Summarizing or Synthesizing?

Chapter 11 in Stephanie Harvey's Strategies That Work was about summarizing and synthesizing. This chapter was very interesting for me to read. While we summarize what we read frequently, synthesizing information is never a strategy that I have taught my kindergarten students. It was really interesting for me to read about synthesizing. According to Harvey, the difference between synthesizing and summarizing is using our background knowledge. To synthesize, we must rely on what we already know to adjust or change the way we are thinking. We merge all of our thoughts together to create deeper meaning of a text. Summarizing is just using our own words to retell a story.

To be completely honest, I have never thought of myself as a good reader. Growing up I was never confident of my ability to read. I did not enjoy reading and I was a classic "word caller." Reading the chapter alone gave me a much better understanding. As I become a great reading teacher, I am realizing that I was always a good reader. I do all of these things, I had just never heard them called these things before. We did a lot of "round robin" reading and not much else.  Still, I will always be a visual learner. I needed to see teachers modeling how to teach synthesizing for their students. 

I could not get this video to upload, but here is the link: It is excellent to watch someone else model teaching. It is definitely one of the greatest tools for me.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=synthesizing+reading&sm=3

This week I plan to talk to my students about how to synthesize as we read. While it may be difficult for them to articulate it, I can model this after watching the video.

What's Important in a Text?

Important to Whom?

Chapter 5 in Strategies That Work this week was interesting to read. One topic I found of great interest was how students think when they are reading. We often ask our students to pick out the most important parts of something they read. However, I think we overlook that everyone may find different parts of a text are more important to them, personally. For instance, the author gave an example about a student reading a text about antismoking programs. However, when the student came across a shocking statistic, the studnet related that statistic to people in their family that smoke. To them, that information became of extreme importance. 

I have to admit that not only am I a victim to considering what is most important to me in a text, I also teach my students that reading is thinking and nothing matters more than what they are thinking and feeling as they read. All of these things help them connect with a text and undestand it on a deeper level. The more connections they make with a text, the more likely they are to remember and even read something new. However, I do not always remember to remind them to pick out what the author states as the most important information from the story. It does not always have to be just one main idea, but is usually more than one; especially with non-fiction texts.  To prepare students for test-taking, they need to be reminded to think of what the author would consider the most important information. We can find this out by examing what they author writes and what kind of details they include on what topics.  A way to do this is by writing many different details down, then concluding the topic that these details are about. This can also be done by using different kinds of anchor charts. I have attached a picture for a way to do this with my younger students.

Book Clubs

This week I read Chapter 5, "Building a Better Book Club" in Comprehension Going Forward.  After reading the first few pages, I was very excited about the way the author portrayed the book club. She explained how excited the students were and how the book club was run. She was not working on fluency, but comprehension and thinking, so she reads as the students follow along. This way, she can stop at more specific points in the story and talk with the students about what they are thinking. This confirms a strategy that I already use with my students. When I am focusing on comprehension, I sometimes do this too. My students actually do follow along, and this allows me a chance to model my fluency and expression. This is so much better than a "round robin" read. This book club is her guided reading group. The rest of the class has something else to do while the teacher meets with different club groups.

Book clubs are fun and exciting for students. It allows the students to enjoy reading and get excited by talking with their groups about what they are feeling and thinking. The author made note about what the students are thinking through this. Are they understanding how these book clubs are helping them become better readers. So, asking your students questions to probe their own thinking is extremely important. "How has your thinking changed? Why? And how has it deepend?" This is a key to teaching comprehension and it must be modeled.

Anchor Charts and other strategies must be modeled for students to see how a good reader thinkss through their reading. As we read, we think. I model this for my students each day when I read aloud. If when I read something I begin to feel sad, I stop and tell my students why I am feeling this way. However, students need opportunities to do this themselves. They need to have a chance to apply what I model. For me, I do not provide enough of these opportunities for my students. I do so much decoding and fluency in kindergarten, that it makes me wish I focused more on comprehension. While most of my student's books do not have enough of a plot to trigger emotions or provoke much thought, I have an idea for moving forward. As I read aloud to my students, they could create their own anchor charts and write down about how they are feeling about a story. They can also write questions they are wondering.

After reading this chapter, I am remembering my student teaching experience. At the end of first grade students can actively participate in a book club. I did this, along with literature circles, with those first graders. It was not only enjoyable for them, but also was for me. We had so much fun reading and digging deeper into the texts we read. Moving forward, I would like to do more of this with my class. My professional development proposal for change this semtester is also going to help me do this. My students are going to have chnaces to respond and talk more in the classroom. Now I know to be sure to ask them how their thinking has changed, a question I do not ask nearly enough. I cant wait to see what happens! :)