Strategies that Work - Summarizing and Synthesizing

In Chapter 11, Harvey and Goudvis describe summarizing as pulling out the most important information from a text and putting it in our own words to remember it.  They compare synthesizing to a jigsaw puzzle; when we read we manipulate hundreds of pieces of information until a new picture emerges.  Sometimes our purpose to reading is to sift through the text to get the gist, while other times we use the information from the text to draw conclusions, consider implications or to take action.  Summarizing is often a step a reader must take in order to synthesize, that is why the authors combined these two skills in Chapter 11 of Strategies that Work.

Retelling to Summarize Information

When teaching early readers to summarize, the following tips might be helpful to provide:

•          Remember to tell what is important
•          Tell it in a way that makes sense
•         Try not to tell too much

Elementary teachers can begin by reading picture books aloud, then modeling a brief and salient summary.  As students try this out for themselves, they may begin by jotting down a few key words during or after reading, then using those words to formulate a complete summary statement.

Paraphrasing to Summarize Expository Text

When reading informational text, students can bracket off chunks of texts and write a brief summary of that chunk in the margins or on post-it notes.  Students can sometimes be distracted by information that is interesting but not necessarily essential to the overall meaning of the text.  To separate the necessary from the unnecessary, students can record these details in a two-column chart like the following:

What’s Interesting	What’s Important

After completing the graphic organizer students may notice and discuss how sometimes the interesting information is truly important, while other times interesting information can distract readers from the main ideas.

I used both parts of this strategy in the unit for Beowulf that I included in the Content-Area Reading Plan.  This unit included a nonfiction article called “Life in 999: A Grim Struggle”.  Since this passage contained information that was important to the understanding of Beowulf, as well as numerous interesting but less-than-relevant bits of information, I thought this strategy would be useful.  Students found the bracketing and summarizing to be helpful and easy to implement – it was similar to other strategies we use on a regular basis.  The “What’s Interesting/What’s Important” chart was an eye-opening experience for some students.  They had not been distinguishing between what was interesting versus what was important.  I had to remind them of their purpose for reading (to build background knowledge to help them comprehend Beowulf) in order for them to focus on what was important for that purpose.  I will definitely use this strategy more in the future.

Synthesizing: How Reading Changes Thinking

The main purpose of reading is to add new information to our knowledge base and integrate it into our thinking.  Sometimes the information we read reinforces and refines what we already know, while other times reading changes our thinking or our viewpoint.  Have students record their thoughts on a subject before reading, then again after reading.  This will make the learning that they gained through reading explicitly clear.

I practiced this strategy with a Freshmen Success class for which I had been asked to do a model lesson.  They were beginning a unit on appropriate online behavior, and this day they would be reading an article called “Avoiding Facebook Drama”.  Since this is a topic about which most students have a great deal of background knowledge, I thought this was an ideal strategy.  It turned out, as I suspected, that students were familiar with some of the suggestions made in the article, although many of the suggestions were new.  Instead of getting the typical response from a high school freshman (“I know this already”) students focused more on the suggestions that were new.  Students were able to merge their new learning with their background knowledge in order to begin making wiser choices regarding social media.

Comparing and Contrasting in Science and Social Studies

When students are in science and social studies classes they often have to make sense of two different properties or concepts.  A three column chart like the following can be helpful.  Notes can be recorded for each topic in its column, and then similarities between the two topics are listed in the middle.  The middle section is a synthesis of the information gathered about each topic.

The British	Alike	The Colonists

Summarizing the Content and Adding Personal Response

Students can divide a paper in half and record their summary of the text on one side and their personal response on the other.  After a while they can practice combining these two into a Summary Response.  Both can be introduced through modeling and can be practiced independently by students over time.  A Summary Response requires higher-level thinking because the reader’s thinking is integrated with the information from the text.

Reading for the Gist

When readers synthesize, they get the gist.  What Harvey and Goudvis recommend is to have students record notes on questions, visualizations and inferences while reading.  These multiple strategies come together to help students develop a deep understanding of the story.

Writing a Short Summary

After reading, have students record notes on a two-column think sheet titled “What the Piece Is About/ What It Makes Me Think About”. Remind students that the reader’s thinking is the most important part of reading, therefore this is the column that should be filled out first.  Next, have students share their thinking with others.  In preparation for the written summaries, tell students to do three things:

•  Pick out the most important ideas
•  Keep it brief
• Say it in your own words in a way that makes sense

Ask students to turn to a neighbor and discuss what they thought was the most important idea in the story.  Collect student responses and list on the board.  Review the list with students afterwards, asking whether each item is important enough to belong in the summary.  Write the summary that will go in the “What the piece is about” column as a class.

Writing as Synthesis: Personalities from the Past

When reading about important historical figures, it makes sense to ask, “What’s important to remember about them?” and “What lessons can we learn from their lives?”.  Assign students to read a biography about a famous person who has made a difference in the world or overcome an obstacle.  Record details about the biographical subjects during reading on a chart like the following:

Topic: ______________________________________________________
Subtopics	Details
Family
Why he/she is famous
Interests/Dreams
Other interesting facts

Since merging the students’ thinking with the details from the text is so important, the next step is for students to record notes on the following chart.

