21st Century Skills:
Distilling Information
through Summarization
Wormeli, 2011
For further conversation about any of these topics:
Rick Wormeli
rwormeli@cox.net
703-620-2447
Herndon, Virginia, USA
(Eastern Standard Time Zone)
Today’s students require ample opportunities to wrestle with
ideas, not have those ideas spoon fed to them. They should feel safe
and invited to experiment and fail in class or at home as they learn
new material. Unfortunately, many students consider academic
struggle as being weak when it could be used as a launching pad for
more effective learning instead.
Let’s make it okay to fail in the pursuit of learning, and let’s
model it. Set up real situations in which we do not know answers or
how to solve problems, then find the answer or solve the problem
constructively so students see what it looks like to not know
something yet remain a respected individual in the community.
Many students do not push themselves to explore different talents or
new thinking because they are focused on protecting their
reputations as the persons who always get the right answers. What
potential is lost because a student needs to protect his personal
status quo?
The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived
in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil
war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are
met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that that nation
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this. But in a larger sense, we can not
dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor
power to add or detract…
With hocked gems financing him,
Our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter
That tried to prevent his scheme.
Your eyes deceive, he had said;
An egg, not a table
Correctly typifies this unexplored planet.
Now three sturdy sisters sought proof,
Forging along sometimes through calm vastness
Yet more often over turbulent peaks and valleys.
Days became weeks,
As many doubters spread
Fearful rumors about the edge.
At last from nowhere
Welcome winged creatures appeared
Signifying momentous success.
-- Dooling and Lachman (1971)
pp. 216-222
Students must have a frame of reference to understand
the metaphor:
“He flozzled his Website.”
-- Is this a good or a bad thing? We don’t know.
“He flozzled his Website, and the fallout was
considerable.”
Activate or create the prior
knowledge needed to make sense of
instructional metaphors!
Creating Background Where There is None
• Tell the story of the Code of Hammurabi before
discussing the Magna Charta.
• Before studying the detailed rules of baseball,
play baseball.
• Before reading about how microscopes work,
play with micros copes.
• Before reading the Gettysburg Address, inform
students that Lincoln was dedicating a cemetery.
Creating Background Where There is None
• Before reading a book about a military campaign or a
murder mystery with references to chess, play Chess with a
student in front of the class, or teach them the basic rules,
get enough boards, and ask the class to play.
• In math, we might remind students of previous patterns as
they learn new ones. Before teaching students
factorization, we ask them to review what they know about
prime numbers.
• In English class, ask students, “How is this story’s
protagonist moving in a different direction than the last
story’s protagonist?”
• In science, ask students, “We’ve seen how photosynthesis
reduces carbon dioxide to sugars and oxidizes water into
oxygen, so what do you think the reverse of this process
called, ‘respiration,’ does?”
The way the brain
learns
How many teachers
sequence their
lessons for learning
Beginning
Middle
End
Lesson Sequence
The Primacy-Recency Effect
Sprenger’s Suggestions
for Long Term Retention
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reach
Reflect
Recode
Reinforce
Rehearse
Review
Retrieve
(from Sprenger’s How to Teach So Students Remember,
ASCD, 2005)
Definition:
Summarization is restating the
essence of text or an experience in as
few words as possible or in a new yet
efficient, manner.
Remember Who’s Doing the Learning:
• Whoever responds to students/classmates is doing
the learning. Make sure the majority of the time
it’s the students responding and summarizing, not
the teacher.
• Teachers ask 80 questions each hour on average,
while students ask only two during that same hour.
(Hollas) Students learn more when they ask the
questions. Find ways to make question-asking so
compelling and habitual they can’t escape it.
Prime the brain prior to asking students to do any learning
experience.
Priming means we show students:
1) What they will get out of the
experience (the objectives)
2) What they will encounter as
they go through the experience
(itinerary, structure)
Avoid Confabulation
The brain seeks wholeness. It will fill in the holes in
partial learning with made-up learning and
experiences, and it will convince itself that this
was the original learning all along. To prevent this:
Deal with Misconceptions!
Students should
summarize material they
already understand, not
material they are coming
to know.
Recall Success
with Individual, Unrelated Items
Age of Student
# of Unconnected,
Individual Items
Successfully Recalled
5
2
7
3
11
5
15+
7
(plus or minus 2, Wolfe, 2001)
Summarization Tips
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Create or activate personal background.
Prime the brain.
Plan according to the Primacy-Recency Effect.
Use varied summary formats – written, artistic, oral,
physical, musical.
Use summary experiences before, during, and after lessons.
Teach students to recognize familiar text structures .
Teach students to recognize familiar writing structures.
Use analogies.
Chunk text and experiences.
Reading Math
[Adapted from Literacy Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction,
Joan M. Kenney, ASCD, 2005]
• Math books have more concepts per sentence and
paragraph than any other type of text.
• There is little redundancy in math text.
• Words as well as numbers and other symbols are
used throughout text.
• Eyes travel in different patterns than traditional
left-to-right.
