Assignment #3: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 3 – Summarizing and Notetaking
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A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategies of summarizing and notetaking in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment. (Complete – but do not post!)
• In what situations is it important for my students to summarize?
• What does summarizing help my students do?
• What do I do to help students understand and use the process of summarizing?
• What questions do I have about using summarizing in my classroom?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 3 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for summarizing and notetaking. (Complete – but do not post!)
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to teach to your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom) – please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Three: Summarizing and Notetaking. Click on the “comment” link below.
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/promps to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Three: Summarizing and Notetaking by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on summarizing affected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How has reading this information affirmed some of what you already knew about summarizing?
• What is something you now understand better about summarizing?
• How might you change how you use summarizing in your classroom?
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C. Practice
First, I have to say that I have had similar experiences to the first commentary in the chapter. I have expected my students to know how to do simple activities and then come to find out they have no clue what to do. It all goes back to making sure we specifically teach (for some) and review (for others) the basic skills of an activity before we assign that activity.
As a fifth grade teacher, I expect my students to know how to summarize and take notes, but have never specifically taught them the skills. Just this last week, I had my students take notes on Explorer Presentations their peers were giving. I stated it as, “Write down one fact about each presentation.” Was this enough?? Should I have taught more of the note-taking strategies for this one? I think that with the small amount of time each presentation lasted, this was the most effective form of note taking. However, the next time we watch a movie or listen to a lecture style presentation, I will preteach the Informal Outline and the Webbing techniques.
I have also asked students to summarize pieces they have read or watched. The first strategy, Rule Based, seemed contrary to what I would want my fifth graders to do. It asked to simply copy from the text but to be discerning with what to copy. I think this strategy would be appropriate for non-fiction work. However, I always want to pull my students out of the text when summarizing. I have them read or watch or listen and then close the book, turn off the movie, or step away from the presentation and write down the Main Ideas of Who, What, When, Where, and Why. This was basically the second technique titled Narrative Frame. I think that is the one more elementary teachers have their students do. I will try the others in the future to see the results.
D. Final Strategy Reflection
• How has reading this information affirmed some of what you already knew about summarizing?
Summarizing is an important skill and it needs to be specifically taught from an early age. It needs to be practiced almost daily, as well. It can help students succeed because it helps them understand and process what they are learning and hearing at a higher level.
• What is something you now understand better about summarizing?
I didn’t realize there were different types of summarizing! I just thought that there was one way of summarizing – the way I had always done it. I can see different ways to teach each one at different time and situation. One is better for non-fiction reading, one is better for conversations, one is better for persuasive reading, etc. The different scenarios they illustrated in the book helped me to determine this.
• How might you change how you use summarizing in your classroom?
I will definitely teach these other strategies to my students at appropriate times and places. Arming them with different ways to demonstrate their learning is essential. They will eventually choose the one that works best for them. As the textbook stated all the way through the chapter, effective summarizing and note taking are both indicators to student success. If a student can take good notes and summarize what they have just read or heard, they are going to understand what they are being taught and bound to do better on assessments.
C. I ran into a summarizing problem in my class this week, actually. All year we had been doing reading slips, where students read for at least 20 minutes a night, and write a brief, 1-2 sentence summary about what they read. If they are reading a chapter book, they can just summarize as they go along. Each morning, while they are doing their morning work, I go to each desk to check over their reading slips. In the beginning of the year, everything was fine, but lately, students have been copying sentences out of the book, or they'll quote what a character said as their summary.
This annoyed me, and I assumed that they were just getting lazy, but I decided that as a teacher, I need to assume that I need to reteach the skill, which is why this chapter was so timely.
Since the pieces to summarize were short, nonfiction, I decided to use the narrative frame. I modeled this twice with short picture books, since that is what some students read. I also modeled it with our class read-aloud, which is a chapter book, to cover the other students who do not read picture books. For the chapter books, we initially did all components of the narrative frame, but showed the students that as they go along, it will not be necessary to do them all.
D. Affirmations
I always knew summarizing is an important strategy for comprehension. If a student can summarize a piece of writing well, they likely understand it. When a summary is not well written, I will ask the student to tell me what the story was about, and they do not know.