Facts from the Text	Response

The goal is for students to be prepared to write about the famous person that they researched while including their personal voice in their writing.

Synthesizing to Access Content

In order to help students articulate their thinking as they read for information, two teachers developed a two-column chart labeled “Content (Facts)/Process (Thinking)”.  As this may seem like a rather dry lesson, using the most interesting text possible is recommended.  Here a news article, “Moonstruck Scientists Count 63 and Rising”, was used.  The teacher can model recording factual details in the “content” column, then list questions (coded Q) or inferences (coded I) that attempt to answer the questions.  Since understanding what we read requires ongoing thinking, this activity helps students see the process of evolving thoughts that should be taking place inside their heads whenever they read.

Reading Like a Writer

Reading like a writer means noticing the word choices and the structure of a text as well as the content. In the article mentioned in the last section (“Moonstruck Scientists Count 63 and Rising”) students automatically took notice of the writer’s style, particularly the way the first few lines grabbed the reader’s attention.  The teachers who designed the two-column chart decided to add a third column in order to encourage such observations.  Now the chart looked like this:

Content (Facts)	Process (Thinking)	Craft (Writing)

This form gave students the opportunity to reflect on writing style and to imitate these techniques to enhance their own writing.  This is now the ultimate synthesizing response form.  Students who can record facts, explain their thinking process during reading and reflect on the craft of writing are on their way to becoming literate thinkers.

Trying to Understand: Seeking Answers to Questions That Have None

Although it can be difficult to teach and try to explain to children why horrible tragedies such as the Holocaust have occurred, not teaching students about such events is to deny children invaluable learning about the strength of the human spirit and the triumph of survival.  A vow of “never again” can be the central message of a unit on the Holocaust.

Give students post-it notes as they read the stories of Holocaust survivors and encourage them to record their thinking as they read.  Most of what the 8^th grade students who participated in this lesson recorded were questions – many of which had no clear answers.   The simple act of writing the questions down helped students to construct meaning and gave them insight into their own thoughts and feelings. Discussing their questions and pondering answers will increase student comprehension, even when no definitive answers are reached.  

Remembering the significance of these tragedies and vowing to never allow such atrocities to occur again is synthesizing.

Meaning is Everything: Comprehension Work with English Language Learners

I recently read a chapter in Comprehension Moving Forward called “Meaning is Everything: Comprehension Work with English Language Learners” by Nancy Commins (2011).  In this chapter, she explains that educators should focus on the similarities in regards to literacy development between first and second language learners rather than the differences.  She summarized the difference between them with the following statement, “when students are reading in their primary language, text acts as a doorway to meaning and new information ; however, for students learning to read in a second language, meaning is the key that unlocks the door to comprehending the text.” She explains that some of the most fundamental steps towards literacy are the same, such as using cuing systems, reading for meaning instead of just decoding, and the need for gradual release of responsibility.  Reading for meaning is what needs to be emphasized more for ELL students than native English speakers.  All students, but especially ELL students, will be better able to derive meaning from what they read if they have been prepared by discussing big ideas and key vocabulary that is essential to understanding texts.

One of her suggestions is to teach using thematic units.  Even if students have to read different texts, they can all read texts that relate to the same theme.  This enables all students to participate in class discussions and projects.  I have created several thematic units in the classes that I have taken at FGCU.  Two that stand out are the 90 Miles to HavanaUnit (on the themes of bullying and immigration) and the unit I just completed for RED 6544 on Epidemics and Immunizations.  Reading multiple texts on the same theme and having ongoing class discussions related to the theme helps all students to understand their reading more deeply and to make connections, both across texts and between texts and themselves.

Another suggestion that Commins made was to tie text to visuals whenever possible.  This is another example of a commonality between ELL’s and native English speakers – many students are visual learners or can at least understand something on a deeper level when visuals are provided.  Each thematic unit that my reading classes study in the Edge textbook program begins with artwork that relates to the units theme.  Discussing this artwork helps students connect to the text, understand the theme and predict what we will be reading about.  Here is an example of the artwork that the textbook provides, this one relates to the theme “a moment of truth”.

I provide visuals for vocabulary learning whenever possible as well.  I have created bell ringer activities for each chapter of vocabulary that require students to look at a picture and determine what vocabulary word that picture represents.  All students have responded positively to these activities, saying that associating the words with an image helps them learn them.  Here is an example:

 

I also turn my word wall into an opportunity to provide visuals.  After learning words, I have my students create posters that display the word, its definition and a picture that represents it.  Students enjoy making the posters in groups, the process of making the posters deepens their understanding of the words, and they have the word wall to remind them of words they have learned and should be using in their writing.  Here is a picture of my word wall:

Strategies that Work Ch. 10 - Determining Importance in Text

Chapter 10 describes strategies that are specific to nonfiction reading – determining what is important while reading.  Determining importance leads students to locating main ideas and major details, a skill that many of our students struggle with when taking standardized tests.  This skill is not only important because of standardized tests, however.  Deciding and remembering what is important when reading informational texts is how we learn from such texts.  We must know how to sort and sift through details in order to arrive at main ideas.  Harvey and Goudvis (2007) emphasized that teaching students to use text features to help them identify important details is crucial.  Teachers also must be certain to stock their classroom libraries with a variety of nonfiction texts so that students can become familiar with such text features. 

