The 4MAT REVIEW system is a way of responding to readings, lectures, and life
experiences that requires the learner to interact with new ideas on several levels. You will
review: O’Dell, Carla and C. Jackson Grayson Jr. If Only We Knew What We Know. Free
Press, 2011.
Please use the following format in preparing 4-MAT Book Reviews:
ABSTRACT. Summarize what you have read, boiling the book down into 300 words (1-2
pages). Prove you comprehend the readings by writing a no-nonsense summary. The
abstract is not a commentary or listing of topics but rather an objective summary from the
reader’s viewpoint. Abstract equals “boiled down.” This section should include a
minimum of 3 footnotes to the text being reviewed.
CONCRETE RESPONSE. Get vulnerable! In no less than 150 words and no more than 1
page, relate a personal life experience that this book triggered in your memory. Relate
your story in first person, describing action, and quoting exact words you remember
hearing or saying. This is a self-reflection, case study, confession. You will remember
almost nothing you have read unless you make this critical, personal connection. What
“video memory” began to roll? This is your chance to tell your story and make new ideas
your own.
REFLECTION. This is the critical thinking part of the review (not critical in the sense of
negative, but in the sense of questioning). In no less than 150 words and no more than 1
page, describe what questions pop up for you in response to what you have read. Keep a
rough-note sheet at hand as you read. Out smart the author by asking better questions
than he/she raised in the book. Tell how the author could have made the book better or
more appealing to those in your field of service. One way to begin this section is by
stating what bothered you most about the book. This is not a place to provide an
endorsement or affirmation of the book.
ACTION. So what are you going to do about it? In 2–3 pages (no more than 7 pages for
your entire paper), provide 3 action steps that describe what actions or changes you are
going to make in your life, work, or studies as a result of your reading. Action steps
should be measurable and reveal a commitment to specific time, specific people, and
identified steps.
Please provide an APA-style title page, pagination, footnotes, and bibliography.
Total: 5–7 pages
