in this way? I think some students would have a hard time getting back into the reading if I did; I could wait till the end of silent reading to ask them to do this (127).
I liked this idea for assembling special groups to practice a skill that most of the class has gotten but some students are still struggling with: "When a teacher tells the whole class that an invitational group will meet, she names those [struggling students] who will be part of the group, and also announces that there are two or three open positions. If children... believe they would benefit from more in-depth instruction on the strategy, they too are welcome to join" (128).
It was cool to read about students teaching each other (in what the authors call "reflective sessions," which "can be any size, from whole class to pairs, trios, and quads") (133,4). Students who will teach the group ask themselves, "What did I learn about myself as a reader or writer? What can I 'teach' that will help other readers and writers?" (134).
Chapter 6: Creating Meaning. Inferences
Students "need to know that they aren't 'wrong' if their inferences are different from those of their teachers or classmates" (141). I want to explicitly tell students that I am working on welcoming in my class student inferences—and student ideas in general—that are different than my own.
The importance of teacher modeling, especially the teacher's life as a reader and writer, was again emphasized.
One idea that occurs frequently in this book showed up again in this chapter: students commit to long-term memory the texts they read when they use the comprehension reading strategies to make them their own. "Much of what we read passes through the lens of our eyes to our brains, is comprehended superficially, and [is] never considered again. . . . We build meaning by doing something with the text, [whether] that be an unconscious, quick prediction, a conscious sense of outrage and indignation, a vigorous discussion in a book club, a quiet conversation with a friend, or a letter to an editor, to infer is to make the text our own—to create our own meaning" (166).
To encourage students to think deeply about possible inferences in the text—and to think deeply in general—the authors encourage the process of long wait times (which is a pedagogical practice I've heard is effective in other places, too; I need to try it).
"The teacher's role is . . . to create personal horizons toward which each child can advance" (165).
I found their definition of inferring to be unique and even disruptive: "Infeering is the process of creating a personal and unique meaning from text" (166). Contrast that with Merriam-Webster's definition: To infer is to make an inference, which is "a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence." The m-w definition makes the inference more strictly dependent on what the text says, whereas the authors' definition gives more latitude to the reader. The authors' definition helps me move beyond my simplistic idea of inferring as "reading behind the lines."
Chapter 7: Bringing Text to Life
"The bad news is that many children simply have not had experiences in creating images that they can sustain over the course of reading a book. They are not creating vivid, detailed images in their minds. The good news is that we can do a lot to remedy that problem by thinking-aloud about our images and inviting children to talk about, write about, draw, or perform theirs" (177). I like the final four options given by the authors, especially "perform," which I do in my Native American oral tradition skits.
"Overwhelmed by all we are required to teach, we sometimes forget the simple but critical rhythm of immediately following craft instruction with an extended period in which children can apply what they have just learned... The transition from crafting to composing should be simple and predictable—my turn, now your turn" (185).
Page 192 contains a table with several helpful journal questions, including these:
Write about how this reading strategy helped you better understand the text.
Write everything you think about while reading a short text or excerpt.
Make a Venn diagram background knowledge, text sources, and the overlapping circle being the inference.
This chapter reminded me again to let students not just work on a strategy individually but also to give them a chance to think aloud in front of the whole class and in small groups (193).
"Too often in school kids have been conditioned to focus only on the literal interpretation of text" (195). "Mental images derived from what they've read connect them personally to the texts" (196). These images "emerge from all five senses" (196).
"Proficient readers understand and can articulate how creating images enhances their comprehension" (196).
Chapter 8: The Heart of the Matter: Determining Importance
"At the word level, eye movement studies indicate that the eyes of proficient readers focus longer (by milliseconds) on words that carry the weight of meaning... sometimes they are nouns and verbs, sometimes not... It can be helpful to talk about contentives and functors... have them identify important words and functional words and get them to talk about their choices" (210-1).
Go small to large: Start with having kids identify the most important words, then sentences, and then ideas (212). This would be a great Socratic seminar question--have kids debate the most important word, sentence, idea (222).
"Proficient readers actually use purpose, beliefs, prior knowledge, and audience to make decisions about what is important in text" (do a think-aloud based on this). By thinking aloud, we need to show kids exactly how we include a healthy dose of skepticism as we read" (217,8).
