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Summarizing

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 11 months ago

Sara Mcginnis

Christy Nobles

 

Summarizing

Outline

Introduction

Theories

Implemenation

Student Outcomes

Summary

External Links

References

 

Introduction

Summarizing is a reading comprehension task that involves taking larger selections of text and reducing them to their bare essentials. It encompasses understanding the key points or main ideas of what is being read. For many students, this proves to be a difficult task. Many students require lots of instruction and practice of this skill. Research suggests that instruction and practice in summarizing will not only improve students' ability to summarize text, but also their overall comprehension of text content(Farstrup, 2002).To effectively teach the skill of summarizing the teacher must be prepared to model frequently and allow students ample practice time with appropriate feedback. Below we will discuss some important issues related to summarizing and comprehension.

 

Theories

To write a summary of text is indeed a higher level skill according to Bloom's Taxonomy. When we summarize text, we are stripping away the extra verbage and extraneous examples. We are focusing on the heart of the matter and we are trying to find the key phrases and words that still manage to capture the gist of what we have read. We are trying to capture the main ideas and the crucial details necessary for supporting them (Jones, 2006). To effectively summarize, one must be able to understand the text and retell it verbally or in written language. In looking at the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, one can see that in order to achieve the level of thinking needed to summarize, one must first pass through the lower levels of thinking. It is a process of thinking that uses scaffolding. One level builds on the other to achieve the highest level of thinking. Due to the way our brain functions, using scaffolding to process and save information, younger children struggle with summarizing. Recent studies of classroom reading instruction have found that , although scaffolding is widely used by some of the best teachers it is not a characteristic of most teachers and that, when employed, it is typically in support of word recognition (Clark, 2004). Younger children have not aquired the prior knowledge and skills needed to produce a summary of text. It proves to be challenging for students as well as teachers. In the next section, we will discuss how teachers can implement strategies to help them teach the skill of summarizing text.

 

Implementation

Summarizing is one of the hardest and most time consuming strategies for students to grasp and for teachers to teach. Modeling is one of the most important practices for a teacher when teaching summarizing. Another important aspect of teaching summarizing is to allow students ample time and opportunities to practice it. It would be impossible for a students to succeed in school without the skill of summarizing. As teachers, we ask students quite often to retell or restate what they have read. We expect them to automatically recall the "important" events and ideas. As adults, we have learned the process of summarizing and retelling so that it comes very naturally. We must remember that students still need a great amount of guidance in summarizing. Reciprocal Teaching is one way that teachers can help to guide students during reading and to help with comprehension and summarizing. Think-Aloud Mysteries is one such strategy where the teacher helps the student verbalize their thoughts as they read. This strategy helps the struggling reader to learn questioning skills needed while reading. The reader asks questions in their mind while reading and as they read they will develop answers from the text. In turn, summarizing the text as they read ((Smith, 2006). Another such technique that is helpful in summarizing text is the use of sticky notes or post its (Fiene, 2007). Using this tool helps the reader keep track of the questions they want to answer as they read. The use of sticky notes will also help students with the sequence of the story. All story elements (characters, setting and theme) play an important part of the story and help to create an accurate summary of the story.

 

 

Below are a few activites that may be helpful in teaching summarizing Guilford County Schools.

 

Name of ActivityPurpose of ActivityDescription of ActivityProcedures
Exit SlipsTo engage students in summarizing their learningStudents will synthesize learned information, skills and processes by writing an exit slip. An exit slip can be a one sentence summary of what they learned or can be used in a variety of other ways1. During the last 5-10 minutes of class, inform students of the purpose associated with their exit slips. 2. Tell students to take out a 1/2 sheet of paper and write a one thing they learned from the lesson taught. 3. As students exit the classroom, collect the exit slips to review for the next class.
Four - Two - OneTo engage students in reflecting, evaluating and integrating their own learning into prior knowledgeFour-Two-One uses learning partners or small teams to foster in-depth reflection and integration of significant information1. Ask students to individually generate four words that capture the most important aspect of the learning experience 2. Share, with partners, their four words and compile a list of the words they have in common. From the list, determine two words that they agree capture the most important aspects 3. Determine the 1 word or big idea that best represents the most important learning of the experience 4. Share the lists in order for the whole class to make learning connections

 

 

Student Outcomes

When students are able to summarize what they have read, they are able to comprehend the given text. Summarizing is one of the most important comprehension skills students need to acquire in order to become successful readers (Jones, 2006). Summarizing is the ability to strip away all extraneous information to get the main idea of what you are reading. When you ask students to summarize what they have read, students will first list everything they have read. Students find summarizing very difficult at first because they are unskilled in identifying the main idea (2006). Identifying the main idea is a complex cognitive skill that requires students to make a judgment regarding essential and non-essential information. Most often students tend to write too much or not enough. Once students understand how to pull out just the important ideas, they are able to get the gist of what they have read.