Better understanding -- As an elementary school teacher, I don't get the opportunity to teach the content areas as thoroughly as I'd like. Reading this chapter has made me understand that summarizing is vital to all subjects, and giving my students a solid foundation with it will empower them in other subjects in the future.
Changes in the classroom -- I will definitely change the way I teach summarizing. Before, I was using the HM teacher's edition as a guide, which I was not really happy with. I feel like I have so many potential ways to teach this, depending on the passage we are reading. I will also be more aware of the need to explicitly teach it and reteach it often.
Marisa H.
Part C. Practice
One strategy that I have used consistently in my Kindergarten classroom is a GLAD Narrative Graphic Organizer. This organizer is a great teaching and learning tool because it can support students when they are organizing information from a story and can also assist in teaching students the important literacy strategies of retell and comprehension. After reading chapter three this week regarding summarizing and note taking, I immediately thought of this organizer. This week students in our classroom heard a great winter read aloud by Jan Brett called “The Mitten”. After reading this story on Monday, students participated in creating a narrative chart to help remind them of the events that took place in the story. On Tuesday, I cut off a large piece of white butcher paper and clipped it to our classroom white board. I then drew four large rectangles horizontally on the paper. I labeled each rectangle with a narrative element. For example, characters, setting, plot, and resolution (I like to keep the organizer simple for Kinders, but would add goals/consequences for older students). Then students helped me fill out our large narrative organizer. We discussed and recorded the characters in the story and where the story took place. We talked about the events in the story and the order in which the events occurred. Last, we discussed and recorded how the problem in the story was solved and who helped to solve it. In between each narrative category, I would have students take a minute to discuss each narrative piece with their “thinking buddy” that was sitting next to them on the carpet. This gets everyone talking, and helps those shy students discuss the narrative before I ask for individual students to share with the entire group. I then left the chart up in our classroom to look at and read later using puppets from the story. Students enjoyed this extra element and now have a clearer picture of what it means to understand and retell a story.
Part D. Reflection
I enjoyed using the narrative frame strategy in my Kindergarten classroom. Kinders are just learning how to read, and an important ingredient to the success of a new reader is getting them listening to, and comprehending, short stories. The narrative frame strategy helps students to distinguish the difference between important information in a story, and information that is not needed to fully comprehend the author’s message. This strategy teaches pre-readers how to retell a story, which they will have to do occasionally during future DRA literacy testing. I really liked using this instructional tool because it was fun for students to work together as a team to come up with the characters, main events, and resolution of “The Mitten”. Students enjoyed this story and seemed on task and interested during the narrative frame lesson. This strategy works well with young students, and it can be adapted to accommodate more advanced learners as well. I will continue to use this strategy in my classroom, and I now have an even better understanding of the importance of teaching students how to use information to clarify and condense the important pieces of a story.
C. Practice
I’m working on a Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest unit that I’d like to offer as a summer program or an after-school program for elementary aged children. Summary frames mentioned in this chapter would be useful when exploring and writing stories and myths, specifically the Narrative Frame, the Problem/Solution Frame, and the Conversation Frame.
Paul Owen Lewis, author of Frog Girl and Storm Boy, describes the story pattern used in the hero’s journey and rites of passage stories as containing three phases; separation, initiation, and return. These correlate well with the elements in the Narrative Frame: Separation takes place within the Initiating Event, Initiation takes place during the Internal Response & Goal, and Return takes place during the Consequence & Resolution. Because both story pattern and frame use the word initiation, I would rename #3 of the frame to Opening Event. I would use the Narrative Frame to dissect several NA of PNW stories, but refer to the Lewis’ three phases to emphasize elements of myth and journey. The Narrative Frame allows students to see more aspects/components of a story. This will be helpful when they move into the story writing process themselves.
To begin the writing process, I’d have children use the P/S Frame. What is the Problem? – What animal will the human character interact with and what event will take them into the spirit world? What is a possible solution? – What heroic deed will transpire? How will the human’s awareness be changed? Children would be encouraged to come up with several scenarios to develop. Which one works best? Which solution is best?
