Read and Retell: A Strategy for the Whole Language/Natural Learning Classroom

Read and Retell details a simple and easy-to prepare strategy that teachers can use in the whole language classroom. Brown and Cambourne have found that the retelling procedure is an excellent holistic way to help learners gain control of various genres they are reading and a powerful technique for assessing children's comprehension of texts and evaluating their control of language. Their book provides thirty-eight texts in a range of descriptive, persuasive, argumentative, explanatory, and instructive writing with detailed instructions for their use in the retelling context.

Dr. Brian Cambourne started his career by teaching for fifteen years in a variety of small, mostly one-teacher schools. He has since become one of Australian's most eminent researchers of literacy and learning. He was a post-doctoral Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; a Fulbright Scholar; Research Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Reading at the University of Illinois and Research Fellow at the Learning Centre at Tucson. Currently he is Associate Professor and head of the Language, Learning and Literacy Unit at the University of Wollongong. His major interest is in professional development for literacy education and he is committed to the idea of co-learning and co-researching with teachers.