• There are often have distracting sidebars.
Reading Math
• In most text, there’s a topic sentence or key
idea followed by detailed supports. In math,
we get the details first, then the topic
sentence -- the key idea is given in the form
of a question or task at the end. Students
have to read the text again after seeing this
key idea and figure out what material in the
text is important and unimportant.
Reading Math:
the Little Words are Huge
• Of/Off: Percent “of” something, the percent
“off” something
• The, is, a , are, can , sum, less, more, on ,
who, find, one, ones, tenths, and, or, number,
numeral, how, many, how many, what, fewer,
around, write, it , each, which, do all, same,
different, exercise, here there, has, have, of,
at…
Word Morphology:
Teach Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes!
Mal – badly, poor
Meta – beyond, after,
change
Mis – incorrect, bad
Mono – one
Multi – many
Neo – new
Non – not
Ob, of, op, oc – toward,
against
Oct – eight
Paleo – ancient
Para – beside, almost
Penta – five
Per – throughout, completely
Peri – around
Poly – many
Post – after
Pre – before
Pseudo – false
Reading Notations
P
I agree with this.
X
I disagree with this.
??
I don’t understand this.
!!
Wow! (‘Elicits a strong emotion)
CL
General Claim
EV
Evidence for the Claim
(These can be numbered to indicate
their sequence, too: EV1, EV2, EV3…)
Journalistic vs. Encyclopedic Writing
“The breathing of Benbow’s pit is
deafening, like up-close jet engines mixed with
a cosmic belch. Each new breath from the
volcano heaves the air so violently my ears
pop in the changing pressure – then the
temperature momentarily soars. Somewhere
not too far below, red-hot, pumpkin size globs
of ejected lava are flying through the air.”
-- National Geographic, November 2000, p. 54
“A volcano is a vent in the Earth from which molten
rock (magma) and gas erupt. The molten rock that
erupts from the volcano (lava) forms a hill or
mountain around the vent. Lava may flowout as
viscous liquid, or it may explode from the vent as
solid or liquid particles…”
-- Global Encyclopedia, Vol. 19 T-U-V, p. 627
Chronological Order
Definition and Key words: This involves putting facts, events, a
concepts into sequence using time references to order them.
Signal words include on (date), now, before, since, when, not
long after, and gradually.
“Astronomy came a long way in the 1500s and 1600s. In
1531, Halley’s Comet appeared and caused great panic. Just
twelve years later, however, Copernicus realized that the sun
was the center of the solar system, not the Earth, and
astronomy became a way to understand the natural world,
not something to fear. In the early part of the next century,
Galileo made the first observations with a new instrument –
the telescope. A generation later, Sir Issac Newton invented
the reflecting telescope, a close cousin to what we use
today. Halley’s Comet returned in 1682 and it was treated as
a scientific wonder, studied by Edmund Halley.”
Compare and Contrast
Defintion and Key words: Explains similarities and differences.
Signal words include however, as well as, not only, but,
while, unless, yet, on the other hand, either/or, although,
similarly, and unlike.
“Middle school gives students more autonomy than
elementary school. While students are asked to be
responsible for their learning in both levels, middle school
students have more pressure to follow through on
assignments on their own, rather than rely on adults. In
addition, narrative forms are used to teach most literacy
skills in elementary school. On the other hand, expository
writing is the way most information is given in middle
school.”
Cause and Effect
Definition and Key words: Shows how something happens
through the impact of something else. Signal words include
because, therefore, as a result, so that, accordingly, thus,
consequently, this led to, and nevertheless.
“Drug abusers often start in upper elementary school.
They experiment with a parent’s beer and hard liquor and
they enjoy the buzz they receive. They keep doing this and it
starts taking more and more of the alcohol to get the same
level of buzz. As a result, the child turns to other forms of
stimulation including marijuana. Since these are the initial
steps that usually lead to more hardcore drugs such as Angel
Dust (PCP), heroin, and crack cocaine, marijuana and alcohol
are known as “gateway drugs.” Because of their addictive
nature, these gateway drugs lead many youngsters who use
them to the world of hardcore drugs.”
Problem and Solution
Definition and Key words: Explains how a difficult situation, puzzle, or
conflict develops, then what was done to solve it. Signal words are the
same as Cause and Effect above.
“The carrying capacity of a habitat refers to the amount
of plant and animal life its resources can hold. For example,
if there are only 80 pounds of food available and there are
animals that together need more than 80 pounds of food to
survive, one or more animals will die – the habitat can’t
“carry” them. Humans have reduced many habitats’ carrying
capacity by imposing limiting factors that reduce its carrying
capacity such as housing developments, road construction,
dams, pollution, fires, and acid rain. So that they can
maintain full carrying capacity in forest habitats, Congress
has enacted legislation that protects endangered habitats
from human development or impact. As a result, these
areas have high carrying capacities and an abundance of
plant and animal life.”
Proposition and Support
Defintion and Key words: The author makes a general statement followed
by two or more supporting details. Key words include: In addition, also,
as well as, first, second, finally, in sum, in support of, therefore, in
conclusion.
