Tell Me: Children, Reading, and Talk / Edition 1

by Aidan Chambers

Overview

“There is a correlation between the richness of the reading environment in which readers live and the richness of their talk about what they've read.”
“In any group of children we find that if they begin by sharing their most obvious observations they soon accumulate a body of understanding that reveals the heart of a text and its meaning(s) for them all.”

Talking about a book helps a child find the heart of a story, make sense of a string of facts, and understand complicated ideas. Aidan Chambers proposes an approach for discussing books so children learn to talk well about what they've read. Indeed, not only talk well, but listen well. And not just about books, but about other things. For the “Tell me” approach ultimately helps children learn to clarify ideas for themselves and to communicate with others. It is, in short, a basic step in applying knowledge and articulating meaning.

Tell Me offers practical information about book talking in the classroom, explaining some of the processes and outlining the ground rules developed by teachers and others who work with children and books. From their experience he has formulated a Framework, “a repertoire of questions that assist readers in speaking out their reading.”

Tell Me is companion to The Reading Environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571100306
Publisher:	Stenhouse Publishers
Publication date:	10/01/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 13 Years

About the Author

Aidan Chambers' best known books are the children's novel, The Present Takers and his young adult fiction that includes Breaktime, Dance on My Grave, and The Toll Bridge. He lectures on children's literature for teachers and for several years wrote the "Letter from England" column for The Horn Book.

With his wife Nancy he founded The Thimble Press in 1969, which has published professional books in education as well as the critical journal,  Signal: Approaches to Children's Books.

A recipient of numerous awards, in 1986 he gave the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture, sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children. Aidan and Nancy Chambers live in the Cotswold region of England.

Editorial Reviews

...effectively combines theoretical and practical concerns. In this volume Chambers begins by exploring why readers talk about books and what kinds of ideas they talk about. He argues that children in any grade can be insightful literary critics given the right circumstances and support. The primary contribution of the second book is a clear framework for conducting formal literary discussions with children. The framework, which Chambers calls "Tell me," is based on reader response theory.

The New Advocate