Assignment #3: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 3 – Summarizing and Notetaking
ALL PARTICIPANTS PLEASE READ THE NOTE BELOW!!!Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part Dto the blog. We’re trying to make the blog more user-friendly and easier to read. Thanks!
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, reflect on how you would use this strategy in your classroom.)
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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3 comments:
This chapter reminded me that summarizing is a difficult process! It sounds so simple – read this article and then tell me what it’s about - but there’s a much higher level of thinking that’s required with this activity. In my 12 years of teaching, I’ve discovered the power of studying reading WITH writing.
For example, when reading literature, I ask my students to use the SOMEBODY – WANTED – BUT – SO – THEN strategy. This is an informal plot strategy that connects with the exposition, conflict, rising action, turning point, falling action, resolution, but without the fancy terms! However, I try to show my students how to use it to summarize a story and to plan their own narrative or creative essay. I like how students are able to see the correlation between what they’re reading and what they’re expected to write.
Also, I’ve taught struggling readers and writers the methods of organization (developmental, order of importance, chronological, spatial). This seems to be a missing link with some students. As soon as they see the different ways that information can be organized, it makes an immediate impact on their reading and writing. They are able to better figure out what the main points are in their writing and in other’s writing.
On another note, I think that students need some sort of guide when they’re asked to summarize. Just asking them to point out what’s important seems really unfair. What’s important to them might not be the “right answer” you were looking for. I often attach some guiding questions to a reading piece. I’ve often wondered if I was giving them too much guidance, but then I read, “Notes should be considered a work in progress” (44). I think I use this strategy in my classroom as well. If I give my students a piece to read and some questions to answer, I expect them to add to their notes in class the next day. While we review their ideas, they are required to cross off wrong answer, put giant check marks next to correct answers, and add information that was missing.
I think that I use some good techniques for summarizing in my classroom. However, this chapter has made me realize that this is not a skill that I’ve clearly told them I expect them to learn. I’m now looking for ways that I can teach, practice, and measure their progress. I think that it’s an important skill that comes easily for me, and I’ve simply and naively assumed that other’s brains automatically do what mine does.
I really loved reading this chapter. After reflecting back on my time as a student in high school and my undergraduate studies I realized this is something I was never really taught how to do well. When I was in my graduate program I had to really teach myself how to do this and succeed at summarizing and note taking (especially because I was paying for my master’s degree!) I really see the value in teaching our students how to decipher what the most important information is that they are reading in order to summarize what they have read. In first grade we do a lot of verbal summarizing during our reading instruction. I use character, setting, plot, and outcome questions with everything we read. Similar to the example in the book, I will use the narrative frame questions to fill in a graphic organizer. As a class they will help me answer each question, but I will write the answers down on the board. Unlike the example, I have not taken the answers to their questions and turned it into a written class summary of the text. I really like that idea as a way to finalize the lesson. Note taking is something we do not really do in first grade. I do have students write to learn or write to reflect on what we are reading. But, I have not taught students at this age level how to take notes. I think it is a little too advanced for some of my kiddos who are still working on writing 3-5 sentences on a given topic. I would love to learn how I could apply note taking to my instruction. Most of the examples in this chapter appeared to be geared towards older students.
Hi Sarah, I agree! Summarizing is a difficult process, to teach and to learn. It does sound like you are using some good techniques and practices in your classroom.
I know you were referring to literacy regarding the methods of organization, but I made a connection and truly feel that we need to help all students from K/1 and up to learn organizational skills and methods for all aspects of their learning. Managing their papers, assignments, time, tools, etc… are skills they will need for the rest of their lives and as you said, it comes easier for some than others. Many teachers assume that students know how to organize and manage their environment, tools, time and assignments but in fact, for many students these are skills that they do not have or they do not have a home environment that is able to help them develop independence in these areas. So, I’ll hop off my soapbox in a second, I think all teachers and schools should discuss these sets of skills and develop lessons and curriculum to help students learn organization skills.
Hello Amy,
I’m with you, I never really learned how to take notes and summarize until grad school either. :D
I had a couple of thoughts about introducing note taking to your students. The first was that you could do a simple whole group activity up on the screen. The second thought I had was that you could have a simple form for a movie that you were showing (or story if you wanted to do it for a book) that had a couple of guiding prompts to important parts, interesting parts or facts that the students could record. (I’ve used this in my classrooms to have more of a participation element when watching a movie clip.) You could then record the students’ notes and have another lesson on grouping and organizing this information. Even if you beginning writers are still using pictures in their writing you can reaffirm that pictorial representations can also be a type of note taking.
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