Chapter 9: The Evolution of Meaning—Synthesis
"Research has long indicated that teaching children to summarize is a helpful tool in reading comprehension... Students do benefit from learning to summarize, but we know they are capable of much more than a traditional summary... They should incorporate [background knowledge,] beliefs, opinions, emotions, and values... Children can, and should, be taught to do both—summarize and synthesize" (230-1).
Idea: 1st think-aloud do a summary, 2nd think-aloud do a synthesis.
"We know that students who struggle fail to adjust their interpretations as they read further" (232).
"When children pay attention to evolving meaning as they read, and create new ways to think about and share the information later, there is a significant improvement in their ability to remember books and transfer the information they've synthesized to new learning situations. Something even more important happens with synthesis: Children create original interpretations of text" (234-5).
A teacher in a conference with a student said, "You can use [1] exposition, [2] action, or [3] dialogue to describe (a) character, (b) setting, (c) conflict, (d) theme, (e) plot events, (f) resolution, or (g) facts" (240). This would be a powerful lesson for creative writing.
Synthesis is essential—culling and pruning details, finding the essence, reorganizing and creating our own explanations (242-3), and may be shared in an original way (244).
Proficient readers are aware of text structures and signal words. (243).
Epilogue: Mosiac of Meaning
"Unless we use them ourselves, we cannot expect to be able to teach these [comprehension] techniques" (253).
"The comprehension strategies discussed in this book are the tools [skills] to chisel meaning deep into a reader's long-term memory as he or she discusses with others, writes about the piece, or explores it further through research or additional reading" (253).
In Chapter 1: Creating a New Mosiac I took away that think-alouds can be done effectively with picture books, even in high school, and that, as with all instruction, it's best not to jump right from teacher modeling to individual practice, but add intermediary steps of working in "small groups" (11) and "pairs and trios" (20). Also in Ch. 6, the authors say that "ideally, [think-alouds] evolve into a give-and-take between the teacher and students and then between students. The teacher stops to share her thinking using one or more strategies, then invites the students to share their thinking, first in pairs, later in different configurations of peers" (146).
I also realized that I need to long-term plan so that I don't randomly and sporadically use think-aloud but rather use "many think-alouds over a long period of time" (10).
The key to teaching reading comprehension, which I've done before using the book 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It!, is teaching kids to be "metacognitive," that is, to teach them to think about their thinking as they read (16).
A lightning bolt hit me as I review that instead of always doing for extra credit the-person-who-raises-their-hand-first-with-the-answer-gets-it check for understanding (CFU) questions at the end of each day, I can switch it up with an "all play" (all class exit ticket on Google Forms) related to metacognition (e.g. what's one new thought that occurred to you during our class period today--what generated that thought?) or a CFU.
Also, somewhere the idea hit me to change my pedagogy: instead of beginning right away with silent reading, start with a hook and a quick lesson on a reading strategy so that students can use that strategy right away during their silent reading.
Chapter 2: Changing Times
Although the seven reading comprehension strategies are taught individually (referencing, of course, previously taught strategies), "the goal... is to have children use all these strategies at once" (28). However, "there are times when children should purposefully use one or two strategies, turning up (or turning down) the volume on a strategy [depending on the demands of the text]" (p. 36).
"As a rule, [surfing the Internet, playing video games, and playing on one's cell phone] require less mental engagement [than reading]. They tend to foster shorter attention spans" (31). This quote resonated with me. Having taught The Scarlet Letter, I've realized that we as a society have lost the attention span necessary to read this book.
"There should be times when children read independently for the pleasure of reading, and there should be times when they are asked to employ strategies to deepen and amplify their understanding" (33). In other ways, too, a balance is needed: between reading aloud and silent reading, direct instruction and modeling, and small group work and independent work.
"In the same classroom, all children will be studying the same strategy, but applying that strategy in different levels and genres" (35). This is a helpful tip for how to implement classroom differentiation and another argument toward book clubs and away from whole-class texts. In book clubs, in addition to small group discussions, a concluding large group discussion could be valuable in which members from every group can share their insights with the whole class. Also, "providing [students who are avid readers] more challenging texts" is key (43).
"Two factors are vital: providing time to read and time to talk.... It is also helpful to provide a natural and 'safe' environment--one in which varying opinions are welcomed and honored" (38).
Research confirms that "kids who think well test well," highlighting that reading comprehension strategies are really cross-curricular thinking strategies (29).