“There are several reasons that teachers should create
prior knowledge in students before teaching important
concepts. First, very little goes into long-term memory
unless it’s attached to something already in storage. Second,
new learning doesn’t have the meaning necessary for longterm retention unless the student can see the context in
which it fits. Finally, the brain likes familiarity. It finds
concepts with which it is familiar compelling. In sum,
students learn better when the teacher helps students to
create personal backgrounds with new topics prior to
learning about them.
Claim and Evidence
Defintion and Key words: The author makes a general statement followed
by two or more supporting details. Key words include: In addition, also,
as well as, first, second, finally, in sum, in support of, therefore, in
conclusion.
“There are several reasons that teachers should create
prior knowledge in students before teaching important
concepts. First, very little goes into long-term memory
unless it’s attached to something already in storage. Second,
new learning doesn’t have the meaning necessary for longterm retention unless the student can see the context in
which it fits. Finally, the brain likes familiarity. It finds
concepts with which it is familiar compelling. In sum,
students learn better when the teacher helps students to
create personal backgrounds with new topics prior to
learning about them.
Enumeration
Definition and Key words: Focuses on listing facts,
characteristics, or features. Signal words include to begin
with, secondly, then, most important, in fact, for example,
several, numerous, first, next finally, also, for instance, and
in addition.
“The moon is our closest neighbor. It’s 250,000 miles
away. It’s gravity is only 1/6 that of Earth. This means a boy
weighing 120 pounds in Virginia would weigh only 20
pounds on the moon. In addition, there is no atmosphere
on the moon. The footprints left by astronauts back in 1969
are still there, as crisply formed as they were on the day they
were made. The lack of atmosphere also means there is no
water on the moon, an important problem when traveling
there.”
Text Structures
[Taking Notes with Compare/Contrast]
Concept 1
Concept 2
Components of Blood Content Matrix
Red Cells
Purpose
Amount
Size &
Shape
Nucleus
?
Where
formed
White Cells
Plasma
Platelets
The student’s rough draft:
Red blood cells carry oxygen and
nutrients around the body. They are small
and indented in the middle, like little
Cheerios. There are 5 million per cc of
blood. There is no nucleus in mature red
blood cells. They are formed in the bone
marrow and spleen.
T-List or T-Chart: Wilson’s 14 Points
Main Ideas
Details/Examples
1.
Reasons President Wilson
Designed the Plan for Peace
Three Immediate Effects on
U.S. Allies
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
Three Structures/Protocols
created by the Plans
1.
2.
3
Cornell Note-Taking Format
Reduce
[Summarize in
short phrases
or essential
questions next
to each block
of notes.]
Record
[Write your notes
on this side.]
Review -- Summarize (paragraph-style) your
points or responses to the questions. Reflect and
comment on what you learned.
Somebody Wanted But So
[Fiction]
Somebody (characters)…
wanted (plot-motivation)…,
but (conflict)…,
so (resolution)… .
Something Happened
And Then
[Non-fiction]
Something (independent variable)…
happened (change in that independent
variable)…,
and (effect on the dependent variable)…,
then (conclusion)… .
Narrowing the Topic
The Civil War
People
Battles
Inventions
Reasons
Is the topic narrow
enough to be focused,
but broad enough to
have plenty to write
about?
Battles of the Civil War
Gettysburg
Manassas
Antietam
Vicksburg
Is the topic narrow
enough to be focused,
but broad enough to
have plenty to write
about?
Battles of Gettysburg
Statistics
Geography
Famous
People
Strategies
Is the topic narrow
enough to be focused,
but broad enough to
have plenty to write
about?
What was the “Fish
hook” strategy used at the
Battle of Gettysburg?
Yeah. That’s it.
When we summarize, we:
• Delete some elements
• Keep some elements
• Substitute for some elements.
“DKS”
Ask students to memorize these three actions.
TaRGeTS
(Based on Rules-Based Summaries, 1968)
T - Trivia (Remove trivial material)
R - Redundancies (Remove redundant
information)
G - Generalize (Replace specifics/lists with
general terms and phrases)
TS - Determine the Topic Sentence
Topic Sentence
TS = subject + author’s claim about subject
Subject: Dogs
Claim: Make great pets
TS: “Dogs make great pets.”
Writing Concisely
Avoid Redundancies and Saying the Same thing in different ways:

more additions, absolutely certain/essential/necessary, advance
forward, 2:00 a.m. in the morning, baby puppy/kitten, blended
together, brief moment, deliberate lie, foreign imports,
necessary requirement, old antique, orbiting satellite,
preliminary draft, proceed ahead, raise up, refer back, repeat
over, tiny particle, true facts, unexpected surprise, violent
explosion, visible to the eye, while at the same time.
Cut to the Chase:
“A small number of people” – “three people”
“His whole speech bothered me.” – “His speech bothered me.”
-- William Brohaugh’s book, Write Tight, 1993, Writer’s Digest Books
More Summarization Tips
• Use reading notations.
