Ep 68: Synthesizing Made Easy: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Hey, teachers, if you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Rachael, and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers who want actionable tips, simple strategies, and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go.
Hey there! Welcome to another episode of The Classroom Commute Podcast, I'm really excited about this episode because we are finally going to wrap up our series on Reading Comprehension Strategies. Beginning way back in the fall, I started this series because I know that teaching reading comprehension can be a beast of its own and that it really takes being intentional and planning ahead so that you can present to your students these reading comprehension strategies in a way that makes sense for them and gives them tons of practice that they can actually apply these strategies in real life, real reading situations. I wanted to take the time over the last few months on the podcast to really break it down, dive deep and give teachers the foundations, the tools, and the strategies to teach these strategy to their students. That's what we've done here over the past few months and this week we're wrapping it up with the final strategy on teaching students to synthesize. This is a really tough one that a lot of students struggle with. It's probably why I saved it for the last, because when you teach students to synthesize, they are going to draw upon all those other reading comprehension strategies that they've been using along the way to put them together to synthesize. Although I would model how to synthesize throughout the school year, it was one of the strategies that I would wait till the end to really dive deep into because it requires that higher level thinking.
Before we get into the nitty gritty on how to teach your students to synthesize, I wanted to make sure that if you are joining us for the first time here on The Classroom Commute Podcast that you go back to the other episodes that I've done on this series. I started way back in Episode 41, where I gave you my philosophy and my approach to teaching reading comprehension strategies as a whole. That's an episode that you're going to want to listen to first because it really sets the stage for how I teach the reading comprehension strategies individually as well. Episode 41, all about my philosophy around reading comprehension strategies. Then we'll take the strategies one by one. We began with How to Teach Making Connections in Episode 42, How to Teach Visualizing in Episode 47. We talked about How to Make Predictions in Episode 51, How to Ask Questions in 56 and in Episode 59, we talked about Determining Importance and a few weeks ago in Episode 64, we talked about How to Make Inferences. We've covered all the reading strategies and today we're going to wrap it up and tie it with a nice little bow on top as we talk about how to teach students to make a Synthesis. Let's dive right in.
Synthesizing, like I mentioned, is one of the most challenging reading strategies for students to master simply because it does require students to use multiple skills and multiple strategies together. In fact, the prefix 'syn' means 'together' and synthesizing a text is processing and pulling together background information, newly learned ideas, connections, inferences, and summaries all together into a complete and original understanding of the text. When students synthesize, they are made aware of how their thinking changes and evolves as they read a text. It's important that we teach our students to synthesize because it will give them that full understanding, but because it does require so much of them, it is the most challenging one to teach. If we want them to do more than just provide a retelling of the story, we have to teach them to synthesize. In doing so, they are going to internalize it. They're going to grow and change as thinkers because of the texts that they read. It's a tall order to teach students how to synthesize so let me break it down for you and give you the step by step guidance that you need to get started.
Here's what I think you need to know before you teach synthesizing as a reading strategy. Actually before we talk about what synthesizing is and how to do it, I want to first begin with what synthesizing is NOT. Synthesizing is not a summary, it's not the same as a summary. A synthesis can include parts of a summary or retelling of a text, but that's not where it stops. Synthesizing requires the reader to take that summary or that partial retelling and add in their own thoughts, their own experiences, opinions, interpretations, and connections to generate new and bigger ideas. It goes beyond the text. Even more, a true synthesis can blend and integrate ideas from across multiple texts in order to form these big new ideas. Synthesizing is an ongoing process that builds and grows as a reader gets deeper into the text. Debbie Miller, who I love and have learned so much from her books, she's the author of Reading With Meaning. It's a great read and I will link to that book in the show notes if you haven't read it yet. In her book, she compares synthesizing to dropping a pebble into an area of calm water. I want you to visualize this with me. When you first drop that pebble in the water, that represents your initial thinking as you begin. The pebble is small because usually when we enter a text, we just have a small amount of information of what we know. Maybe about the author or the topic that we're reading about, however, as we read, our thinking grows and expands, just like as you drop that pebble in, it creates that ripple and the ripple gets bigger and grows bigger and bigger. By the time the ripples eventually fade out, it's this really large circle that has formed initially from that small drop of the pebble. It's a great analogy for how our thinking grows as we read and synthesize. As we read, we collect information, we form new thoughts, we get new ideas, and each new thought expands from the previous thought. Just like that ripple expands from the previous ripple. When we reach the end of the book, we're left with our final thought, which is a collection of everything that we've learned, put together, and intertwined together. That final thought has been informed and influenced by all that we have read and previously read in other texts. That's true synthesizing.