The Conversation Frame can be used when exploring the original stories so that children see the process of conversation and how information is conveyed through dialog and Q&A. Children can use this frame as a template/guide to writing effective conversation in their story.
D. Reflections
Step 1 of summary process has students delete-substitute-keep information. Here’s an opportunity to talk about plagiarism and to practice using a thesaurus.
Step 2 has students analyze information. Here’s an opportunity to explore the process of analyzing. Dig out some Bloom’s Taxonomy information and discuss this level of cognitive processing.
Step 3 The exercise of summarizing builds awareness of the structure/form of information. Transfer this understanding of structure/form to the writing process.
I haven’t used a TRI frame and would want to have some practice/exposure before using it.
The P/S frame is similar to a process I used years ago in Odyssey of the Mind exercises. When kids get into it, the game of going beyond what is presented and thinking up more possibilities can be a lot of fun!
I’ve used the Conversation frame to help format a “Daily News” activity for ELL students. I attached vocabulary and word phrase possibilities to the steps of the frame. This helped students formulate ideas and sentence structure.
Reciprocal Teaching is a great format for reading groups and I like to have each task be a student’s responsibility. And with the addition of an “Illustrator.” Instruction/Understanding of the components and of group process, and student responsibility are key!
Issues in Note Taking that I see in middle & high school classrooms are penmanship, spelling, size of print, and being able to then read what was written! Yes to the point that notes need to be a work in progress. I’m an advocate of bringing in information from various resources. New information and insights are added to existing notes. Note taking is an excellent time to practice putting things into your own words and then checking that your own words haven’t distorted the original information. I like the Combination Technique because it contains condensed written information with a visual representation and then takes the process to the synthesis level – reconstructing info into a summary. I realized once again that I need that visual to sink new info to a deeper space of understanding.
C: Practice
So far I had them read a picture book, that they would then read to their 1st grade buddies, and summarize using the “narrative frame”. Through doing this type of summarizing they were able to do better jobs understanding and then sharing the important pieces of the story with their buddy, which ended up to be more powerful than I had anticipated. One method I have not yet incorporated but will be sure to do is the “reciprocal teaching” method of summarizing. I think my students would really enjoy this and could learn a lot from each other.
For note taking, I had the students complete“webbing” from a reading passage we read in preparation for a scientific inquiry unit we are beginning. There are four major components and then specific steps under each so the webbing was a perfect way to organize the information. Overall, I think it went quite well, in asking the students what they thoughts, lots enjoyed it.
D: Final Strategy Reflection
As a sixth grade teacher, we do a lot of summarizing and note taking. However, from reflecting on the chapter I realized that when I ask them to take notes, it often times is writing down exactly what I have just written. The statement “Verbatim note taking is, perhaps, the least effective way to take notes,” was extremely powerful for me. It didn’t dawn on me that that way of note taking might be ineffective, until I sat back and thought about my days in school when I was so busy writing what was on the board, there was no time or energy left to hear what else the teacher was saying. I also realized that when I write notes, that the students then copy, I write them in a way that works for me without even thinking, that might not work for all of them. So, this chapter gave me some great ideas for what to try and then allow the students to choose the note taking or summarizing strategy that works best for them.
Thanks for your comments Nancy and Christine! I completely agree…so often as teachers, we assume that our students have “learned” something in a previous grade. Curriculum just marches forward and we expect that all children have “mastered” the work from previous grades (and we’re also assuming that teacher TAUGHT the curriculum). Sometimes we need to just slow down, take time to model and guide (or reteach) their learning rather than feeling the pressure of the curriculum. Thanks to both of you for sharing your teaching with summarizing.
Thanks Kim, Ashley, and Marissa for your responses. Marissa – Great lesson – I love that you use “thinking buddies” in K…(turn and talk)…what a great way to get these kids thinking and talking. The story frame was a great tool to enforce their listening comprehension and begin to understand the importance of narrative story elements. Kim – the course sounds like an interesting course for students, and I love how several of the frames you mentioned were such excellent launches for writing in response and/or extensions to reading. I appreciated reading all of your comments on the different frames. Ashley - I love the purpose that sharing their summarizations with their buddies provided to the experience. How about just providing your students with a skeletal outline of your lesson, and they could just fill in the important information as the lesson unfolds???