• Allow students to mark consumable and nonconsumable text.
• Emphasize opinion free summaries – no
commentaries.
• Teach students to evaluate their own
summarizations.
• Set length limit of 10 to 25% original text,
< 1% for longer text.
• Encourage two or more readings or exposures.
Evaluating our Summaries
• Does it convey the information accurately?
• Is it too narrow or too broad? Does it convey all of
the important elements? Does it convey too much?
• Are the ideas in the right sequence?
• Would someone else using this summary gain all
they needed to know to understand the subject?
• Did I leave out my opinion and just report an
undistorted essence of the original content?
• Did I use my own words and style?
Help with Paraphrasing
• Build students’ vocabulary and verbal dexterity. Post word
banks. Use vocabulary immersion.
• Provide repeated experiences with varied sentence
combinations and word play.
• Use repeated think-alouds of a paraphraser at work from
both teacher and students.
• Provide ample opportunities to assess paraphrasings of
original text or experience.
• Allow students to copy models -- They’ll outgrow them.
• Take a page from the active listening lessons -- “So what
you’re saying is…”
• Provide repeated experiences with encapsulation such as
creating newspaper headlines.
• Play renaming and clue games such as Password, Taboo, and
$25,000 Pyramid.
Word Morphology:
Teach Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes!
Mal – badly, poor
Meta – beyond, after,
change
Mis – incorrect, bad
Mono – one
Multi – many
Neo – new
Non – not
Ob, of, op, oc – toward,
against
Oct – eight
Paleo – ancient
Para – beside, almost
Penta – five
Per – throughout, completely
Peri – around
Poly – many
Post – after
Pre – before
Pseudo – false
3-2-1
3 – Identify three characteristics of Renaissance art
that differed from art of the Middle Ages
2 – List two important scientific debates that occurred
during the Renaissance
1 – Provide one good reason why “rebirth” is an
appropriate term to describe the Renaissance
3 – List three applications for slope, y-intercept
knowledge in the professional world
2 – Identify two skills students must have in order to
determine slope and y-intercept from a set of points
on a plane
1 – If (x1, y1) are the coordinates of a point W in a
plane, and (x2, y2) are the coordinates of a different
point Y, then the slope of line WY is what?
3-2-1
3 – Identify at least three differences
between acids and bases
2 – List two uses of acids and two uses
of bases
1 – State one reason why knowledge of
acids and bases is important to
citizens in our community
Unique Summarization Formats/Products
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A soap opera about valence among chemical elements
A “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster about Preposition Pete (“He was last seen in
the OverHill’n’Dale Saloon, at the table, in the dark, under close scrutiny of other
scalawags…”)
Compose a ballad about the cautious Massasoit tribe coming to dinner with
Governor Bradford and his colony in 1621.
Interpret the Internet for Amazonian inhabitants that have never lived with
electricity, let alone a computer.
Argue for and against Democracy as a healthy way to build a country – Provide at
least two arguments for each position.
Classify the Greek gods and goddesses according to three different criteria.
Predict the limiting factors for this habitat twenty-five years from now.
Retell a fairytale of your choosing with one of the following concepts as its
central theme:
– “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgment that something else is
more important than that fear.” -- Ambrose Redmoon
– “A setback is preparation for a comeback.”
– “The one who never makes mistakes takes his orders from one who does.”
Unique Summarization Formats/Products
• A comic strip about the mantissa (the decimal-fraction part of a
logarithm)
• A mysterious yet accurate archeological map concerning the quadratic
formula
• A field guide to the asymptotes of a hyperbola (the diagonals of the
rectangle formed by the lines x= a, x= —a, y= b and y= -b in the
hyperbola: x squared over a squared – y squared over b squared)
• A coloring book about Amendments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 to the Constitution
• A rap song that expresses the order of Presidential succession
• A grocery list for Taiga biomes
• A mural that accurately expresses the “checks and balances” nature of
our Federal government’s three branches: judicial, legislative, and
executive
• A sculpture or mobile that teaches observers about latitude and
longitude
• A pop-up book on liquid and dry measures
Endless List of Writing Possibilities – Please Add Your Own!
