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Synthesize

Students will stop and think often to synthesize new information. They will use this time to find evidence, develop new ideas, form opinions and/or change perspectives to generate a personal understanding of the text. Whereas my goal is to facilitate synthesis all year long, my students and I study the strategy in depth the ninth month of school.

Getting Started: Are We Retelling, Summarizing or Synthesizing?

Here's a silly story I heard on the radio. I'm retelling it.
 

There once was a squirrel who went into an ice cream shop and asked the clerk, "Do you have walnuts?"

"No. Sorry. We're out of walnuts today."

The squirrel went away, but came back an hour later and said, "Have you got any walnuts?"

The clerk looked at the squirrel angrily. "I told you. We don't have any walnuts now get out of here."

The squirrel went out the door, but in an hour came back again. "Have you got any walnuts?" he asked the clerk.

"I told you we don't have any walnuts. Listen here. If you come back here one more time I'm going to nail your paws to the counter. Now, get outta here!"

The squirrel went out again but, sure enough, an hour later he was back. "Have you got any nails?" he asked.

The clerk look surprised. "No. I don't have any nails."

"Great!" the squirrel said. "Have you got any walnuts?"

The dictionary says to retell is to tell a story again in your own words. In North Carolina, the state says students must include the main points - the characters, the setting, the beginning, middle and end. That's what I just did when telling this story.

Ask any 1st or 2nd grade teacher. Retelling is a big part of their assessment. Third through 5th grade teachers can build on that learning. (See retelling page on this site.)

If students understand retelling, then move onto summarizing. Teach them to condense the story to its most basic idea. In the case of our squirrel story, I could summarize by saying, "A squirrel came into an ice cream store four times and irritated the clerk by asking him each time if he had walnuts."

I like to challenge students further by asking them to summarize in 4-6 words or less, starting with the main character followed by what he does, like a headline or a title: "Squirrel drives clerk nuts!" (See summarizing page on this site.)

Summarizing each paragraph of each selection by writing just a few words in the margin improves comprehension. Synthesizing the details to just the gist is a creative thinking exercise that requires practice in one's ability to generalize. Also, by trying and listening to others, students learn new vocabulary from one another that helps them improve. In addition, if students will write just one word in the margin when reading test passages, matching questions to references in the text is easier and faster.

Synthesizing involves even more abstract thinking. Students reflect on their reading, combine the ideas they gained by reading with their own knowledge, and create new ideas, perspectives or opinions. In the case of our squirrel story...

• Students may state a generalization, "Asking over and over for something will result in annoying people."
• Or, an opinion may come to mind, "I think the squirrel should have given up the first time."
• They may see a pattern: "In most jokes, things happen 3 times."
• They may internalize a lesson: "I think the author wrote this story to show that we should never give up."
• They may predict: "From this story I think the clerk will laugh and say, "Listen. Come back tomorrow and I'll be sure to have some walnuts for you."
• Or, they may draw their own conclusions, "This squirrel is obviously nuts."

Talk about big questions! Students argue about this silly story. Imagine what they talk about when the texts are meatier! Also, doesn't synthesizing sound strangely familiar to the tasks we ask children to complete in school? Do you see a pattern? What is the author's purpose? What do you think will happen next?

If we structure lessons so that we give students time to define their beliefs and defend their thinking with evidence, comprehension in ANY SUBJECT improves! Unfortunately, we often stick to retelling and summarizing, the lowest levels of synthesis. To move to tasks that require higher levels of thinking, consider asking your students to...

• Stop and collect their thoughts during reading before moving on. They can do this by sharing with a partner or writing in their daybook.
• Use a double entry journal to sift ideas from less important details. By examining a text in this way, children closely consider the importance of each detail.
• Summarize the main points after reading. Compare ideas to a partner's. Determine a combined list partners agree on.
• After reading, write a generalization that states the child's opinion, change in perspective or new question(s). Defend a pattern, explain new information the child didn't know before, or create and explain a new idea.
• Debate.
• Code the text; students mark places where they thought of new ideas, or where confusion was clarified, or what made the child think differently.

So What? Book "Reports"

I like "So what? Projects" all year and especially during synthesis study. The project ideas come from watching what adults do when they finish reading books: tell people, research the author, find more books in the series, visit the library, talk in a book club, get mad. (I don't know any that write a book report.)

Instead, when a student finishes a book, I ask these 3 questions: "Now that you have read this information, what are you motivated to do? How will your life be different? How will you think or act differently?"

Maybe a reader will launch into a study of the author or the topic because of something she read in her book. She might write a letter to the newspaper, a legislator, or a neighbor because she's mad and stirred to action. What if she decides to tell others about the book and convince them to read it because it moved her so much? Maybe she will elect to read the book again and keep a "Second-Read Journal." It's possible she will create a script from the book and enlist the help of friends to act it out for an audience.

What's more? She may not want to do a project at all. She may simply want to read more, searching for a book she likes better or enjoys just as much. And... what's really wrong with skipping the report and reading more? Whatever! I want the response to a book to come from my kids' hearts.

As a teacher preparing children for 2030, I no longer am satisfied with a diorama, a book report, or a poster. Most children in the intermediate grades are very good at retelling already, and so asking them to do more of the same is not challenging. Why should I continue to ask all children to retell or summarize for me? Furthermore, what does a book report prepare a child to do, really?

Once you start these projects with your students, I predict they will create a list of ideas. One idea will fly through your classroom and (almost) everyone will have to try it. You will discuss possibilities at class meetings. You will make charts. Your children will be visiting other classrooms and signing up to talk on closed-circuit television. You and your kids might even improve the world!

As you write your lesson plans, evaluate whether you are asking your students to continue to prove they can retell and summarize more than synthesize. Most are ready to take on all three.

Sample Lesson: Putting It All Together

This month our focus is on this question: "When do we use each strategy?" We can't use every strategy in every circumstance, so what strategy matches what problem?

For example, if I read a difficult text, I would use coding, highlighting, and summarizing. If I read a recipe I would use overviewing, skimming and scanning. If I read a play, I would slow my pace, underline, and keep a character list. I would also pay attention to main idea and theme. If each step has been modeled, guided, and used independently, our readers will use strategies appropriate to the task.

Since students need explicit direction in "when to use what," I provided a jumping off point with the lesson below. A student worksheet is below, also.

MATERIALS