The Synthesis Essay
How assigning and teaching the art
of synthesis will help general ed
students on the PARCC
Understanding the Research Simulation Task
• Students begin by reading an anchor text that introduces the topic.
• EBSR and TECR items ask students to gather key details about the passage
to support their understanding.
• Students read two additional sources and answer a few questions about
each text to learn more about the topic, so they are ready to write the
final essay and to show their reading comprehension.
• Finally, students mirror the research process by synthesizing their
understandings into a writing that uses textual evidence from the
sources.
2
Standard 1 Always at Play
Standard 1
Focused on a student’s ability to find text-based evidence for
generalizations, conclusions, or inferences drawn
3
What is Synthesis?
• Synthesis happens when two or more sources combine
in a meaningful way to back up an author’s own point or
counterargument.
• It is a basic collegiate writing skill.
• It is related to PARCC in that the literature task on the
PARCC, “plays an important role in honing students’
ability to read complex text closely, a skill that research
reveals as the most significant factor differentiating
college-ready from non-college-ready readers”
•A synthesized essay should leave the
reader with a holistic sense that the
writer has conveyed his or her own new
ideas, and has drawn upon a chorus of
voices for support (the sources given).
What Synthesis Isn’t
• It is not just putting two or more sources in a
paragraph - synthesis isn’t happening unless a
relationship between the sources is apparent.
• False relationships between sources - this is why
close reading of texts in class is so important.
Close Reading
Close reading, as it appears in the Common Core, requires
readers to emphasize “what lies within the four corners of the
text” and de-emphasize their own perspective, background,
and biases in order to uncover the author's meaning in the text.
Critical Reading
Critical reading, in contrast, concerns itself with those very
differences between what does and does not appear in the text.
Critical reading includes close reading; critical reading is close
reading of both what lies within and outside of the text.
From: Baldassare Castiglione - The Courtier (1508-1528)
“To come, therefore, to the quality of the person, I say he is
well if he be neither of the least nor of the greatest size. For
both the one and the other hath with it a certain spiteful
wonder, and such men are marveled at, almost as much as
men marvel to behold monstrous things. Yet if there must
needs be a default in one of the two extremities, it shall be
less hurtful to be somewhat of the least than to exceed the
common stature in height. For men so shot up of body,
beside that many times they are of a dull wit, they are also
inapt for all exercises of nimbleness, which I much desire
to have in the Courtier. And therefore will I have him to be
of a good shape, and well-proportioned in his limbs, and to
show strength, lightness, and quickness, and to have
understanding in all exercises of the body…”
In October 2012 PARCC established 5 performance levels
• Level 5: Students performing at this level demonstrate a distinguished
command of the knowledge, skills, and practices embodied by the Common
Core State Standards assessed at their grade level.
• Level 4: Students performing at this level demonstrate a strong command…
• Level 3: Students performing at this level demonstrate a moderate
command…
• Level 2: Students performing at this level demonstrate a partial command…
• Level 1: Students performing at this level demonstrate a minimal
command…
11
DBQ Components
Name: _______________________
DBQ Rubric
Assessment: ______________
# Paragraphs - _________
Thesis Paragraph
/10 points
Minimum # of Documents
/10 points
# Document Groups
/10 points
Documents used correctly
/10 points
Documents prove thesis
/10 points
Point of View / Bias
/10 points
Potential Bonus Points
Actual Bonus Points
TOTAL POINTS
• Have students generate a list of words or phrases that can be
used to show the relationships between sources- words or
phrases like “agrees,” “disagrees,” “concurs,” “expounds
upon,” “goes even further,” “contradicts,” “confirms,”
“clarifies,” etc.
• Limit the amount of times a student can directly quote from a
source- for a five paragraph essay, three citations is a good
rule of thumb.
• Requiring that students use at least three sources (usually
the prompts give you six) will help to eliminate a student’s
temptation to rely only on one.
Peer Review/Teacher Assessment
• 1. Is the relationship between sources made clear? Where?
• Are synthesis words or phrases used to link two or more different
sources? Where?
• Are there at least 3 (or 4 or 5…) instances of synthesis?
• Does the synthesis word or phrase accurately summarize the
relationship among/between sources?
• Does synthesized source material overwhelm the author’s voice?
• Is one source synthesized or otherwise used more than the other
sources?
Published on PARCC (http://www.parcconline.org)
Home > The PARCC Assessment > Assessment System
Assessment System
The PARCC assessments have six priority purposes, which are driving the design
of the system
The priority purposes of PARCC Assessments are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Determine whether students are college- and career-ready or on track
Assess the full range of the Common Core Standards, including standards that are difficult to measure
Measure the full range of student performance, including the performance high- and low-performing students
Provide data during the academic year to inform instruction, interventions and professional development
Provide data for accountability, including measures of growth
Incorporate innovative approaches throughout the assessment system
What are Performance Level Descriptors?
Performance Level
Descriptors or PLDs
describe what students at
each performance level
know and can do relative
to grade-level or course
content standards
assessed.
20
Understanding the Research Simulation Task
• Students begin by reading an anchor text that introduces the topic.
• EBSR and TECR items ask students to gather key details about the
passage to support their understanding.
• Students read two additional sources and answer a few questions about
each text to learn more about the topic, so they are ready to write the
final essay and to show their reading comprehension.
• Finally, students mirror the research process by synthesizing their
understandings into a writing that uses textual evidence from the
sources.
21
The Synthesis Essay
How assigning and teaching the art of synthesis will help general ed
students on the PARCC
What is Synthesis?