Correspondence
Books
Newspapers
Commercials
Science Fiction
Poetry
How-to Books
Field Guides
Bulletin Boards
Murals
Annotated Catalogs
Games
Folktales/legends/myths
Book/Movie Critiques
Weather forecasts
Satire/spoofs
CD covers
Sermons
Lab instructions
Pamphlets
Museum Map and Tour Guides
Magazines
Scripts
Picture Books
Mystery Stories
Autobiographies/Biographies
Alphabet books
Mini-textbooks
Choose-Your-0wn Adventures
Coloring Books
Travel Brochures
Recipes
Information Reports
Wills
Wanted posters
Speeches
Soap operas
Sequels/prequels
Protest letters
Flipbooks
Oral Histories
Radio Plays
Historical Fiction
Journal/Diaries
Romances
Animal Stories
Pop-up Books
Friendly Letters
Timelines
Calendars
Manuals
Personal narratives
Persuasive essays
Yellow pages
Vitas/resumes
Songs/raps
Slogans
Schedules
Post cards
Odes
Requiems
Travel posters
Interviews
Scary stories
Surveys
Menus
Indexes
Graffiti
Contracts
Definitions
Fortunes
Certificates
Bumper stickers
Codes
True or False Book
Almanac
Rebuttals
Movie posters
Telegrams
Quizzes/tests
Monologues
Metaphors
Headlines
Comic strips
Conversations
Epilogues
Comparisons
Cereal boxes
Advice columns
Informal/formal observation
Cookbook
Inauguration speech
Play programs
Thank yous
Sports accounts
Rubrics
Jokes/riddles
Job applications
Grocery lists
Constitutions
Spreadsheets
Evaluations
Character sketches
Captions
Epithets
musical score
Wedding vows
Annotated Family
Tree
R.A.F.T.S.
R = Role, A = Audience, F = Form, T = Time or Topic, S = Strong
adverb or adjective
Students take on a role, work for a specific audience, use a particular form
to express the content, and do it within a time reference, such as preCivil War, 2025, or ancient Greece.
Sample assignment chosen by a student:
A candidate for the Green Party (role), trying to convince election board
members (audience) to let him be in a national debate with Democrats
and the Republicans. The student writes a speech (form) to give to the
Board during the Presidential election in 2004 (time). Within this
assignment, students use arguments and information from this past
election with third party concerns, as well as their knowledge of the
election and debate process. Another student could be given a RAFT
assignment in the same manner, but this time the student is a member
of the election board who has just listened to the first student’s speech.
R.A.F.T.S.
Raise the complexity: Choose items for each
category that are farther away from a natural fit
for the topic . Example: When writing about Civil
War Reconstruction, choices include a rap artist, a
scientist from the future, and Captain Nemo.
Lower the complexity: Choose items for each
category that are closer to a natural fit for the
topic. Example: When writing about Civil War
Reconstruction, choices include a member of the
Freedmen’s Bureau, a southern colonel returning
home to his burned plantation, and a northern
business owner
Change the Verb
Instead of asking students to describe
how FDR handled the economy during the
Depression, ask them to rank four given
economic principles in order of importance
as they imagine FDR would rank them, then
ask them how President Hoover who
preceded FDR would have ranked those same
principles differently.
Analyze…
Revise…
Decide between…
Why did…
Defend…
Devise…
Identify…
Classify…
Define…
Compose…
Interpret…
Expand…
Develop…
Suppose…
Imagine…
Construct…
Rank…
Argue against…
Argue for…
Contrast…
Develop…
Plan…
Critique…
Rank…
Organize…
Interview…
Predict…
Categorize…
Invent…
Recommend…
Backwards Summaries
• “Make the web from which this paragraph came.”
• “Here’s the completed math solution. What would happen if
I had never considered the absolute value of x?”
• “Here’s the final French translation of this sentence. What if
I had not checked the tense of each verb?”
• “Here’s a well done concerto. What happens if I remove the
oboe’s eight measures on page 4?”
• “Here’s a well-done lab procedure. What happens if I don’t
use distilled water?”
Save the Last Word for Me
• Students read the passage, making notations as they go.
• They identify three or more sentences to which they have a response.
• Place students in groups of 3 to 5, then ask one member of each group to
read a line that he has identified. He reads only; there is no commentary
or reason for choosing it given.
• Each group member other than the reading person responds to that one
line – agreeing, refuting, supporting, clarifying, commenting, or
questioning.
• After everyone else has had a chance to make a personal response to the
statement, the originator of the line gets to offer his or her commentary
– “getting the last word” on the topic.
• When this round of discussion is done, the next person in the circle calls
out his chosen line from the text, and everyone responds to the line
before this second person offers his commentary. So it goes with each
member of the group.
Change the Point of View
• Tell the story of digestion from the points of view of the
bolus passing down the esophagus, the villi in the small
intestine that have capillaries receiving and carrying
nutrients to the bloodstream, or a muscle in the body that
finally receives the nutrients from the food ingested earlier.
• Re-tell an historical incident from a biased participant’s point
of view.
• Reveal the truth behind a pronoun being a subject or an
object based on which one did the action and which one
received the action.
• Re-tell the account of a scientific, mathematical, or
manufacturing process, a moment in history, a chemical’s
reaction, a concerto’s performance, or a comma’s position in
a sentence.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Summary Cubes
These are Posterboard cubes with each side emphasizing one level of Bloom’s
Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking Skills.
Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Recall – Students cite content they remember.
Comprehension – Students demonstrate whether or not they understand
a topic.
Application – Students use knowledge and skills in a different situation.
Analysis – Students break down topics into component pieces and
analyze them in context of the whole.
Synthesis – Students bring together seemingly contradictory aspects or
topics and form something new.
Evaluation -- Students use all the other levels to judge the validity,
success, or value of something, given specific criteria.