 

Like most reading comprehension skills, summarizing is a very difficult skill for students to learn because it is difficult to get the idea across that they don’t need all the information that they read, just the important details. That said, reality is that as teachers we ask students to summarize all the time, but we rarely equip them with the skills to complete this seemingly complex task (2006). As educators, we need to remember that we can not expect students to do something correctly without the knowledge of the task.

 

Summary

As I summarize this information, I am completing a task that is a very complex one. Summarizing is a complex task for students to complete because of several reasons. The first being the complexity of the task at hand, it involves higher level processing skills (Kragler, 2005). It is not a skill that teachers can model once and students will be able to complete. Summarizing is a skill that should never be left to be forgotten it is a skill that must be taught in every area. Modeling is an important instructional practice along with countless others. There are many different strategies to use when teaching students how to summarize. Some examples are graphic organizers, exit tickets as students walk out, and Reciprocal teaching (Fortenberry, 2006). Summarizing is something that students are engaged in every day in every content area. As teachers, we need to make sure that our students are equipped with the background knowledge to help them tackle such a difficult task.

 

External Links:

 

Lesson Plans and Practice

 

Interactive Activity

 

Summarizing Lesson

 

Printable Activities

 

Strategies

 

Summarizing Tips

 

References:

 

Clark, K.F. & Graves, M.F., (2004). Scaffolding students' comprehension of text. The Reading Teacher, 58(6), 570-580.

 

Farstrup, A. E. & Samuels, S. J. (2002). What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction. Delaware: International Reading Association.

 

Fiene, J. & Mc Mahon, S.(2007). Assessing comprehension:A classroom-based process. The Reading Teacher, 60(5), 406-417.

 

Fortenberry, C. L. & Fowler, T. W. (2006). Mind Magnets. The Reading Teacher, 60(4),373-376.

 

Jones, R. C. (2006). Reading Quest: Summarizing – strategies for Reading Comprehension. www.readingquest.org. Revised Feb. 2007.

 

Kragler, S., Walker, C. A., & Martin, L. E. (2005). Strategy instruction in primary content textbooks. The Reading Teacher, 59(3), 254-261.

 

Kelley, M. & Clausen-Grace, N. (2006). R5: The Sustained Silent Reading makeover that transformed readers. The Reading Teacher, 60(2), 148-156.

 

Samblis, K. (2006). Think-Tac-Toe, a motivating method of increasing comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 691-694.

 

Smith, L.A.(2006). Think Aloud Mysteries: Using structured, sentence-by-sentence text passages to teach comprehension strategies. The Reading Teacher, 59(8), 764-773.

 

 


Commentary by Carolyn Morin

 

 

I think you did a great job on summarizing one of the hardest components of comprehension…summarization. Many of my students have struggle with this concept. They would try to give me every detail instead of the main points.

 

You external links and supplementary pages were very informative. I especially found that the strategies page and the lesson plans page were very useful for classroom teachers.

 

Some suggestions:

• This quote from Implementation has an extra bracket around the parenthesis: “The reader asks questions in their mind while reading and as they read they will develop answers from the text. In turn, summarizing the text as they read ((Smith, 2006).”

• They were some run on sentences and punctuation errors.

• I would add a supplementary link to Think-Aloud Mysteries.

• There are several types summarizing activities that the authors neglected to address like book mark strategies, reading logs and GIST.

 

 


Commentary by Caryn Bell

 

One of the most effective components of this article is that it accentuates some of the quintessential components of summarization. In particular, the authors of this article discuss the complexity of summarizing. At the high school level, I have witnessed students struggling with this very notion. Students have particular difficulty summarizing when it comes to outlining. Most students feel the urgency to write down each minute detail. This is because, as the article suggests, they have yet to master the complex skill of summarizing. Another positive aspect of this article is that the authors address the origins of this complexity. Summarizing is difficult because it transcends the continuum of Bloom’s taxonomy. All levels must be employed simultaneously. Students are tapping into the knowledge level, comprehension level, application level, analysis level, synthesis level, and finally into the evaluation level. The link provided for Bloom’s taxonomy clearly defines these taxonomical levels. In addition to clearly defining these levels, the authors provide a table complete with activities and procedures. Undoubtedly, this table is a valuable resource for anyone teaching summarization. Lastly, the authors provide excellent sources of information and clearly include the notable reading researchers involved with summarization such as Fienne and Clark. The article could have been strengthened had the authors elaborated a bit more and provided extra links. For instance, in the summary the authors mention the idea of exit tickets and graphic organizers. The exit tickets sounded like an interesting strategy, but the authors do not go into great extensive detail, nor do they provide a link. Lastly, there were some minor grammatical errors such as run-on sentences and lack of agreement. For instance, there is a run on in the following sentence, “We are focusing on the heart of the matter (,) and we are trying to find the key phrases and words that still manage to capture the gist of what we have read.” Also there is a lack of agreement in the following statement, “The reader asks questions in their (his) mind while reading and as they (he reads) read they (he) will develop answers from the text. In turn, summarizing the text as they read ((Smith, 2006). Despite these minor errors, the article still provides valuable information, and it effectively addresses an important topic in the field of reading research.

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