Teaching Students to Synthesize Reading Materials

1. Teaching Students to Synthesize Reading Materials

2. Definition According to Shannon Bumgarner: “Synthesizing is the process whereby a student merges new information with prior knowledge to form a new idea, perspective, or opinion or to generate insight.” Therefore, synthesis is an ongoing process. As new knowledge is acquired, it is synthesized with prior knowledge to generate new ideas.

3. Skills Needed to Synthesize

4. Synthesizing Skills • “Synthesizing is the most complex of the reading strategies. Synthesizing lies on a continuum of evolving thinking. Synthesizing runs the gamut from taking stock of meaning while reading to achieving new insight. Introducing the strategy of synthesizing in reading then primarily involves teaching the reader to stop every so often and think about what he or she has read” (Strategies That Work p. 144 in www. readinglady.com).

5. Skills The skills students need to synthesize reading materials are the ability to summarize information, paraphrase it, and compare and contrast it. Students also need the ability to separate fact from opinion, draw inferences based on the facts presented, and evaluate that information to form their own conclusions.

7. Metaphors Synthesizing can be compared to a journey. The student begins with prior knowledge of a topic, gains new knowledge about that topic from a variety of sources, combines and analyzes this information, and as a final destination, makes an evaluation and forms an opinion.

8. The Jigsaw Puzzle

9. Puzzle Metaphor Another way to view synthesizing is to look at it as putting the pieces of a puzzle together. The student collects the pieces of information from various sources and finds connections to put together the entire picture.

10. Scaffolding

11. Building Upon Prior Knowledge • Since newly acquired information should be synthesized with previously learned information, faculty can assist in this ongoing process by activating students’ prior knowledge of each new topic being introduced in the classroom. • At the start of the lesson, ask students to write down what they already know about that topic. • Distribute or assign the relevant reading or readings. • Have students make connections as they read in a synthesis journal.

12. Synthesis Journal

13. “Multiple Perspectives” • According to McAlexander and Burrell (1996), “Synthesis journals take multiple perspectives on a topic from various sources and attempt to synthesize them all.” The information can come “from a text, a video, . . . classmates, and personal experiences . . . to develop an overall synthesis.” • Therefore, a synthesis journal will contain knowledge brought to the lesson and all information learned in the course of the lesson from a variety of sources.

14. Warning!

15. Caution! • McAlexander and Burrell warn: “This is a complex process” and “it may need to be modeled by the teacher beforehand.” • Modeling is a highly effective teaching technique, which greatly increases students’ chances of completing an assignment or project successfully.

16. Graphic Organizers • As an alternative to a synthesis journal, Shannon Bumgarner suggests the use of a graphic organizer to aid students in synthesizing reading material. • The graphic organizer contains three columns: “Five Key Concepts,” “Put the Concept in Your Own Words, and “Explain Why the Concept Is Important & Make Connections to Other Concepts.”

17. Conclusion • Faculty in any discipline can aid students in synthesizing information by having them use a graphic organizer or a synthesis journal. Students will be more likely to effectively utilize these techniques if they are first modeled by the instructor. • Finally, by activating prior knowledge on the topic, guiding the student in comparing and contrasting information, and assisting the student in separating fact from opinion, faculty can steer the student toward making judgments, forming opinions, and drawing logical conclusions.

18. Sources • Bumgarner, Shannon. Ohio Resource Center for Mathematics, Science, and Reading. http://ohiorc.org/adlit/strategy/ strategies_each.aspx?id=000002. • Reading Strategies: Scaffolding Students’ Interactions with Texts. Key Concept Synthesis Strategy. http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction. • Strategies That Work. Chapter 10. p. 144. http://www.readinglady.com.