The Frayer Model
[Frayer, Frederick, Klausmeier, 1969]
Essential
Characteristics
Non- Essential
Characteristics
< Topic >
Examples
Nonexamples
“Word Link”
1. Each student gets a word.
2. In partners, students share the link(s)
between their individual words.
3. Partner team joins another partner team,
forming a “word cluster.”
4. All four students identify the links among
their words and share those links with the
class.
-- Yopp, Ruth Helen. “Word Links: A Strategy for Developing Word
Knowledge,” Voices in the Middle, Vol. 15, Number 1, September 2007,
National Council Teachers of English
Summarization Pyramid
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_________________________
______________________________
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Great prompts for each line: Synonym, analogy,
question, three attributes, alternative title, causes,
effects, reasons, arguments, ingredients, opinion,
larger category, formula/sequence, insight, tools,
misinterpretation, sample, people, future of the
topic
One-Word Summaries
“The new government regulations for the meatpacking industry in the 1920’s could be seen as an
opportunity…,”
“Picasso’s work is actually an argument for….,”
“NASA’s battle with Rockwell industries over the
warnings about frozen temperatures and the O-rings
on the space shuttle were trench warfare….”
Basic Idea: Argue for or against the word as a good
description for the topic.
Exclusion Brainstorming
The student identifies the word/concept that does not
belong with the others, then either orally or in writing
explains his reasoning:
• Mixtures – plural, separable, dissolves, no formula
• Compounds – chemically combined, new properties, has
formula, no composition
• Solutions – heterogeneous mixture, dissolved particles,
saturated and unsaturated, heat increases
• Suspensions – clear, no dissolving, settles upon standing,
larger than molecules
Premise:
There is not any
curriculum so symbolic
or abstract that we
cannot “physicalize” it
for better student
learning.
Physicalizing Process:
• Identify essential components, pieces, or definition
of whatever we’re teaching
• Physicalize those pieces and present them to the
class.
• Class critiques the physicalization in terms of
accuracy, comprehensiveness, appropriateness, and
clarity. ‘Makes suggestions for improvement.
All three steps are learning experiences that help
students internalize the knowledge.
Statues (Body Sculpture)
Students work in small groups
using every groupmember’s body
to symbolically portray concepts
in frozen tableau.
Where does the learning occur?
Line-up
• Groups of students line up according to criteria.
Each student holds an index card identifying what
he or she is portraying.
• Students discuss everyone’s position with one
another -- posing questions, disagreeing, and
explaining rationales.
Line-up
Students can line-up according to:
chronology, sequences in math problems, components
of an essay, equations, sentences, verb tense,
scientific process/cycle, patterns: alternating,
category/example, increasing/decreasing degree,
chromatic scale, sequence of events, cause/effect,
components of a larger topic, opposites, synonyms
Summary Ball
Provide a soft, tossable item (beach ball, nerf
object, stuffed fish, hacky-sack, bag of eyeballs).
Ask students to state one thing they remember
from the lesson then toss the object to someone
else in the room. If student doesn’t respond within
three seconds, he tosses the object then sits down.
Human Bingo
[ Squares filled in with specific skills from the lesson or unit. ]
Free
Space
Human Bingo
• Give the students ten minutes to get classmates’ signatures on squares.
They may sign only if they can do, solve, or respond to the prompt
correctly. They will have to prove it later. Classmates may sign only one
square per card.
• Once all squares are filled with signatures, call names of students out of
a hat or box. Students place edible markers (sunflower seeds, M&M’s,
pieces of popcorn or vegetables) on the squares with the identified
students’ names. on it.
• The first student to get five in a row hollers, “Human Bingo!”
• Ask winning student to name each square’s prompt and the classmate
who signed it. As students’ names are called, students must
demonstrate their accurate responses. The rest of the class watches
carefully to make sure there are no errors. If all five students
demonstrate everything successfully, it’s a “Human Bingo.” Students get
to eat their makers as they clear their boards for the next game. If one
or more of the five students in the row does not demonstrate an
accurate response, then there is no bingo awarded, and the game
continues.
Knows 2 products of photo-synthesis
Personal Pronoun, 3rd pers., objectv., plural
Knows formula for area of a triangle
Can list 3 differences between WWI and WWII
Can solve: 2/3 - 1 4/5
Knows 3 conflicts in No Promises in the Wind
Knows 3 basic passes in basketball
Knows the differences between squid and octopus
Can perform “--------- .”
Can demonstrate titration
Knows the capitals of countries in South America
Free Space (student write his own name here)
Knows 5 things to consider when making difficult decisions
Can draw the sequence of energy transfer in ecosystems
Can make into a polynomial: (x+1)(x+3)
Can perform three approved gymnastic moves
Knows the difference between meiosis and mitosis
Can name 24 bones with the proper terms
Can make a strange noise with his or her body
Can define: “-----------.”
Can import a picture from Internet and insert it into a report
Can sing part of any song by CCR
Knows what comes next: J, F, M, A, M, ?
