Mosaic of Thought Reflections

   I haven't yet finished reading Mosaic of Thought, but I have stopped numerous times and asked myself this question: "How is it that I'm  just reading this book after teaching ELA for seven years?" Truly, I can't believe that this was not a required text at some point in my formal schooling because it's that missing piece of the puzzle that allows everything else to fall into place.

     I know that teaching students metacognition is important, and I can list the seven strategies that help students develop metacognition, but this book makes everything more clear. If you're a teacher asking why should I teach metacognition or how should I teach it, then this book is a must-buy.
     After recently finishing Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild, one might think that all you need to do as a reading teacher is pile good books into your students' arms and check in once in a while. Don't get me wrong, this is an essential first step. Yet, more is needed: fluency instruction, word analysis instruction, text structure instruction, vocabulary instruction, and comprehension strategy instruction. Mosaic of Thought is a tome of wisdom about comprehension strategy instruction.
    Believe me, I wish teaching reading comprehension was an easy gig. It's reassuring to read Mosaic of Thought and realize that many teachers before me have asked how to provide focused instruction that improves comprehension.
     Insightful teachers collaborated decades ago and, through trial and error, developed the following metacognition strategies. Keene and Zimmerman provide a suggested sequence for this strategy instruction, which I appreciate because I have grappled with the order of my instruction.

          Primary: monitoring, using background knowledge, questioning, creating mental images,
          inferring, determining importance, synthesizing

          Intermediate: monitoring, using background knowledge, inferring, determining importance,
         synthesizing, questioning, creating mental images (34)

     Other practical advice from the first section of the book include a reminder that the strategies themselves are not a means for differentiation but rather the text in which we ask students to apply the strategies allows for differentiation. One strategy is not harder than another.
     In addition, Keene and Zimmerman suggest teaching one strategy at a time for a prolonged period. Their classroom examples show how focus on a specific strategy can extend for 4 weeks - or even longer depending on students' needs. Keene and Zimmerman encourage teachers to teach the strategies one at a time but also to constantly loop the strategies into instruction so that by the end of the school year, the students are not solely practicing the most recent strategy but are using all seven strategies independently and at their own discretion. "Ultimately, the goal is to be able to use all the strategies in an integrated manner... depending on the demands of the text" (36).
     Keene and Zimmerman also state that "comprehension strategy study needs to be built on a gradual release of responsibility from teacher to student" (11). In other words, a lot of modeling and demonstrating is necessary before students can be expected to apply the strategy independently. The "I Do, We Do, You Do" method could easily dupe newbies into thinking that instruction follows these three neat and tidy steps. However, "I Do" gets repeated several times. And "We Do" gets repeated several times in different ways. Then we might loop back to "I Do" to address some student misconceptions... You get the idea.
     A natural question is how do you model a reading strategy. The answer is the Think-Aloud (serious voice). Initially, I remember thinking, "No way am I going to read aloud - and think aloud - to my high school students." Yet, this is the bread-and-butter of strategy instruction. It may sound elementary  but actually thinking aloud effectively requires preparation. I've stumbled my way through some poorly planned Think Aloud minilessons. The first step is to find engaging text challenging to the group of kids for whom you are modeling. This is where I have bumbled before because I've used a picture book that caused my 8th graders to roll their eyes. The second step is to identify places in the text where the reader could apply the strategy in a deep and meaningful way. This is where I've bumbled also.
     I was under the impression for the longest time that these modeling sessions needed to be authentic. Teachers needed to model what we ask our kids to do, which is pick up a book and apply the strategy on the fly. Here's the problem. Learning is messy. I don't have time to ramble during a five-minute minilesson. So even though it feels a little like cheating, figure out what you're going to think-aloud before you have your kids quietly listening to your every word.