To be more clear, experts agree that there are three types of synthesis that students can make. First, a synthesis can form a new understanding, something the reader has not considered before until reading the text. Second, a synthesis can form a deeper understanding, becoming more aware or appreciative of an idea after reading a text. Third, a changed understanding. Where the reader thinks completely different as a result of the text. We've got the three types of synthesis. One, a synthesis that forms a new understanding of something or two, a deeper understanding, or three, a changed understanding. I'll link to some additional resources that you can look at to get a better understanding of those three types of synthesis.
When we think about forming a synthesis as it relates to fictional text, readers are going to synthesize new deepened or changed understandings about the characters and the events in the books. In nonfiction, a reader's synthesis is often the understanding that we develop when we study a topic through multiple books. articles, and multimedia resources. We put everything together that we've learned about the topic into a complete synthesis. For example, when we ask students to complete a research project on animals or biomes or whatever, we are asking them to synthesize the information that they have learned from multiple sources in order to form that complete understanding. No matter the genre, synthesis are strongest when they're supported with textual evidence. We want students to be able to point out the details from the text that help them form that knew that deepened or changed understanding. There is a lot to think about when it comes to what a synthesis is and what it is not.
All right, if you've got that understanding in your mind and you're thinking about teaching this, let's now shift into how to introduce synthesizing with your students. As you introduce the concept of synthesizing, consider some concrete examples that you can provide to your students. If you've been with me through this whole series, you know that I feel as though the best approach to introducing reading comprehension strategies to your students is to start with the concrete before moving into the abstract. Comparing a synthesis to ripple's formed by a pebble is a really solid example and something that students can visualize in their minds. This analogy helps students to understand that a synthesis is about how our thinking grows and changes over time. The ripple image is that visual reminder for students that our thinking starts small, just like when you first drop that pebble in and it grows over the course of a text, just as the ripples get wider and wider and wider. One ripple has stemmed from the other. As you begin your discussion on synthesizing with your students, have them imagine what it looks like to see that pebble drop into the water. If you can, draw an illustration or show a picture of it somewhere for students to visualize and see for themselves. As you're explaining how a pebble and its ripples relate to synthesizing, you can help your students to understand that just like the growing ripples, our thinking grows as we read. We first begin reading, we have that initial thought about what the book will be about, what we will learn, or we establish our first impressions about characters and events. As we continue reading, our thinking is going to evolve. It's going to change. It's going to grow. As we learn new information just like that ripple, our understanding becomes greater as well. I love this initial analogy. I think it's something that students can really grab onto. Once you've given your students that concrete example, then you can move into modeling this through different read aloud texts. Of course, you're going to want to choose books that have rich content and will go beyond that surface level thinking. A great place to start is to use fables. They're great when you're just starting out since they are short, but they have a lesson to be learned that isn't revealed till the end. Students are going to have to read and uncover that moral of the story as their thinking changes, develops, and evolves. You can create an anchor chart using that ripple visual. I'll include a picture of what mine looks like. You can use phrases like, 'At first I was thinking' and 'Now I'm thinking, 'Oh, now I'm getting it'. or 'So this is what it's really about'. Finally, that last ripple could say something like 'After reading, I think'. Again, I'll have an image of what this looks like using my image, and maybe you can create an anchor chart that mimics that exact same image. Writing these phrases on the ripples themselves helps to illustrate how our thinking and understanding grows as we read.
Speaker1:
Perhaps you are familiar with Aesop's Fable, The Lion and the Mouse. It's the story about a lion who catches a mouse. The mouse cries out, "Please save me, save me. Someday I'll be able to repay you". The lion does let him go and then down the line, the lion gets caught in a hunter's net and the mouse is able to chew the lion free. It just proves that even the tiniest little mouse can help a big, powerful creature like a lion. It also teaches the lesson that kindness can go a long way and it can come back to serve you as well. If you use the ripple image with this story to help illustrate synthesizing. That first initial drop, you might write something like 'At first I was thinking this was a book about a lion who was going to eat a mouse'. Then that next ripple comes on as they've learned a little bit more about the story. Now you might be saying 'Now I'm thinking that this book is about how a mouse got lucky since the lion let him go'. Then that final ripple comes out and you might write something like 'After reading, I think this is a story about how anyone can make a difference and be kind no matter their size'. It starts out with this surface level thinking. Then it moves into just a little bit more understanding about what the story is about. Then it ends with that greater understanding, the moral of the story. I love these Aesop's Fables because they're short but they include a lot of information in a short text that can really help you model this strategy with your students.
