Chapter 3, "Driven to Understand"

In Chapter 3, “Driven to Understand,” Keene explores the ideal of “fervent learning,” and the reader is taken on a trip with the author and her daughter to an art museum. There, they try to understand some of the world’s great works of art, Ellin with her pen, her daughter with a sketch pad. Their different approaches illustrate the notion that we all get to the point of understanding differently, but what is important is that we get there. They agree at the end of the day that they have more questions than understandings. Again, the author reinforces another important concept in understanding—questioning. Keene comes to the conclusion that “great thinkers, great artists, great writers—not unlike more ordinary learners—use their work to better understand their worlds.” She refers to this intellectual exploration as “fervent learning,” and it is where we want to take our students in the classroom and in their lives, but how?
The “how” is the evolving theme of the book. We, as teachers, must show or model for our students what it means to be “captivated, rapt, engrossed, and resolved.” She asserts that our students must have models who can explicitly describe and show through their behavior what it looks and feels like to learn with persistence and PASSION. Keene refers to the “think aloud” model as a means of achieving this goal. I call it the “feel aloud” in my lesson plans. I will venture to guess that everyone in our class is practicing “feel alouds” or we would not be spending our time and money to engage young people in reading. Through reading, with resolve and passion, we come to understand our world—and I will take it one step further—ourselves. Isn’t this the ultimate objective of us all as we step into the classroom each day? Keene outlines a Literacy Studio model (a rethinking of the reader’s and writer’s workshop model) which focuses on creating a classroom culture of rigor, inquiry, and intimacy to achieve the goal of enhancing our students’ propensity to think and learn with excitement and inquiry. Although the reader is made to suffer some extraneous text—for instance, the death of the author’s mother—her call to create great thinkers and fervent learners of our students continues to make this a worthwhile read.

Chapter 2 Seeking Understanding in Our Minds, in Our Lives

In chapter 2, Keene is plagued with the question posed by her husband during her teaching days. She came home so excited by the conversations in her students' book clubs where they delved deep into understanding text by making connections, posing questions, etc. In response to her excitement, her husband asked, "Why don't they do that every day?" And this became Keene's quest...to make this deeper learning be the norm rather than the "happy accident". She lists her reasons why the students don't engage every day but felt that most importantly, her students didn't do it every day because she didn't expect them to. I do wonder about her conclusion...it is probably true some of the time for most of us. However, in working with struggling readers, I strongly feel that my expectations could be as high as a kite at times, but if a child is struggling with divorce issues, law enforcement issues, and a myriad of other things in their lives weighing them down, their desire to think deeply about literacy issues becomes very low on their priority list. I think the child's personality is a key factor in all of this. Some of them can have such sad and distressing lives but are still able to think "big picture". And there are others who have major upsets and meltdowns by minor things. But what I took away from this reading is that it is important to have high expectations for my students while maintaining a compassionate attitude concerning whatever may be troubling them.
Keene also poses models that she has created in order to bridge the gap between research and reality in the classroom. These models are: Dimensions and Outcomes of Understanding; What's Essntial for Literacy Learning; Literacy Studio. These are all take-offs from the readers and writers workshops that we are familiar with. These models include explanations for what happens in our minds and lives when we comprehend what we read and are able to retain and reapply what we've understood.
She addresses the idea of all the benefits gained from reflecting on our intellectual experiences which I read with great interest. I've always wondered about the added task of reflecting on what we do with our students. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, I see the importance of completing this activity and how much we grow and develop as teachers when we do this. However, I see so many teachers who really don't want to take the time to do this...they are so overwhelmed with what they already do that they just don't bother. So in those cases, is it better to give them what they want which is something that is already prepared and they just need to make copies and hand it out? At least, the students would be getting some benefits rather than missing the boat entirely when it comes to thinking on a deeper level. I'm not sure...any thoughts?
She also made an interesting comment when she said "...I found that if I defined and modeled what happens when a reader does question-when I showed the children what they can expect to experience when they understand deeply (such as the desire to dwell in an idea for a long time (dimension) or the feeling of empathy for a character (outcome)-they tended to ask more relevant and penetrating questions..." I had a thought. I think we need to be very careful as teachers, (since we are known for loving to hear ourselves talk!!...don't hit me!!) that we avoid droning on and on with our own "modeling" and thereby putting kids to sleep because they are so sick of listening to us. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

To Understand by Ellin Keene, Chapter 1

To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension is Ellin Keene’s latest book on the subject of reading instruction with the goal of deeper understanding. Chapter 1 questions what it actually means to understand. Keene revisits a conversation with Jamicka, a student in the class Keene has visited, and is taken by the young girl’s comment: "But, none a y’all ever say what makes sense mean.” So begins Keene’s journey to actually define comprehension beyond the strategies she and Zimmerman outlined in Mosaic of Thought. She questions if it is enough to expect students to retell, answer questions, and learn new vocabulary. The underlying theme of her new book searches for the answer to Jamicka’s question and a definition of comprehension which nurtures and challenges intellectual development. She asserts that only through building intellectual muscle and truly understanding a concept are we able to remember it, revise it, and reapply it later—the keys to lifelong learning! We must begin instruction with an idea that is intriguing, experience it intellectually, and reapply it in new contexts to build intellectual muscle. Keene refers to decades of research to support her claim that students will learn best when concepts are introduced a few at a time, important to the learner, taught in depth, taught over a long period of time, and applied in a variety of texts and contexts. Constant intellectual discussion in the classroom, both about content and how we learn content, is essential if we are to provide the answers to Jamicka’s question. Don’t you agree that this all sounds very familiar to the push for essential questions embedded in our curriculum to make learning more meaningful for our students? Stay tuned for Chapter 2.