"If we want students to be articulate about their thinking, they need daily time to practice talking. To encourage this, we often ask students to 'turn and talk' to one another in the middle of a large-group lesson" (41).
Chapter 3: Mindful Reading
"In many ways, monitoring is the umbrella under which the other comprehension strategies fall" (p. 49). Teaching students the monitoring strategy, which is really metacognition, will thus pay dividends not just in all of English but cross-curricularly. I realize, too, to be open with students about the skill I am trying to teach them: "This skill, which will help you throughout all of school, is called monitoring, or metacognition, which means being aware of and thinking about your thinking process..." The authors suggest monitoring would be a great 2-4 week unit at the beginning of the school year.
This book gives a lot of play-by-play examples of classroom teaching. Reading one such example—Cris Tovani doing a think-aloud for her high school students on an opaque reading research article--—gave me an idea: a think-aloud using an excerpt from The Scarlet Letter for my English 11 class.
Part of the monitoring reading strategy is being aware of why you are reading: "Proficient readers.... are aware of their purpose for reading and what will be required of them" (64). It's important that to students I stress—and set up assignments that require—the aesthetic purpose for reading instead of the efferent purpose.
Chapter 4: Using Schema to Understand and Remember
On the topic of schema (aka background knowledge): "A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept its wonders" (71, attributed to John Steinbeck).
"How different [the experience of Ellin's students during her first year of teaching] would have been had she known that the process of recalling or activating background knowledge should be taught explicitly" (74). This quote hit me with the word explicit: I must be explicit and completely open with students about what I am trying to teach them and why.
A powerful anecdote helped me see to rephrase a question when students give you crickets. If "What do you already know about the Civil War?" doesn't work, try, "Do you have background knowledge about times when things were unfair for a whole group of people? Can any of you think about times when terrible conflicts existed between groups of people in this country and their government?" (74-5).
"Prior to launching her study, Kathy assessed her second graders' understanding of background knowledge using the Major Point Interview for Readers (MPIR) from Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies" (80). This is a weakness in my teaching—failing to really understand where my students are when I begin a unit. I should start each unit with a pre-test, interview, even a whole-class discussion. This can tie into my survey at the beginning of each unit seeking what students see as relevant about the unit material.
"Initially, Kathy asked them to 'turn and talk' on the rug, giving partners about a minute to share background knowledge that helped them better understand the book. The children were familiar with the turn-and-talk procedure in which they sit cross-legged with their knees nearly touching and look at each other. It is a quick and effective strategy to involve all children in early attempts at using a strategy" (88). This quote is a healthy reminder for me to establish (through explicit teaching and modeling) procedures in my classroom for repeated use.
"Linking [through text-to-self, -world, -text connections] new understandings to other stored knowledge makes it easier to remember and reapply the new information... Proficient readers can articulate how they use schema to enhance their comprehension in all forms of text and in all learning situations... Teachers help readers in activating their schema [and] building schema (helping them create background knowledge on a given topic, author, text structure, etc.)" (100-1). This comes from the chapter summary; while I wouldn't do a six-week unit on schema in my high school English class, I do appreciate this reminder of the value of practicing with students schema activation as well as explicitly teaching them the term, how to do it, and why it's important.
Chapter 5: The Art of Discovery, Questioning
"We do [students] an even greater disservice [than ignoring their questions] if through our educational process we extinguish their need to question" (108). Like Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, I have noticed a lot of critiques against the school system in America, which I heartily agree with. Implicitly we teach students that our questions are better and more important than theirs. Restoring student's curiosity and joy in learning is my number one priority as a teacher; the nuts-and-bolts question is how do I make this happen in my daily practice? One thing I know to do is to be explicit with students that restoring their curiosity and joy in learning is my goal. Another thing to do is allow students to ask "tough questions," even when they disagree with what I am trying to teach them (108).
As I teach students to question, I should begin with my own model think-aloud, then have students think-aloud together in small groups, then advance my teaching my teaching them categories of questions they can ask: "clarifying, speculative (predictive or exploratory), rhetorical, and about the author's intent and style" (113).
I like the idea of using The Wretched Stone as a think-aloud text.
This chapter reminded me to hang student work on the walls, trust students to solve classroom problems (such as who gets to use the flexible seating during SSR), and modeling for students my life as a reader, writer, and learner (116). Moreover, this chapter drumbeats the importance of giving students choice, conferring with students, and using groups of various sizes (117). Also, I liked this reminder: "Clarity about the teaching intention, or objective, leads to precise and elegant language in the lesson, and precise and elegant langauge leads to a tone of rigor and intimacy" (119). It also builds students' vocabularies.
