Summarizing

1. Summarizing Nebraska City Public Schools Mitzi Hoback ESU 4, Auburn, NEMarch 2, 2012

2. Learning Targets Understand the purpose and importance of summarizing. Identify ways to implement summarizing in the classroom. Review examples of summarizing activities. http://esu4instructionalstrategies.wikispaces.com

3. The Art and Science of Teaching ENACTED ON THE SPOT INVOLVES ROUTINES Student Engagement Learning Goals and Feedback Rules and Procedures ADDRESSES CONTENT IN SPECIFIC WAYS Teacher/Student Relationships Adherence to Rules and Procedures Generating/ Testing Hypotheses Interacting With New Knowledge Practicing and Deepening High Expectations

4. Common sense is not always common practice.

5. Summarizing What usually happens when you ask students to summarize? Why do we ask students to summarize?

6. What does the research say?

7. Category Ave. Effect Size Percentile gain Identifying similarities and differences 1.61 45 Summarizing and note taking 1.00 34 Reinforcing effort and providing recognition .80 29 Homework and practice .77 28 Nonlinguistic representations .75 27 Cooperative learning .73 27 Setting objectives/providing feedback .61 23 Generating and testing hypotheses .61 23 Questions, cues, and advance organizers .59 22

8. Don’t assume your students know how to summarize!

9. Kids Aren’t Born Knowing How To Summarize… • Teach your students how to summarize. • Many teachers say: “Summarize what we’ve learned today.” But they don’t do direct instruction (that means teaching) on summarizing. • So, if they can’t do it, teach them!

10. A summary is … • A summary is a comprehensive but brief statement of what has been stated previously in a longer form. • A summary is a wrap-up----a general picture of the information--- much like TV networks produce at the end of a year. • Summaries provide a quick overview of a subject without having the reader wade through a lot of facts and details. Summaries help readers and writers boil information down to its most basic elements. • Encyclopedias, almanacs, and digests provide good examples of summaries.

11. Each student’s background knowledge will influence the summary he/she creates. Activate students’ personal background knowledge before asking them to summarize.

12. Research and Theory aboutSummarizing Generalization #1: Students must delete, substitute, and keep some information when summarizing. • Condensing information • Looking for patterns • Distilling (extracting) and synthesizing information • Modeling by teachers

13. Research and Theory aboutSummarizing Generalization #2: To effectively delete, substitute, and keep information, students must analyze the information at a fairly deep level. • Seems simple but requires analyzing content • Students need practice to be good at analyzing information

14. Summarizing is Procedural Summarizing is“procedural knowledge”. If students are expected to become proficient in procedural knowledge, they need to be able to“practice.” Mastering a skill or process requires a fair amount of focused practice. Practice sessions initially should be spaced very closely together. Over time, the intervals between sessions can be increased. Students also need feedback on their efforts. While practicing, students should adapt and shape what they have learned.

15. One of the greatest gifts we can give our students… The ability to identify important information, and Processes to structure that information for meaning and successful application… Summarizing! Rick Wormli, Summarization in Any Subject, 2005

16. Start with something you know… The 84th annual Academy Awards were on television last Sunday evening. Hosted by Billy Crystal, the event featured some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, both as presenters and winners. Awards were given in many categories, honoring the nominees and winners for the 2011 movie season.

17. Start with something you know… • Recall something you recently watched on television, attended, or read about. • Examples: a basketball game, wrestling meet, or other sporting event; a movie; a party; etc. • Take a moment to think about how you would summarize this if you were to tell someone about it in 3-5 sentences. • Share your summary with your elbow partner.

18. What went through your mind as you planned your summary?

19. Rule-Based Summarizing Steps in Rule-Based Summarizing • Take out material that is not important to your understanding. • Take out words that repeat information • Replace a list of things with a word that describes the things in the list (e.g., use trees for elm, oak, and maple). • Find a topic sentence. If you cannot find a topic sentence, make one up.

20. Traditional Rules-Based Summaries T - Trivia (Remove trivial material.) R - Redundancies (Remove redundant or repetitive information.) G - Generalize (Replace specifics or lists with general terms and phrases.) TS - Topic Sentence ( Determine the topic sentence, which is the subject plus the author’s claim about the subject. You might have to make one up if there isn’t one.) T - RG - TS (TARGETS)

21. Good Written Summaries… Follow the order of the original Maintain the original tone Are approximately 15-20% of the length of the original.