• Synthesis happens when two or more sources combine in a
meaningful way to back up an author’s own point or
counterargument.
• It is a basic collegiate writing skill.
• It is related to PARCC in that the literature task on the PARCC, “plays
an important role in honing students’ ability to read complex text
closely, a skill that research reveals as the most significant factor
differentiating college-ready from non-college-ready readers”.
Def. cont.
• A synthesized essay should leave the reader with a holistic sense that
the writer has conveyed his or her own new ideas, and has drawn
upon a chorus of voices for support (the sources given).
• This aspect relates to PARCC in that, “[in the Research Simulation
task], students will analyze an informational topic presented through
several articles or multimedia stimuli, the first text being an anchor
text that introduces the topic”.
• Furthermore, students completing the Research Simulation task will,
“engage with the texts by answering a series of questions and
synthesizing information from multiple sources in order to write two
analytic essays [emphasis mine].”
Step 1: Generate a List
• Have students generate a list of words or phrases that can be used to
show the relationships between sources- words or phrases like
“agrees,” “disagrees,” “concurs,” “expounds upon,” “goes even
further,” “contradicts,” “confirms,” “clarifies,” etc.
Step 2: What Synthesis Isn’t
• It is not just putting two or more sources in a paragraph- synthesis
isn’t happening unless a relationship between the sources is
apparent.
• The connective word list is important, because it is almost impossible
to pull of synthesis without using the words from the list.
Step 2 cont.
• False relationships between sources- this is why close reading of texts
in class is so important. Allow students to struggle with the
relationships between Source A and Source B, and be there to guide
students to make appropriate connections.
Step 2 cont.
• Too much of a good thing. Be sure to alert students to the fact that
lots and lots of synthesis may not be as effective in an essay as some
well-placed, select instances.
• Limit the amount of times a student can directly quote from a sourcefor a five paragraph essay, three citations is a good rule of thumb.
• Encourage students to locate and highlight their own voice within a
synthesized passage.
Step 2 cont.
• Too much of one source. Students would be well advised to make
sure that one of their sources isn’t driving the essay.
• Requiring that students use at least three sources (usually the
prompts give you six) will help to eliminate a student’s temptation to
rely only on one.
Peer Review/Teacher Assessment
• 1. Is the relationship between sources made clear? Where?
• Are synthesis words or phrases used to link two or more different
sources? Where?
• Are there at least 3 (or 4 or 5…) instances of synthesis?
• Does the synthesis word or phrase accurately summarize the
relationship among/between sources?
• Does synthesized source material overwhelm the author’s voice?
• Is one source synthesized or otherwise used more than the other
sources?
Sample Scratch Outline for a Synthesis Essay
• Thesis/Prompt: The two memoirs, All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick
Bragg and The Color of Water by James McBride share the common
theme that with familial support and love, one can overcome all
obstacles
• Supporting Point #1: In All Over but the Shoutin’, Rick Bragg’s mother
teaches him to perservere in difficult circumstances.
• Supporting Point #2 (with transition): Like Bragg, in The Color of
Water, James McBride’s strong mother instills in him the importance
of education as a path out of poverty.
Write!
• For each supporting points, write a complete sentence; use these as
topic sentences for all of your body paragraphs
• Add key quotations and facts from the sources that validate each of
your key points
• Keep summaries of stories brief
Revision/Checklist
• Be sure that your thesis covers all the supporting points
• Check that each body paragraph begins with a clear topic sentence to
support your thesis
• Add quotations, facts, or opinions of your sources where you need
evidence
• Be sure that you have introduced the writer of all quotations by
putting the name of the writer in your text, right before, or in a
citation, right after.
Standards that Synthesis and PARCC cover
• Standard W.11-12.1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or
texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence (emphasis mine)
• Standard W.11-12.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a
question (including a self-generated questions) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry
when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of
the subject under investigation
• Standard W.11.-12.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
• Standard RH.11.12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and
secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the
text as a whole.
• Standard RH.11.12.6: Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or
issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence
• Standard RH.11-12.9: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary,
into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
Three factors that determined the levels
Three factors that determined the levels.
(text complexity; range of accuracy; quality of evidence)
35
Level
Level of Text Complexity1
Range of Accuracy2
Quality of Evidence3
5
Very Complex
Grade
11
Moderately
Complex
Readily Accessible
Accurate
Accurate
Accurate
Explicit and inferential
Explicit and inferential
Explicit and inferential
4
Very Complex
Moderately Complex
Readily Accessible
Mostly accurate
Accurate
Accurate
Explicit and inferential
Explicit and inferential
Explicit and inferential
3
Very Complex
Moderately Complex
Readily Accessible
Generally accurate
Mostly accurate
Accurate
Explicit and inferential
Explicit and inferential
Explicit and inferential
2
Very Complex
Moderately Complex
Readily Accessible
Inaccurate
Minimally accurate
Mostly accurate
Explicit
Explicit and inferential
Explicit and inferential
Looking at the PLDs: Reading
This row provides the
sub-claim being
viewed
This row provides the
level being described
This row provides information about the
patterns displayed by students in reading at
this level
37
Looking at the PLDs: Written Expression
This row provides the
sub-claim being
viewed
This row provides the
level being described
This row provides information about the
patterns displayed by students in writing at
this level
39
Standard 1 Always at Play
Standard 1
Focused on a student’s ability to find text-based evidence for
generalizations, conclusions, or inferences drawn
41