After a mini-lesson about some reading strategy, I should charge students to carry on that new skill in silent reading time (119).
It's important to give ample wait times when asking students questions, to (1) give them time to think deeply about the question and thus to implicity show that deep thinking is important and (2) not convey the idea that I will answer the question ultimately anyway, so they just have to wait till I tell them the answer (121).
I was surprised that Ellin and Char, who were co-teaching a first-grade class, would interrupt silent reading to ask students to turn and talk about a question they've come up with as they have been reading. Should I interrupt silent reading in this way? I think some students would have a hard time getting back into the reading if I did; I could wait till the end of silent reading to ask them to do this (127).
I liked this idea for assembling special groups to practice a skill that most of the class has gotten but some students are still struggling with: "When a teacher tells the whole class that an invitational group will meet, she names those [struggling students] who will be part of the group, and also announces that there are two or three open positions. If children... believe they would benefit from more in-depth instruction on the strategy, they too are welcome to join" (128).
It was cool to read about students teaching each other (in what the authors call "reflective sessions," which "can be any size, from whole class to pairs, trios, and quads") (133,4). Students who will teach the group ask themselves, "What did I learn about myself as a reader or writer? What can I 'teach' that will help other readers and writers?" (134).
Chapter 6: Creating Meaning. Inferences
Students "need to know that they aren't 'wrong' if their inferences are different from those of their teachers or classmates" (141). I want to explicitly tell students that I am working on welcoming in my class student inferences—and student ideas in general—that are different than my own.
The importance of teacher modeling, especially the teacher's life as a reader and writer, was again emphasized.
One idea that occurs frequently in this book showed up again in this chapter: students commit to long-term memory the texts they read when they use the comprehension reading strategies to make them their own. "Much of what we read passes through the lens of our eyes to our brains, is comprehended superficially, and [is] never considered again. . . . We build meaning by doing something with the text, [whether] that be an unconscious, quick prediction, a conscious sense of outrage and indignation, a vigorous discussion in a book club, a quiet conversation with a friend, or a letter to an editor, to infer is to make the text our own—to create our own meaning" (166).
To encourage students to think deeply about possible inferences in the text—and to think deeply in general—the authors encourage the process of long wait times (which is a pedagogical practice I've heard is effective in other places, too; I need to try it).
"The teacher's role is . . . to create personal horizons toward which each child can advance" (165).
I found their definition of inferring to be unique and even disruptive: "Infeering is the process of creating a personal and unique meaning from text" (166). Contrast that with Merriam-Webster's definition: To infer is to make an inference, which is "a conclusion or opinion that is formed because of known facts or evidence." The m-w definition makes the inference more strictly dependent on what the text says, whereas the authors' definition gives more latitude to the reader. The authors' definition helps me move beyond my simplistic idea of inferring as "reading behind the lines."
Chapter 7: Bringing Text to Life
"The bad news is that many children simply have not had experiences in creating images that they can sustain over the course of reading a book. They are not creating vivid, detailed images in their minds. The good news is that we can do a lot to remedy that problem by thinking-aloud about our images and inviting children to talk about, write about, draw, or perform theirs" (177). I like the final four options given by the authors, especially "perform," which I do in my Native American oral tradition skits.
"Overwhelmed by all we are required to teach, we sometimes forget the simple but critical rhythm of immediately following craft instruction with an extended period in which children can apply what they have just learned... The transition from crafting to composing should be simple and predictable—my turn, now your turn" (185).
Page 192 contains a table with several helpful journal questions, including these:
Write about how this reading strategy helped you better understand the text.
Write everything you think about while reading a short text or excerpt.
Make a Venn diagram background knowledge, text sources, and the overlapping circle being the inference.
This chapter reminded me again to let students not just work on a strategy individually but also to give them a chance to think aloud in front of the whole class and in small groups (193).
"Too often in school kids have been conditioned to focus only on the literal interpretation of text" (195). "Mental images derived from what they've read connect them personally to the texts" (196). These images "emerge from all five senses" (196).
"Proficient readers understand and can articulate how creating images enhances their comprehension" (196).