Practice:
We are wrapping up a study of Colonies. One of the activities that I decided to use is the reciprocal teaching strategy in the context of reading non-fiction books on the different jobs that citizens held within the colonies. I have laminated cards with the various “jobs” written on them along with a short explanation, but had not used them in quite some time. I pulled them out for this activity. I divided the students into groups of 5-6 and then gathered one group, my medium-high group, to demonstrate in a “fishbowl” type-setting, the way that reciprocal teaching works. Without any practice and very little coaching, my “teacher” student jumped into the role and led their group masterfully through several sections of the book. My students are experts in leading and running their own literature circles and I think this is why this activity was so successful!
I then dismissed the other groups to do the same and I walked around observing how the various groups were functioning using this strategy. It was a huge hit and I will certainly use it again. I am glad that this chapter reminding me of how this strategy really does boost student comprehension of non-fiction texts.
I decided to try one more strategy to really firm up their understanding of the various jobs within a colony and teach another important strategy; note-taking. After having each group use the reciprocal teaching strategy 1 more time with a different book on jobs within the colonies, I modeled note-taking using an outline that I had created following the different sections of the colony job books. Students then chose their most favorite job, they had 9 different books to choose from, and using my outline they took notes as they read. They had to identify chapter headings, sub-titles within the chapters and take 3 notes on each section in complete sentences. This activity was successful because they understood the structure of the text and had background knowledge on the life of a colonist from all of the prior reading and activities that we had already done.
How has reading this information affirmed some of what you already knew about summarizing?
Summarizing and note taking is probably one of the hardest things for fourth and fifth graders to understand, learn and then use in a practical manner. I certainly teach this strategy in the later part of the school year once students have had much exposure to extracting information from both fiction and non-fiction texts. As stated in the research section of this chapter, students must analyze the text at a much deeper level and for many students this is difficult in and of itself. I find that if students are exposed to new information, with little or no prior knowledge of the subject, it is “painful” to try and help them make sense of the information enough to take notes or summarize a given topic. That is why I teach this strategy later in the year and maybe towards an end of unit or topic study once they have some previous interactions with the subject matter.
What is something you now understand better about summarizing?
It was a great reminder to read about the importance of teaching the “structure” of various texts and how with that information, students have more success in synthesizing the information into meaningful information. Even in math problem solving we practice it on a smaller scale as students highlight important information, cross out unimportant information and then rephrase the problem in their own words before they ever begin to solve the problem. I will remember to point out that they are summarizing the details of the math problems so that they can better understand what they are being asked to do.
****Each time I try to post an assignment, it says that my password is invalid and I have to set a new password. Any suggestions for this issue would be much appreciated!
julie
C.Practice
My students are ending the year with book clubs. I'm definitely going to use the Narrative Frame to help them learn to summarize. I think I'll try one in a shared writing format and then decide if I think they are ready to tackle one on their own or with a partner. Many of my students are English Language Learners or students who struggle. I'm really hoping this frame will help them understand summarizing better. Determining importance is so hard for many of them and this will provide a structure to guide them. I used to use reciprocal teaching and have gotten away from it. After reading this chapter I think I'll try and get back to it again. If possible I'll try using it with the book clubs, but if not this year then next year.
D. Reflection
I'll admit that I don't put as much time into summarizing as I should. I think sometimes it feels just so daunting. This chapter really helped me to see how to teach summarizing in a way that provides support and structure to a complicated skill. It was enlightening to learn that there are so many strategies to pull from. Although I try to have students take notes I've always taught them to be brief. It made sense to read that more notes are better so I will be changing that. I also think that I'll start instruction on note taking much sooner in the year and definitely set aside time so that my students can read over their notes. I realized that I'm always telling them that we grow theories and ideas from the notes, but I rarely allow them time to look back at the notes for patterns.
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