Talk About Understanding

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 穢2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)