Sample Skills for
Human Bingo Card
Human Continuum
A
D
Human Continuum
Use a human continuum. Place a long strip of
masking tape across the middle of the floor, with
an "Agree" or “Yes” taped at one end, and
"Disagree" or “No” at the other end. Put a notch
in the middle for those unwilling to commit to
either side. Read statements about the day’s
concepts aloud while students literally stand
where they believe along the continuum. Be
pushy – ask students to defend their positions.
Microscope
$10,000
Stage
$2,500
Ellis
Island
Fractions
$2,500
Railroads
$5,000
Lunch
$2,500
The
$2,500
Cell
$25,000 Pyramid
‘Played just like the game show in which one
player lists objects in a category and the other
player guesses the category. How many
categories can you get in 1 minute?
Adjust time and number of categories according
to students’ needs.
Pictionary
Taboo Cards
Photosynthesis
Light
Green
Water
Sun
Chlorophyll
Plant
Produce
Share One, Get One
We think primarily in physical terms. Over time
we become adept at translating symbolic and
abstract concepts into meaningful structures or
experiences.
Have Some Fun – Anything Can Be A Metaphor!
An apple
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a star (the birth place of energy on our planet) in the middle (the seed pattern
makes a star if we cut it the right way)
we must break the surface to get to the juicy good parts
the outside doesn’t reveal what lies inside
the apple becomes soft and mushy over time
the apple can be tart or sweet depending on its family background
its parts are used to create multiple products
A cell phone
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lifeline to the larger world
an unapologetic taskmaster
an unfortunate choice of gods
a rude child that interrupts just when he shouldn’t
a rite of passage
a declaration of independence
a secret language encoder (text messaging abbreviations unknown to adults)
delineation of generations
A pencil sharpener
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Whittler of pulp
Tool diminisher
Mouth of a sawdust monster
Eater of brain translators
Cranking something to precision
Writing re-energizer
Scantron test enabler
Curtains
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Wall between fantasy and reality
Denied secrets
Anticipation
Arbiter of suspense
Making a house a home
Vacuum cleaner antagonist
Cat’s “Jungle Gym”
Railroad
• Circulatory system of the country
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Enforcer of Manifest Destiny
Iron monster
Unforgiving mistress to a hobo
Lifeline
Economic renewal
Relentless beast
Mechanical blight
Movie set
A foreshadow of things to come
A hearkening to the past
______________________ is (are) a _________________
because _______________________________________.
Ask students to include something intangible, such as
suspicion or an odyssey, in the first blank. The tangible
comparison---a combination lock or an elliptical trainer--would fit in the second section.
Ask students to justify their choices:
“Suspicion is a combination lock because it secures a
possession’s well-being that cannot be assured through trust
alone. Odyssey is an elliptical trainer because it has a beginning,
middle, and end, and along the way, we encounter moments of
endurance, doubt, despair, and elation, leaving comfort and
returning again.”
Metaphors Break Down
“You can’t think of feudalism as a ladder because you
can climb up a ladder. The feudal structure is more like
sedimentary rock: what’s on the bottom will always be on
the bottom unless some cataclysmic event occurs.”
-- Amy Benjamin, Writing in the Content Areas, p. 80
“A classroom is like a beehive.” Where does the simile sink?
• Students are not bees.
• Students have a variety of readiness levels and skill sets for completing
tasks. Bees are more uniform.
• Students don’t respond blindly or purely to the pheromones of the
queen bee.
• Students are busier throughout the day and night than bees.
• Students don’t swarm when angered.
Descriptions With and Without Metaphors
Friendship
Infinity
Solving for a variable
Euphoria
Worry
Obstructionist Judiciary
Immigration
Balance
Economic Principles
Poetic License
Heuristics
Embarrassment
Family
Imperialism
Trust
Mercy
Trouble
Honor
Homeostasis
Temporal Rifts
Religious fervor
Semantics
Tautology
Knowledge
Common Analogous Relationships
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Antonyms
Synonyms
Age
Time
Part : Whole
Whole : Part
Tool : Its Action
Tool user : Tool
Tool : Object It’s Used With
Worker: product he creates
Category : Example
Effect : Cause
Cause : Effect
Increasing Intensity
Decreasing Intensity
Person : closely related
adjective
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Person : least related adjective
Math relationship
Effect : cause
Action : Thing Acted Upon
Action : Subject Performing the Action
Object or Place : Its User
Object : specific attribute of the object
Male : Female
Symbol : what it means
Classification/category : example
Noun : Closely Related Adjective
Elements Used : Product created
Attribute : person or object
Object : Where it’s located
Lack (such as drought/water – one thing lacks
the other)
Synectics
(William J. Gordon)
“The joining together of different and apparently
irrelevant elements,” or put more simply, “Making
the familiar strange.”
1. Teach a topic to students.
2. Ask students to describe the topic, focusing on descriptive
words and critical attributes.
3. Teacher identifies an unrelated category to compare to the
descriptions in #2. (Think of a sport that reminds you of
these words. Explain why you chose that sport.) Students
can choose the category, too.