Chapter 8: The Heart of the Matter: Determining Importance
"At the word level, eye movement studies indicate that the eyes of proficient readers focus longer (by milliseconds) on words that carry the weight of meaning... sometimes they are nouns and verbs, sometimes not... It can be helpful to talk about contentives and functors... have them identify important words and functional words and get them to talk about their choices" (210-1).
Go small to large: Start with having kids identify the most important words, then sentences, and then ideas (212). This would be a great Socratic seminar question--have kids debate the most important word, sentence, idea (222).
"Proficient readers actually use purpose, beliefs, prior knowledge, and audience to make decisions about what is important in text" (do a think-aloud based on this). By thinking aloud, we need to show kids exactly how we include a healthy dose of skepticism as we read" (217,8).
Chapter 9: The Evolution of Meaning—Synthesis
"Research has long indicated that teaching children to summarize is a helpful tool in reading comprehension... Students do benefit from learning to summarize, but we know they are capable of much more than a traditional summary... They should incorporate [background knowledge,] beliefs, opinions, emotions, and values... Children can, and should, be taught to do both—summarize and synthesize" (230-1).
Idea: 1st think-aloud do a summary, 2nd think-aloud do a synthesis.
"We know that students who struggle fail to adjust their interpretations as they read further" (232).
"When children pay attention to evolving meaning as they read, and create new ways to think about and share the information later, there is a significant improvement in their ability to remember books and transfer the information they've synthesized to new learning situations. Something even more important happens with synthesis: Children create original interpretations of text" (234-5).
A teacher in a conference with a student said, "You can use [1] exposition, [2] action, or [3] dialogue to describe (a) character, (b) setting, (c) conflict, (d) theme, (e) plot events, (f) resolution, or (g) facts" (240). This would be a powerful lesson for creative writing.
Synthesis is essential—culling and pruning details, finding the essence, reorganizing and creating our own explanations (242-3), and may be shared in an original way (244).
Proficient readers are aware of text structures and signal words. (243).
Epilogue: Mosiac of Meaning
"Unless we use them ourselves, we cannot expect to be able to teach these [comprehension] techniques" (253).
"The comprehension strategies discussed in this book are the tools [skills] to chisel meaning deep into a reader's long-term memory as he or she discusses with others, writes about the piece, or explores it further through research or additional reading" (253).
March 18, 2017
I read the book Mosaic of Thought because it was a requirement for one of my classes in school. While I can see how this book can be a helpful tool for current teachers, overall, I found the book extremely boring and would not have read it if it was not a requirement.
June 30, 2010
I LOVE this book! Meant for reading teachers, I find the simple techniques here easy to implement with my children, teaching them to get more out of their books. Interesting to read, I recommend it!
May 17, 2014
Most important book I read in the beginning of my teaching career.
June 7, 2022
I'm a high school history teacher who has become increasingly frustrated with my students' inability to understand what they read. For the last few years I've been reading books about teaching reading. Mosaic of Thought is one of the better ones I've read. It highlights seven strategies of reading that good readers use, and explains how to teach them to students. One of the methods the authors advocate is to use read-alouds to help students understand what the strategies look like. Each strategy is explained and then examples are given of how different teachers have used the strategy. My biggest objection is that the book is so focused on an elementary school setting, but I found it relatively easy to translate the strategies into a high school setting. The other problem I had is that it describes how to teach reading in the setting of reading class. This is not my setting, so again I had to make the leap to how I might use some of the strategies in my social studies setting. Even so, I fought the book useful and recommend it to anyone who wants to help kids improve their comprehension.
March 23, 2022
Keene and Zimmermann write of different strategies that help students absorb and appreciate what they are reading. My biggest takeaway from the book is that those of us, meaning teachers who love reading (not all teachers do), grew up reading, and continue reading regularly as adults, may not understand that it is not necessarily a given that reading is exciting and something students look forward to; instead, for a lot of students, they see it as a chore. Those strategies to help enable students to see the joy in reading would be most useful for those teachers who do not already know them.
August 9, 2019
While this book is geared toward K-6 teachers, I found the research on comprehension to be interesting, and I will implement several of the strategies in my class. Reading this made me realize that more times than not, we show students that competent writers struggle and have to use fix up strategies, but we should also be doing the same things with reading because competent readers sometimes struggle too and have their own "toolbox" to help with comprehension.
