SUMMARIZING

1. SUMMARIZING Why and How

2. What the Research Says Summarizing can be highly effective for helping students identify main ideas generalize integrate ideas improve memory for what is read UNDERSTAND what is read It is especially worthwhile when used with other strategies such as generating questions and answering questions

3. What is Summarizing? • Summarizing is how we take larger selections of text and reduce them to the bare essentials. • Summarizing means including only the MOST important information. • A summary tells the main idea of the text.

4. When we summarize … We focus on the meat of the text. We try to find the key words and phrases that, when uttered later, still manage to capture the gist of what we've read. We are trying to capture the main ideas and the crucial details necessary for supporting them. From www.readingquest.org

5. Why is it Important to Summarize? • Summarizing while you read helps you remember what you read. • Creating a summary allows you to pull out and remember the most important information – info you need to best comprehend the text. • Good readers can summarize automatically!

6. Students usually: Write down everything Write down nothing Copy word for word Miss the important points I want you to: Pull out main ideas Focus on key details Use key phrases and details Break down large ideas When I ask students to summarize …

7. Summarizing • Is one of the hardest strategies for students to grasp. • Is also one of the most difficult to teach. • Must be modeled repeatedly. • Must be practiced often. • Is one of the most valuable strategies!

8. Strategies for Summarizing • Selective underlining/highlighting • Shrinking Paragraph • The 5 W’s • Headless Stories • QuIP – Questions Into Paragraphs • Learning Frames • GIST/Sum it Up • Magnet Summaries • Summarize as you go • Picture/graphic summaries • Make a “kids book” version • Various other graphic organizers or ideas

9. Selective Underlining/Highlighting Model for students how to identify 5 W’s. Use the highlighted words to create a summary paragraph.Some students may need hints (give them the starting letter, if needed). From www.readingquest.org

10. Selected Underlining/HighlightingOriginal Text Which words would you underline/highlight? Critical reading is a vital part of the writing process. In fact, reading and writing processes are alike. In both, you make meaning by actively engaging a text. As a reader, you are not a passive participant, but an active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what you read will make anything you read richer and more useful to you in your classes and your life. This guide is designed to help you to understand and engage this active reading process more effectively so that you can become a better critical reader. From http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/reading/critread/

11. Example – Selected Highlighting Critical reading is a vital part of the writing process. In fact, reading and writing processes are alike. In both, you make meaning by actively engaging a text. As a reader, you are not a passive participant, but an active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what you read will make anything you read richer and more useful to you in your classes and your life. This lesson is designed to help you to understand and engage this active reading process more effectively so that you can become a better critical reader. Use these terms to write a summary paragraph.

12. Summary Paragraph Critical reading is a vital part of both the reading and writing processes. You must make meaning by actively engaging in a text. As an active constructor of meaning, you will exhibit an inquisitive attitude towards what you read which will make text richer and more useful.

13. The Shrinking Paragraph Students read text and then write a summary paragraph. Help them delete unnecessary information (and shrink their writing) until they have a succinct summary paragraph. They may have to write several paragraphs, shortening it as they go, before writing a good summary paragraph! Readingquest.org

14. Example – Shrinking Paragraph This summary paragraph was written earlier. Can we make it more succinct? Critical reading is a vital part of both the reading and writing processes. You must make meaning by actively engaging in a text. As an active constructor of meaning, you will exhibit an inquisitive attitude towards what you read which will make text richer and more useful.

15. Shrink It! Critical reading is a vital part of both the reading and writing processes. You make meaning by actively engaging in a text. You actively construct meaning and exhibit an inquisitive attitude towards what you read which will make the text rich and useful.

16. Shrink it Again! Critical reading is a vital part reading and writing. Meaning is made by actively engaging in a text. Exhibiting an inquisitive attitude towards the text makes it richer and useful.

17. Headless Stories Separate the text from title/headline. Students play a matching game, trying to decide which title fits each text selection. You might also give students just the paragraph and have them create a title to help them learn how to find the main idea! Readingquest.org

18. Headless Stories What is the best title for this summary Paragraph that was created earlier? Critical reading is a vital part reading and writing. Meaning is made by actively engaging in a text. Exhibiting an inquisitive attitude towards the text makes it richer and useful.