4. Students write or express the analogy between the two: The
endocrine system is like playing zones in basketball. Each
player or gland is responsible for his area of the game.
4-Square Synectics
1. Brainstorm four objects from a particular category
(examples: kitchen appliances, household items, the circus,
forests, shopping malls).
2. In small groups, brainstorm what part of today’s learning is
similar in some way to the objects listed.
3. Create four analogies, one for each object.
Example: How is the human digestive system like each
household item: sink, old carpet, microwave, broom
Example: How is the Pythagorean Theorem like each musical
instrument: piano, drum set, electric guitar, trumpet?
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas
Check out NCTE’s ReadWriteThink.org Web site!
• Allen, Janet. Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent
Reading 4-12, Stenhouse Publishers, 2000
• Allen, Janet. Words, Words, Words: Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12,
Stenhouse Publishers, 1999
• Allen, Janet. Tools for Teaching Content Literacy (flipbook), Stenhouse,
2004
• Billmeyer, Rachel, Ph.D.; Barton, Mary Lee. Teaching Reading in the
Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who? 2nd Edition McREL (Mid-continent
Research for Education and Learning, 1998
• Barton, Mary Lee; Heidema, Clare. Teaching Reading in Mathematics,
ASCD, McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, 2000
(Also distributed by ASCD)
• Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do, Heinemann,
2003
• Beers, Kylene and Samuels, Barabara G. (1998) Into Focus: Understanding
and Creating Middle School Readers. Norwood, Massachusetts:
Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas
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Buehl, Doug. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning (second Edition) (2001)
Newark, Delaware, International Reading Association, Inc.
Burke, Jim. Illuminating Texts: How to Teach Students to Read the World,
Heinemann, 2001
Burkhardt, Ross M. Writing for Real: Strategies for Engaging Adolescent Writers,
Stenhouse Publishers, 2003
Frender, Gloria. Learning to Learn: Strengthening Study Skills and Brain Power,
Incentive Publications, Inc., 1990
Forsten, Char; Grant, Jim; Hollas, Betty. Differentiated Instruction: Different
Strategies for Different Learners, Crystal Springs Books, 2001 [This is great for K-8]
Forsten, Char: Grant, Jim; Hollas, Betty. Differentiating Textbooks: Strategies to
Improve Student Comprehension and Motivation, Crystal Springs Books
Glynn, Carol. Learning on their Feet: A Sourcebook for Kinesthetic Learning Across
the Curriculum, Discover Writing Press, 2001
Harvey, Stephanie (1998) Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in
Grades 3 – 8. Portsmouth,Maine: Stenhouse Publishers
Harvey, Stephanie; Goudvis, Anne. Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension
to Enhance Understanding, Stenhouse Publishers, 2000
Hyerle, David. A Field Guide to Visual Tools, ASCD, 2000
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas
• Marzano, Robert J.; Pickering, Debra J.; Pollock, Jane E. Classroom
Instruction that Works: Research-based Strategies for Increasing Student
Achievement, ASCD, 2001
• Robb, Laura. Teaching Reading in Middle School. Scholastic, 2000
• Robb, Laura (editor). Reader’s Handbook, Great Source Education Group,
Houghtoun-Mifflin (Same group that does Write Source 2000 and Writer’s,
Inc.)
• Sousa, Dr. David A. How the Brain Learns. Corwin Press, 2002
• Spandel, Vicki; Stiggins, Richard J. Creating Writers: Linking Writing
Assessment and Instruction, Longman Publishers, 1997
• Stephens, Elaine C. and Brown, Jean E. (2000) A Handbook of Content
Literacy Strategies: 75 Practical Reading and Writing Ideas. Norwood,
Massachusetts: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.
• Strong, Richard W.; Silver, Harvey F.; Perini, Matthew J.; Tuculescu, Gregory
M. Reading for Academic Success: Powerful Strategies for Struggling,
Average, and Advanced Readers, Grades 7-12, Corwin Press, 2002
Highly Recommended for Summarization Ideas
• Tovani, Cris. I Read It, But I Don’t Get It. Stenhouse Publishers,
2001
• Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content
Comprehension Grades 6-12, Stenhouse, 2004
• Vacca, R. and Vacca J. (1999) Content Area Reading: Literacy
and Learning Across the Curriculum. 6th ed. New York:
Longman
• Wood, Karen D.; Harmon, Janis M. Strategies for Integrating
Reading and Writing in Middle and High School Classrooms,
National Middle School Association, 2001
• Wormeli, Rick. Summarization in any Subject, ASCD, 2005
• Wormeli, Rick. Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for
Teaching any Subject, Stenhouse, 2009
• Zinsser, William. Writing to Learn (1988)New York: Harper and
Row Publishers
Where do we go from today?
3 X 3 X 3!
-- 3 Strategies/Principles/Aspects that
will be in your thinking in the
next three to four weeks
-- 3 Topics/Skills you want to pursue in
more depth
-- 3 Steps you will take to pursue those
three topics