February 5, 2017
I had a hard time getting through this classic. As another reviewer noted, a page-turner this book is not. With that said, I appreciated the practical insight the authors provided. Now that the comprehension strategies discussed in this book are somewhat commonplace, I found it nice to return to where a handful of them were shared for the first time.
March 21, 2017
As a student preparing to become an elementary school teacher I found Mosaic of Thought to be extremely enlightening as to how people read and how one can improve reading comprehension. I plan on using the knowledge I learned in this book such as schema, sensory images, asking questions while reading, inferring, and etc., to teach children how to improve their meta cognition in terms of reading. And not only was Mosaic of Thought very enlightening, but the authors, Keene and Zimmerman, used entertaining stories and examples from their own life to explain the ideas in the book. However, I did find that the chapters seemed to drag on long past I had understood the meaning of the chapter. For this reason, I would give Mosaic of Thought four out of five stars.
November 12, 2017
4.5
So much better than the last book I read for grad school. It was easy to follow and gave me some great ideas to implement not only for my ELA classes, but also my speech class. My only complaint is that I wish there were more high school examples throughout. I plan on trying to get some colleagues to borrow and read it.
So much better than the last book I read for grad school. It was easy to follow and gave me some great ideas to implement not only for my ELA classes, but also my speech class. My only complaint is that I wish there were more high school examples throughout. I plan on trying to get some colleagues to borrow and read it.
September 3, 2017
I had to give this four stars instead of five because it's not one that I remember well. Other education books just pop into my head, but not this one. I remember finding it useful and still have it in my collection. It's time I dig it out for a refresher.
July 15, 2022
Excellent book, real life examples to let you envision how to implement a reading program. Main takeaways
Think alouds
Time to read - this is sacred
Instruction in comprehension strategies
Group learning
Individual conferences
Think alouds
Time to read - this is sacred
Instruction in comprehension strategies
Group learning
Individual conferences
March 14, 2017
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to understand and it includes useful tips.
May 4, 2017
This book is definitely not a page turner but provides a lot of constructive ways to teach English in the classroom. I'll definitely hang on to this book when I begin teaching English myself.
April 24, 2018
Such a wealth of information on reading comprehension and teaching reading strategies. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is teaching.
June 22, 2018
This book encourages teachers to know themselves on a deep meta cognitive level so they can explicitly share the strategies they use when they are trying to comprehend texts.
March 21, 2017
Mosaic of Thought was interesting reading material to me because it was reading about reading, mostly comprehension. It really talks about the importance of not just reading but comprehending what you read in the best way possible. While I thought the book dragged on a little too long and could have been more condensed. It gives thorough explanations of what it means to comprehend material.
March 21, 2017
Honestly this book was a boring read for me. The way that the chapters were set up distracted me. I wanted the information presented first, with examples and additions to supplement the main idea after. As someone who is working towards becoming a teacher, I didn't feel connected to this book or like it really applied to me and my current situation.
March 21, 2017
I did not love this book. I thought it had bits of really good information throughout the chapters, but overall I did not think it was a great read.
March 7, 2017
Great book to educate future teachers or teachers on many practices they can use in their classroom.
February 27, 2016
Misc. thoughts about this book to help me to remember this book:
1. I loved that the author’s demonstrated the metacognitive strategies with text that THEY read. This modeling is the strength of this book. I feel strongly that in order to be effective teachers of reading, we need to practice the strategies with text that we read. If we are unable to sift through, make connections, and synthesize challenging reading, neither can our students.
2. The book works through seven metacognitive strategies in an understandable and usable format.
3. The book stands on its own and builds on the strength of previous teaching reading researchers. On a side note, it drives me a little batty the way that educators constantly need to name drop in order to bring credibility to their material and thoughts
4. A favorite quote… “There is no program, no recipe, no prescription that will ever supersede the power of a well-informed and caring teacher.” So true!
5. Another favorite, “There should be times when teachers read aloud simply to give children the pleasure of listening to beautifully crafted literature, poetry, and non fiction.” This seems so obvious but yet gets lost in so many classrooms. More than anything, I want to instill the love for reading in my students.
6. Another point that resonated with me. Comprehension strategies are tools for understanding across the curriculum. A good reminder especially for middle school/high school students.
7. Good readers read more. Of course.
8. A line from the book, “For proficient readers, monitoring for meaning is a natural and often subconscious process.” Yes, but by teaching it directly, we provide students common language on how to discuss their process.
