Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension

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Discipline

Professional Resources

Copyright

2012

Grade(s)

K - 8

Delivery Method

Print

Imprint

Heinemann

Author(s)

Ellin Oliver Keene

Reading education pioneer Ellin Oliver Keene demystifies comprehension instruction by describing what it can look like when readers comprehend deeply and what it can look like when teachers aim for deep comprehension. This ground-breaking book is illustrated with video footage of Ellin modeling the reading instruction she describes. You will be able to watch Ellin use language and teaching moves that help students go beyond superficial reading comprehension to lasting understanding.

Talk About Understanding offers:

“Outcomes of Understanding” Markers—descriptions of the behaviours present when children understand a text deeply including ways to assess with and teach toward these outcomes.
“Talk About Understanding” Principles—suggestions to modify teaching language and teaching interactions to deepen children’s ability to comprehend.
“From the Inside” Video Segments—classroom footage of Ellin teaching lessons that illustrate the use of the “Outcomes of Understanding” markers and “Talk About Understanding” principles from the book.

Do your students understand their reading as deeply as they need to? Talk About Understanding has the guiding principles, the teaching suggestions, the carefully described outcomes, and the video support to help you teach your students how to comprehend, thoroughly and eagerly, the varied and complicated texts in the world around us.

Authors

ellin-keene-s — Ellin Oliver Keene

**Ellin Oliver Keene** is the author or coauthor of **Talk About Understanding** (2012); **Comprehension Going Forward** (2011); **To Understand** (2008); and **Mosaic of Thought, Second Edition** (2007), all published by Heinemann. She has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, 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 of the Cornerstone Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years, where she oversaw literacy and professional learning for teachers in high-poverty schools throughout the nation. She lives with her husband, David, and daughter, Elizabeth, in Denver and works with schools and districts around the country.

PART 1: IDEAS THAT LAST
1: Comprehension Strategy Instruction Grows Up: Why strategies matter and when they are not enough.
2: Insights and Empathy: What does it mean to comprehend deeply in narrative text?
3: From the Inside: Integrating strategy instruction and narrative outcomes
4: Immersed in Ideas: What does it mean to comprehend deeply in informational text?
5: From the Inside: Integrating strategy instruction and expository outcomes
PART 2: WORDS THAT MATTER
6: When We Talk to Children
7: From the Inside: Teacher’s oral language and children’s understanding
8: When We Respond to Children’s Voices
APPENDICES
A: Literacy Studio Components
B: Comprehension Strategies Defined
C: Dimensions of Understanding
D: Comprehension Strategy Study Planning Tool
E: Obervation Record
F: Oral Language Reflection Tool

Core Subject

Specialized Program/Course

Resources

Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension

Authors

Ellin Oliver Keene

Table of Contents

Virtual Samples