Chapter #11: Summarizing and Synthesizing Information- The Evolution of Thought

The biggest things that I took from this chapter regards teaching students to be analytical in what they need to accomplish in their reading and writing about the text.  At my age, I am able to do this to a degree, but I feel that explicit instruction could have made me a better reader and subsequent writer.  I was never taught to examine my text and look for clues about how I should read the text.  While told that there are different texts, it was never made very clear to me how I should arrange my thoughts for properly processing different works. 

I feel that many of these strategies would be very helpful to students.  Harvey & Goodvis said, “When we summarize information during reading, we pull out the most important information and put it in our own words to remember it.  Each bit of information we encounter adds a piece to the construction of meaning.”  As educators, we need to better prime our students to go into an assignment prepared to read in a way that will allow them to pull the most necessary information from the text.  If I work with older students, I would love to spend time presenting these strategies, and giving students the opportunity to put those strategies to use with each kind of text.  I would also like to give them a chance to discern how they should read different texts.  These skills would most certainly serve them throughout their learning careers, giving them the tools to attack a text and get the most out of it.  

As a Kindergarten teacher I can begin to help my students to achieve these skills by reading picture books and modeling how to write a short summary. Students can learn to write their own summaries by jotting down a few words during/after reading and then using those words to construct their own summary. The teacher in the text provided the following tips to help early readers summarize:

1. Remember to tell what is important
2. Tell it in a way that makes sense
3. Try not to tell too much 

Chapter #10: Determining Importance in Text

I made a real personal connection with this text about finding out what is most important within a given reading.  In the book, an anecdote is told about a student that went back and looked back into her book and discovered that EVERYTHING was highlighted.  I did the exact same thing; looking back at my old textbooks, I highlighted everything as well.  I was never taught how to pick out what is most important in a text.  

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when highlighting or teaching students how to highlight:

• Most important information is usually contained in the first and last lines of a paragraph.
• Focus on words and phrases rather than entire sentences.
• Utilize margins and sticky notes for paraphrasing notes
• Interesting details should be avoided- go for the meat of the article rather than the flash.
• Pay attention to signal words, Ex. "See page 15..."
• Non-fiction features like bold words and infographics, labels, graphs, etc, should all be focused on.
• Surprising information can tip you off that you are learning something new.
• You should be highlighting less that 50% of the paragraph as you begin to hone your skills.  Aim for a rate around 30% when you really get the hang out it.

As always, i am looking for ways to make a connection with our readings and bringing it to a kindergarten level.  I realized that I can do a better job of pointing out non-fiction text features so that my students are able to recognize what they are signalling.  Students will most likely not understand the significance of these features without being told at this age.  Hopefully, with some guidance, I can "highlight" the importance of these features so that my students are able to most quickly locate pertinent information.  

"When kids read and understand non fiction, they build background for the topic and acquire new knowledge.  The ability to identify essential ideas and salient information is a pre-requisite to developing insight." (page 156)  

I found some great ideas on pinterest that I already plan to incorporate into my lessons this week.