9. Liked this definition of inferring “Inferring is the process of creating a personal and unique meaning from text. “
10. Loved the example of how to create images with students, and practicing creating images of the character’s histories.
11. Love, love, love, the “Capturing Thinking Areas” ideas.
a. book talk area with snacks and tables
b. theater with paper for backdrops
c. artist studio with paints, markers, space to hang work
d. writers’ den with paper, pencils, pens, frame their written responses
12. Beyond the book report list on page 192-193 is awesome with oodles of ideas for responding to text.
13. Finally, loved the rubric in the end to guide the reader to think about how deeply they understand the material.
1. I loved that the author’s demonstrated the metacognitive strategies with text that THEY read. This modeling is the strength of this book. I feel strongly that in order to be effective teachers of reading, we need to practice the strategies with text that we read. If we are unable to sift through, make connections, and synthesize challenging reading, neither can our students.
2. The book works through seven metacognitive strategies in an understandable and usable format.
3. The book stands on its own and builds on the strength of previous teaching reading researchers. On a side note, it drives me a little batty the way that educators constantly need to name drop in order to bring credibility to their material and thoughts
4. A favorite quote… “There is no program, no recipe, no prescription that will ever supersede the power of a well-informed and caring teacher.” So true!
5. Another favorite, “There should be times when teachers read aloud simply to give children the pleasure of listening to beautifully crafted literature, poetry, and non fiction.” This seems so obvious but yet gets lost in so many classrooms. More than anything, I want to instill the love for reading in my students.
6. Another point that resonated with me. Comprehension strategies are tools for understanding across the curriculum. A good reminder especially for middle school/high school students.
7. Good readers read more. Of course.
8. A line from the book, “For proficient readers, monitoring for meaning is a natural and often subconscious process.” Yes, but by teaching it directly, we provide students common language on how to discuss their process.
9. Liked this definition of inferring “Inferring is the process of creating a personal and unique meaning from text. “
10. Loved the example of how to create images with students, and practicing creating images of the character’s histories.
11. Love, love, love, the “Capturing Thinking Areas” ideas.
a. book talk area with snacks and tables
b. theater with paper for backdrops
c. artist studio with paints, markers, space to hang work
d. writers’ den with paper, pencils, pens, frame their written responses
12. Beyond the book report list on page 192-193 is awesome with oodles of ideas for responding to text.
13. Finally, loved the rubric in the end to guide the reader to think about how deeply they understand the material.
April 6, 2008
Somehow I missed this widely known resource for teachers while in SF State credential program, but am so glad one of my students' teachers referred to it and got me into it. Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmermann wrote this mainly for the classroom, but the ideas and strategies are pertinenet for anyone trying to help students and themselves to have a deeper and more meaningful interaction with reading. It's a book I'll be returning to often.
Here's a quote that relates directly to Lindamood-Bell's Visualizing and Verbalizing program that my company employs to help with comprehension:
"Teachers know that students who struggle are often disengaged and don’t choose to read outside school (or within, for that matter!). Creating images can be the conduit to student engagement and is, therefore, especially important for students who struggle. Yet, we can’t take for granted that students create images spontaneously as they read. Many don’t. They don’t realize they should. The fact is many children spend a lot of time in front of screens—movies, television, video and computer—where a vast array of images is provided for them. Unless their image-making capacities have been nurtured as young children (being read to and told stories), they don’t realize they have the ultimate computer between their ears and enormous capacity to create their own images. They need explicit instruction as they develop and trigger their image-making abilities."
Keene and Zimmerman's work was also part of the inspiration for a little essay I wrote on "Activating Schema" at http://thereadingclinic.blogspot.com/... (scroll down to the entry for February 23.
Here's a quote that relates directly to Lindamood-Bell's Visualizing and Verbalizing program that my company employs to help with comprehension:
"Teachers know that students who struggle are often disengaged and don’t choose to read outside school (or within, for that matter!). Creating images can be the conduit to student engagement and is, therefore, especially important for students who struggle. Yet, we can’t take for granted that students create images spontaneously as they read. Many don’t. They don’t realize they should. The fact is many children spend a lot of time in front of screens—movies, television, video and computer—where a vast array of images is provided for them. Unless their image-making capacities have been nurtured as young children (being read to and told stories), they don’t realize they have the ultimate computer between their ears and enormous capacity to create their own images. They need explicit instruction as they develop and trigger their image-making abilities."
