Hi Bev, Thanks for this recommendation. It's sitting on my pile of books to read. Elisa Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry
-----Original Message----- From: Beverlee Paul <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:47:44 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <[email protected]> Subject: [MOSAIC] Ooops, they did it again!! Okay, for those of you out there that just want to read a great book about teaching comprehension, I think I've seen the right one tonight. HOWEVER, if you want to be part of a study group or professional learning community, if you want a "basic" text for a higher ed class you're teaching on comprehension, or if you just want to round out your viewpoint and depth about comprehension teaching in an efficient way, I truly have found the right book at the right time for you. I'm sure for many of you Mosaic members, your knowledge base is "past" this on first glance, but I'd submit that there is something to be said for an overview study of a topic to make each of us pull back our lens to more of a panoramic view so we remember to see the forest even when we know a heck of a lot about a particular tree. Here to haunt me on my desk (well, table, as it is) is a new book by Heinemann named COMPREHENSION GOING FORWARD - WHERE WE ARE / WHAT'S NEXT. And, yes, I'll admit its a perfect title. You wanna know who wrote it? Hmmm--do any of these names ring a bell...Keene, Zimmerman, Miller, Bennett, Blauman, Hutchins, Harvey, Goudvis, Buhrow, Cervetti, Larner, Tovani, Commins, Garcia, and McGregor? You wanna guess an editor? Yup, Smokey Daniels would be the one. Who wrote the coda, you say? That would be P. David Pearson. This book will sell. Why? Because of its versatility. But here's what is so practical about the book: it's a book for all seasons, but "a master of one." (How's that for mixing metaphors?) Strangely enough, I'm probably not recommending that most people read it as a summer read. Why? Because it's absolutely perfectly formatted for a PLC or a few teachers next door to study comprehension, where we are, and what's next. It's a typical anthology/collection, so here's what I see as its strength for team-building and shared understanding. Each chapter is just a tasty tidbit a writer has distilled from their own vast knowledge as the most pithy part of what they'd like us to know. Heck, it takes me a chapter to give a book talk about very little. So what do you think Smokey Daniels has chosen to welcome us? I don't know yet, but I know it's very important because he wrote it in 7 pages. Ellin Keene? "Comprehension Grows Up" in 24 pages. Susan Zimmerman? "Bring the Joy Back to Reading" in 12 pages. Debbie Miller? "Not So Gradual Release" in NINE pages! Chryse Hutchins has written what she finds so important for us to know about "Thinking and Talking Our Way Through the Words" in 12 pages. And on. The best chapter-beginning quote of the lot comes through Anne Goudvis and Brad Buhrow: "Every effort must be made in childhood to teach the young to use their own minds. For one thing is sure, if they don't make up their own minds, someone will do it for them." (Eleanor Roosevelt). Their chapter is aptly named "History Lessons." I love Cris Tovani's 27 page chapter called "It's Not Too Late to Be Smart - The Hope and How of Secondary Strategies Instruction." So I think you're beginning to see why I think this book could be such a powerful book to read with colleagues or classmates. Who can't make time to read about 15 pages a week and come to a community with lots to say and hear? There are lots of little "devices" to encourage us to write in the margins (as if we needed any) and it's formatted so we can do just that. The last chapter, the Coda from Pearson, is "Toward the Next Generation of Comprehension Instruction." Wouldn't that be a great Commencement for a learning community? So far, I've read only two chapters and I'm trying to put this book under some others in my stack, but I may sneak it out for a chapter at a time. :-) Just thought you might want to know. :-) Bev _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
