Summarizing

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Summarizing
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Objectives

• By the end of the session you will
• Identify the skills needed in summarizing
• Apply skills by summarizing a passage
• Know research and key strategies

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Summarizing

• How do I help students effectively interact with
  new knowledge?
• How do I help students deepen and enhance their
  learning?

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Research Says

• To effectively summarize, students must delete
  some information, substitute some information,
  and keep some information.
• To effectively delete, substitute, and keep
  information, students must analyze the
  information at a fairly deep level.
• Being aware of the explicit structure of
  information is an aid to summarizing information.

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What does summarizing do for students?

• Summarizing helps students make connections to
  material and content.
• Summarizing helps students understand what is
  important in the text
• Summarizing helps students synthesize material

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Rule-Based Strategy

• Delete material that is not necessary to
  understanding
• Delete redundant material
• Substitute superordinate terms for lists (for
  example, flowers for daisies, tulips, and
  roses)
• Select or invent a topic sentence

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Strategies for Younger Students

• Take out material that isnt important for your
  understanding.
• Take out words that repeat information.
• Replace a list of things with a word that
  describes the things in the list.
• Find a topic sentence. If you cannot find a topic
  sentence, make one up

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Lets try this summarizing strategy on a sample
passage.

• Find Why Does Studying Solar Wind Tell Us About
  the Origin of Our Solar System?

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Most scientists believe our solar system was
formed 4.6 billion years ago with the
gravitational collapse of the solar nebula, a
cloud of interstellar gas, dust, and ice created
from previous generations of stars. As time went
on the grains of ice and dust bumped into and
stuck to one another, eventually forming the
planets, moons, comets, and asteroids as we know
them today.
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(New Paragraph) Most
scientists believe our solar system was formed
4.6 billion years ago with the gravitational
collapse of the solar nebula. As time went on
grains from the solar nebula stuck to one
another, eventually forming the heavenly bodies
we know today.
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Summary Frame

• A summary frame is a series of questions a
  teacher provides to students.

• Questions help student focus on elements for
  specific information.

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Narrative Frame Pattern

• Stories and other narratives commonly include
  the following elements
• Characters
• Setting
• Initiating event
• Internal response
• Goal
• Consequence
• Resolution

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Guiding Questions for the Narrative Frame

• Who are the main characters? And what
  distinguishes them from other characters?
• When and where did the story take place? What
  were the special circumstances?
• What prompted the action in the story?
• How did the characters express their feelings?
• What did the main characters decide to do? Did
  they set a goal? What was it?
• How did the main characters try to accomplish
  their goals?
• What were the consequences?

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Topic-Restriction-Illustration Frame

• Expository text and commonly include the
  following
• TOPIC General statement about the topic to be
  discussed
• RESTRICTION Limits the information in some way
• ILLUSTRATION Exemplifies the topic or restriction

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Guiding Questions for Topic Restriction Frame

• What is the general statement or topic?
• What information does the author give that
  narrows or restricts the general statement or
  topic?
• What examples does the author give to illustrate
  the topic or restriction?

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Argumentation Frame Elements

• Attempts to support a claim
• Claim assertion that something is true
• Evidence information that supports claim
• Qualifier restriction on claim or evidence

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Guiding Questions for Argumentation Frame

• What information does the author present that
  leads to a claim?
• What does the author assert is true? What basic
  statement or claim is the focus of the
  information?
• What examples or explanations support the claim?
• What restrictions on the claim, or evidence
  counter to the claim, are presented?

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Definition Frame Pattern

• Identifies a particular concept and identifies
  subordinate concepts.
• Term the subject to be defined.
• Set the general category to which the term
  belongs.
• Gross characteristics those characteristics
  that separate the term from other elements in the
  set
• Minute differences the different classes of
  objects that fall directly beneath the term.

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Guiding Questions for the Definition Frame

• What is being defined? To which general category
  does the item belong?
• What characteristics separate the item from other
  things in the general category?
• What are some different types or classes of the
  item being defined?

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Problem/Solution Frame

• Identifies a pattern and then identifies one or
  more solutions to the problem.
• Problem (a statement of something that has
  happened or might happen that is problematic).
• Solution (possible solution)
• Solution (another possible solution)
• Solution (another possible solution)
• Solution (identification of the solution with the
  greatest chance of success)

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Guiding Questions for the Problem or Solution
Frame

• What is the problem?
• What is a possible solution?
• What is another possible solution?
• What is another possible solution?
• Which solution has the best chance of succeeding?

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Conversation Frame

• A conversation is a verbal exchange between two
  or more people. It includes the following
  elements
• Greeting
• Inquiry
• Discussion (may include assertions, requests,
  promises, demands, threats, congratulations)
• Conclusion

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Guiding Questions for the Conversation Frame

• How did the members of the conversation greet
  each other?
• What question or topic was insinuated, revealed,
  or referred to?
• How did the discussion progress?
• Did either person state facts?
• Did either person make a request of the other?
• Did either person make a promise to perform
  certain actions?
• Did either person demand a specific action of the
  other ?
• Did either person threaten specific consequences
  if a demand was not met?
• Did either person indicate that he valued
  something that the other had done?
• How did the conversation conclude?

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Reciprocal Teaching

• One of the best researched strategies available
  to teachers involves these 4 components.
• This is a great way to help students learn to
  summarize
• Its the first draft of a summary
• It helps students engage
• Summarizing
• Questioning
• Clarifying
• Predicting