Keene and Zimmerman's work was also part of the inspiration for a little essay I wrote on "Activating Schema" at http://thereadingclinic.blogspot.com/... (scroll down to the entry for February 23.
November 19, 2008
I started reading this book 4 months ago. A page-turner it's not. It is written by teachers to help teachers learn to teach. I learned fascinating things from this, and really it seems that every teacher should read it or a book like it. We as Americans are incredibly under educated and unknowledgeable. Seeing the problems that Keene and Zimmermann were trying to solve back in the mid90s made me realize that it is laregely due to our reading - or the fact that we don't do much of it. Most people I know might acknowledge that reading a book is not something that they think people like them really do. In addition to their practical advice and guidelines I seem to remember a bit where they mention that we are completely untrained in reading non fiction. I think that shows in our lack of geographic, historical, spiritual, and political education.
As important as these messages are, I thought that an entire chapter on Inferences (for example) was a bit much. I am not a teacher, but I have read hundreds of books and have learned to do so thoughtfully, so I know what Inferences are. Reading about "Mimi" and "Rachel" practically the transcript about their supposedly discussing the Revolutionary War was a little like pulling teeth - except they were my own teeth!!
The biggest lesson I did take away from Mosaic of Thought was the importance of being metacognative - to think about how you think. They wanted to study it to understand how to teach reading. I was interested in studying it to understand how to teach to learn new info. There are some gold nuggets to find, even if plenty of riverbed to search through here!.
As important as these messages are, I thought that an entire chapter on Inferences (for example) was a bit much. I am not a teacher, but I have read hundreds of books and have learned to do so thoughtfully, so I know what Inferences are. Reading about "Mimi" and "Rachel" practically the transcript about their supposedly discussing the Revolutionary War was a little like pulling teeth - except they were my own teeth!!
The biggest lesson I did take away from Mosaic of Thought was the importance of being metacognative - to think about how you think. They wanted to study it to understand how to teach reading. I was interested in studying it to understand how to teach to learn new info. There are some gold nuggets to find, even if plenty of riverbed to search through here!.
July 25, 2009
I enjoyed reading this. It reminded me of Cziko's Reading for Understanding. I liked the way Ellin, one of the authors, started each chapter with a text, her think aloud of it, and how this played out in the classroom. The repetitive nature of each mini-lesson was ingrained in my head. Modeling think alouds, having students read individually while conferencing with students, sharing aloud after.
I wish there were more high school examples. There is only one at the end and compared to the elementary school examples, it is rather brief and lacks details. While I enjoyed the telling of the individual mini-conferences with kids, it seemed important (necessary?) that the teacher had read the books the students were reading. Although I am a huge reader, I can't imagine having read each text my students might choose for SSR. I wonder how important that is.
Overall, a good reminder of the need to actually teach good reading strategies.
I wish there were more high school examples. There is only one at the end and compared to the elementary school examples, it is rather brief and lacks details. While I enjoyed the telling of the individual mini-conferences with kids, it seemed important (necessary?) that the teacher had read the books the students were reading. Although I am a huge reader, I can't imagine having read each text my students might choose for SSR. I wonder how important that is.
Overall, a good reminder of the need to actually teach good reading strategies.
December 12, 2010
I just finished reading the second edition of this book. Like Stephanie Harvey, and a group of other reading comprehension specialists, Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann show how teachers can effectively model how they "think" as they read aloud. Once modeled, students can begin to "think" about what they read independently. Students are encouraged to have emotional and visual responses, text-to-self connections, and inferences. The thinking that is modeled by teachers and then quoted by young and older students prove that all students are capable of thoughtful, deep reflection. Great books that have "ideas" are offered to teachers in this book: The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor, The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg, The Three Questions by Jon Muth, and Remember by Toni Morrison. This is a must read for all teachers. I used many of these strategies for second graders, and now know how to use them for college students in reading courses for teachers as well.
April 22, 2016
My first Teacher's book that I read from the publisher Heinemann (they're great). It discusses teaching reading via a new methodology (well at least from when I was in grade school). At times I found following along the author's thought processes very engrossing and other times I found it very tiring. What helped me to finish the book was discovering the structure of the chapters: author's personal experience, in the classroom, and summary of skills at the end. After I noticed that then I started reading each of the chapters in backwards order basically and it helped me to pick up the pace. There's a lot of great ideas in the book that I already have made note of and I hope to use in the future.
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