In a previous book, Nonfiction Matters, Harvey (1998) described two simple yet helpful strategies for locating important information in text, overviewing and highlighting.  Teachers can teach students to overview the text, or skim and scan, for the following purposes:

•         Activating prior knowledge
•          Noticing length and structure
•          Noticing headings and subheadings
•          Determining what to read, what order to read it in and what to pay careful attention to
•          Determining what can be ignored
•          Deciding when to quit because the text does not contain the information being sought
•         Deciding if a close reading is necessary

Highlighting should focus on the most important details and should be paired with margin notes or post-it notes that explain why the text was worthy of being highlighted.  Here are some tips for highlighting:

•          Look carefully at the first and last line of each paragraph, as they often contain important information
•          Only highlight necessary words and phrases, not entire sentences
•          Don’t confuse interesting information with important information
•          Use signal words to help you locate important information
•          Use text features as a guide
•          Pay attention to information that surprises you – this may be new learning
•         Avoid highlighting more than half a paragraph (a third of the paragraph is usually ideal)

Selected Strategies from Ch. 10

Building Background Knowledge of Nonfiction Features

In order to help students understand the purpose of various text features, have them create a book to explain each type of text feature.  Begin by reading a variety of nonfiction in class.  Point out various text features during reading, discus them, then create a page in the book to inform others about that feature.  The page would most likely include a picture or drawing as an example, the name of the text feature and an explanation of the purpose this feature serves.  This can be an ongoing project as students read more nonfiction and add to their books.  Eventually they will have a thorough understanding of a variety of text features and they will have a book that can be used as a reference by anyone who needs it.

Determining What’s Important When Writing Information

Since everyone is an expert at something, and students often enjoy sharing their expertise with others, students can create informational books on their favorite topics.  This will require students to evaluate what they know and determine which details are the most necessary to help readers understand the subject before they begin to write.  Although this is a writing activity, the act of weighing the importance of details will easily transfer to students’ reading.  Once students determine the most vital information to include in their books, they can create their books and share them with their peers.

Coding Important Information on Unfamiliar as Well as Familiar Topics

Determining what is important in a text often relates directly to the amount of background knowledge we have on the subject.  If we already know the information, we are less likely to consider it important when we read it again.  The authors suggest that students should use the code “L” for “Learned” when they are reading on a topic that they already know a great deal about, because in that situation the new learning is what is significant.  When reading about an unfamiliar topic, they suggest a different strategy.  In this situation, ask students to code parts of the text that they think are important with an asterisk (*).  

Finding Important Information Rather Than Just One Main Idea

Sometimes a text may have more than one important point.  When that is the case, provide students with three post-it notes with large asterisks drawn on them.  Ask students to locate the three most important points in the text and label them with the post-it.  Next ask them to share and defend their selections.  This helps students learn to express and explain their thinking and to locate important concepts in text.

Important to Whom?

One problem that often arises with adolescent readers is that the reader may think certain points are more important, but those are not necessarily the main point that the author intended.  Students should understand that even though their thinking during reading is very important, they must also consider what it is that the author most wanted them to learn from the text (especially on standardized reading tests).  After reading, ask students to jot down what they think was important to remember.  After that have them draw a line underneath that response and write down what they think the author most wanted them to learn.  Discuss any differences that are evident.  Sometimes their responses will be the same and sometimes they won’t.  I think the value of this exercise is to point out that readers may have their own ideas about what is important in a text, but it is necessary to recognize the difference between what you think is important and what the author intended.

Reading Opposing Perspectives to Form an Opinion

Three column notes like the following are helpful when reading two opinion-based texts on the same topic.  Students can see that an effective argument contains the strongest support.  They will also see how their own opinions change as they read the opinions of others.  Most likely this activity would spark further class discussion on the topic, and students will be able to continue developing their personal opinions throughout the discussion.

Evidence For	Evidence Against	Personal Opinion

Use FQR Think Sheets to Understand Information

The authors recommend using this chart, or “think sheet”, to record learning while reading historical fiction and narratives on the same subject.  Once they have read the various texts, all of the information students learn from the readings can be found in one location.  Other benefits of the FQR chart is that it makes students more careful about their reading and helps them focus on important ideas.  Rather than merely summarizing the events of each passage, the chart encourages students to investigate and find answers to lingering questions.

As with many of the strategies, this one can be modeled by the teacher using shared readings and think alouds, but over time students should be able to complete the chart independently.

Facts	Questions	Response