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 8th
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.
Remembering the significance of these tragedies and vowing to never allow such atrocities to occur again is synthesizing.