19. What is the best title? Please Vote! • The Reading Process • Reading and Writing • What is Critical Reading? • Read Correctly

20. QuIPQuestions Into Paragraphs Students are given a topic and asked to generate questions about it. Keeping notes of the sources they use, they then read to find the answers. The answers are then used to write a summary paragraph. Readingquest.org

21. QuIP ChartTopic: Critical Reading • Part of reading and writing • 2. Actively engaging in reading • 3. Makes text richer • 4. Makes you understand text easier 1. What is critical reading? 2. What does it involve? 3. Why does it help? 4. What do you gain? FLVS LA class FLVS English class FLVS SAT and FCAT After completing the chart, students turn the answers into a summary paragraph.

22. Learning Frames/Templates These can be used with any topic and can also be customized/modified. Today, I learned about ________________________ with my class. The first thing we learned was ______________ _________________ . Next, ________________________ __________________________________ . Then, ______ ______________________ . After that, _______________ _______________________________________________ . I also learned that ________________________________. The next time we study _______________________, I want to learn more about __________________________ . From http://its.guilford.k12.nc.us/act/strategies/Learning_Frame.doc

23. GIST(a.k.a. One Sentence Summaries) 1. After reading a passage, write down the important points from the text. 2. From your notes, create one sentence summarizing what you have read. 3. You must keep your sentence to 20 words or less. By doing this you will eliminate the fluff that writers put into text to make the reading more interesting. It will take you right to the point of the article and will be easier to remember!

24. GIST Create a one-sentence summary, using 20 words or less, using these notes (from our highlighting exercise earlier). critical reading writing process reading process passive participant active constructor meaning inquisitive attitude richer useful understand engage www.readwritethink.org

25. Create Your One-Sentence Summary Now! Can you do it in 20 words or less?

26. GIST Critical reading is when meaning is made by actively, inquisitively engaging in text to make it richer and more useful.

27. Sum it Up Students pretend they have to tell another person about the text they read but can only use so many words. You decide the number of words based on the length of the text. This is very similar to GIST. Readingquest.org

28. Magnet Summaries 1. Read the text once. Think: what is this all about?(What’s the magnet or big/controlling idea?) 2. Read it again, noting the key detailsthat are drawn to the big idea. Jot down the magnet idea (a sentence) and key details. 3. Number the detailsin the order that makes the most sense. 4. Write your summaryincluding the title and author, controlling idea sentence, key details, (using transition words to help it flow smoothly). 5. Read the summary over againto see if it makes sense; revise as needed. From the Vermont Strategic Reading Initiative

29. Magnet Example - Text Critical reading is a vital part of the writing process. In fact, reading and writing processes are alike. In both, you make meaning by actively engaging a text. As a reader, you are not a passive participant, but an active constructor of meaning. Exhibiting an inquisitive, "critical" attitude towards what you read will make anything you read richer and more useful to you in your classes and your life. This guide is designed to help you to understand and engage this active reading process more effectively so that you can become a better critical reader.

30. Magnet Word The magnet word here is CRITICAL READING. Words and phrases students might write around it would be: reading, writing, passive participant, active constructor, inquisitive, engaging, attitude, richer, useful, meaning. Students are writing down the important words, not highlighting them this time. They will likely come up with same words, though.

31. Magnet Summary Using their notes, the next summary might look like this: Critical reading is a vital part reading and writing. Meaning is made by actively engaging in a text. Exhibiting an inquisitive attitude towards the text makes it richer and useful.

32. Summarizing As You Go… • Read entire passage • Then go back and re-read the first two sentences. • Write two sentences stating what the first two sentences were both about. • Read the next sentence and then change your summary to include the 3rd sentence. • Continue until you have read and added information about each sentence in the passage. You may need to delete some information as you will find some sentences are not really necessary for your summary. Upon completion you should have no more than 2-3 sentences depending on the length of the text.

33. Resources/Other Strategies Teaching Paragraph Summarization Strategieswww.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=rc/paragraph Scaling Back to Essentials: Scaffolding Summarization With Fishbone Mappingwww.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=277

34. More Resources Summarization Stationwww.auburn.edu/~murraba/guides/andersonrl.htm Text Structurewww.itrc.ucf.edu/forpd/strategies/strattextstructure.html (FOR-PD)

35. Questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact Crystal Howard, Jodi Marshall, or any other RLT member!

36. Thank you! Thank you to the following instructors who contributed ideas and strategies for this presentation: Claudine Townley, Sherry Propst, DAthlone Brown, Chrissy Conidis, Holly Ard, Jodi Marshall, and Crystal Howard.