As a consultant, Keene brings into her classroom workshops fifteen years of experience conducting research on reading comprehension as a staff developer in the PEBC schools. The Hood Project funded substitutes to allow all teachers to gather and observe the demonstrations for their grade. Getting as close to the students as she could in each class, often with them surrounding her on the floor, Keene concentrated on encouraging the students to think more deeply while they read.
Kids say brilliant things.
In one of the fifth grades, the students listened and watched as Keene held up The Children We Remember , a book about the Holocaust by Chana Byers Abells that is dominated by large photos and little text. She encouraged students to draw inferences. A number of students offered opinions. Keene turned to a page that showed the faces of children before their Nazi captors killed them. The push paid off.