Mosaic of Thought describes the use and benefits of using explicit, strategy-based comprehension instruction as a way to guide students into deeper reading. It is believed that the visible practice of these metacognitive strategies can establish and support successful reading habits that eventually become intuitive. The authors argue that getting kids to think about their thinking is crucial to improving reading and deeper student understanding.  Teachers lead by making visible their own thinking processs, their own use of the strategies and modeling a metacognitive stance. The authors model this approach for the reader in each chapter. Although not cited in great detail, Mosaic of Thought draws from cognitive science and educational research to introduce seven thinking strategies for teachers and students to practice. The authors demonstrate this approach through real classroom examples, focused on grades K-8. 

Those seven strategies are:

• Activating prior knowledge
• Asking questions
• Drawing inferences
• Creating visual and other sensory images from text
• Determining most important ideas
• Retelling or synthesizing what's read
• Utilizing fix-up strategies

Rather than a prescribed curricululm, the authors stress the flexible way these strategies can be implemented by Language Arts teachers, who know their students and school context best. Some schools and districts teach each strategy every year and individual teachers or grade levels determine the order.  Other schools choose to teach one strategy through all the grade levels simultaneously.  It is essential to create a natural and safe environment where children are comfortable discussing and writing about what they read. These comprehension strategies are not meant to take the place of authentic read-aloud time or independent reading time.  Mosaic of Thought, updated in this second addition, provides a framework for creating reader’s workshops in the classroom, centered on metacognitive practices.  The goal is to teach students cognitive tools that will become intuitive as they develop into avid and confident readers who look forward to time alone with a great book in hand.