22. Modeling the process…

23. To enable students to summarize, we must make sure they begin with enough background knowledge. In some situations, this may mean creating a background where there was none. For example, students could have time to play with actual microscopes before they are asked to read and summarize an article about how microscopes work. Then, everything they read in the article moves into long-term memory because it is attached to their earlier experience, giving meaning to text.

24. Practice with summarizing With your partner, use the Rules-basedstrategy to write a summary of the paragraph.

25. How would you need to scaffold the previous activity for your students?

26. Teach Students to Identify a Text’s Underlying Structure Descriptive Time Sequence Process/Cause Effect Episode Generalization/Principle Concept See Graphic Organizers on the Instructional Strategies Wiki under Nonlinguistic Representations

27. Traditional Rules-Based Summaries • Use regularly, but don’t exclude alternative formats • Provide models for students • Provide opportunities for practice • Do think-alouds to model the process

28. Tips from the Experts How do you have students summarize?

29. One-Sentence Summary 1.  Read a selection of text. 
2.  After reading the selection, put it aside and list four to five key ideas or wordsfrom the reading.
3.  Combine the ideas/words into a one-sentence summary.
4.  Reread the summary and delete any unnecessary words.
5.  Ask students to reflect on how putting the reading aside and writing key ideas/words helped them transfer the information into a one-sentence summary.

30. Let’s Practice a One Sentence Summary

31. Important Words Values Responsibility Character Respect Admire When character is built upon values and responsibility, a person will be respected and admired.

32. Summary Cubes • http://bit.ly/xijYFx • Readwritethink.org

33. Alternative Summarizing Strategies

34. Summaries can be written… But they can also be: Oral Dramatic Artistic Visual Physical musical

35. Share One; Get One Divide paper into a grid of 6 squares. Record 3 different important points or things to remember that have been discussed thus far. Find 3 different people to add something new to your grid, as you add to theirs. Return to your seat when your grid is full.

36. Primacy-Recency Effect • During a learning episode we remember best that which comes first, second best that which comes last and least that which comes just past the middle.

37. Primacy-Recency from How the Brain Learns by David Sousa

38. Ask students to reflect on what they have learned about the topic. Use the Final Countdown strategy. First Tier - Write the three most important facts that the student learned. Second Tier - Write two questions that the student still has about the topic. Top Tier - Write one way in which the student can connect the topic to material previously learned. from Instructional Strategies for Engaging Learners Guilford County Schools TF, 2002 Summarizing with the Final Countdown

40. Changing STATESChange up instruction 5-10 min. for pre-adolescents, andEvery 10-20 minutes for adolescents into adults.

41. Thinking About It • Why would you want to change states when you finally have students quiet, sitting in their seats, and looking like they are listening to you? • Because the brain needs a chance to refocus and start again. • When you stand up blood flow to the brain increases.

42. The Importance of Processing Time • The brain needs time to create connections and pathways to create long term memories. • The hippocampus can only hold so much • Too much, too fast, it won’t last. • 10-2 or 5-1 rule

43. Synapses or Brain BreaksJudith Willis • Change activates and turns on different parts of the brain. • Dopamine is a pleasure neurotransmitter that makes you feel good and is released during certain activities and depletes over time. • Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, needs an opportunity to recharge and rebuild. • Brain breaks (synapses) help to replenish.

44. Technology Sites • http://www.readingquest.org/strat/ • http://classroom.leanderisd.org/webs/marzano/home.htm • Enchanted Learning • http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/storymap/ • Reading Rockets • http://www.readingrockets.org/ • Podcasting with Quick Time Player • Dabble Board http://www.dabbleboard.com/

45. Wordle • www.wordle.net • This is a free tool that turns words or a block of text into a cloud pattern. • Great way to summarize • Great for a pre-reading tool • Great for reflecting on content

47. Tagxedo www.tagxedo.com Variation on wordle Shapes

50. R.E.A.P. READ the text, jot down details about the selection. Ex. Title/Author/ Page #’s/Chapter/etc… ENCODE the text by putting main ideas in your own words/language. ANNOTATE the text by writing a statement that summarizes the important points. PONDER the text by thinking and talking about what you learned. Ask questions…