You know, after you've done one of these with your students or a couple of these with your students, you might assign a group of students another Aesop fable to work on together as a class and use that ripple graphic organizer that you've created on your chart to work together as a group and record their thinking in their synthesis as well, just like you did. I'll link to the Aesop's Fables in my show notes over classroomnook.com/podcast/68 if you want to provide them for your students. After you practice a few times with some shorter fables, then you can move into longer texts. You might need more than three lines or four lines of your ripple graphic organizer to help students fully show how they're synthesizing the text. You can modify that as you go. I love the initial analogy of the ripple to help students to grasp the idea of synthesizing.
I also think it's important to provide additional concrete examples for students because everybody thinks a little differently and you never know what concrete example is going to finally make it click for students. Here's just a few more examples and some concrete analogies that you can give your students to help understand what synthesizing is. The first one is Russian nesting dolls. Have you ever seen those? I used to have a set growing up that my mom got when she visited Russia. Essentially, it starts with a tiny little baby Russian doll. It's a little wooden doll that fits inside a larger wooden doll. Then that one fits inside and then that one fits inside and eventually they all fit inside and the dolls get bigger as you go. It's like the dolls get bigger as you go and they fit inside each other. That's how our thinking is when we synthesize, we build upon our thoughts and they're all part of this grand thought that we come out with at the end. Another analogy can be the caterpillar morphing into a butterfly. The text is the caterpillar and it comes out as a butterfly. In other words, our thinking goes through many changes, just like a caterpillar does. When we come out of the text, we come out with a new understanding, just like a butterfly is new. Then a third example that you could give your students is comparing synthesizing to baking a cake. You begin with the cake mix, a.k.a. the text, you add ingredients like eggs, oil, and water, which represent our thoughts, our opinions, experiences, and previous knowledge. Then it form something new, it forms that cake. As it relates to our reading, it forms that synthesis. You've got your ripple example, the Russian nesting dolls, the caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, and baking a cake. All those concrete examples are going to give your students a lot of different ways to think about what synthesizing is. As you teach your students to practice synthesizing a text, provide these simple reminders to help keep this reading strategy top of mind.
With those examples, you also want to provide lots of visual reminders as well. And so, just like with the other reading strategies, I've put together a bookmark that I would give my students that would have the same types of things that we've been talking about in our mini lessons. It would have that same visual, in my case, it had that ripple visual on the bookmark. Students would have that bookmark in front of them to refer to. Again, keep that reading strategy top of mind when they're reading to remind them to make a synthesis as they're reading. If you want to get your hands on that free bookmark, just head over to the show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/68. You'll see a place where you can grab that bookmark for free over in our Member's Resource Library and of course you can grab all the other bookmarks that I have put in that in the resource library as well for all the other reading strategies.
Speaker1:
As I mentioned earlier, one of the roadblocks that you're going to come across as you're introducing this strategy with your students is that they are going to confuse synthesizing and making a summary. It's going to be very important that you are intentional about teaching the difference between the two and share with them how they're related, but they're not the same. I find that having a T chart that shows the difference between the two side by side will help students to distinguish between creating a summary and creating a synthesis. As you read multiple texts, you can model both summaries of the texts that you're reading and a synthesis of what you're reading of the same book so that students can see the difference. My T chart looks something like this. On the summary side, I put the definition of a summary as recalling the author's most important ideas from the text in order. They're telling, retelling, restating, paraphrasing what the author has told them in order. Whereas on the synthesis side, I put the definition that synthesizing is a reader's ongoing, ever changing understanding of the text. We use words like evolves, changes, integrates, and combines as opposed to retelling and restating. Whereas in a summary, readers are going to gather the most important pieces of the information from the text. In a synthesis, readers increase their knowledge by taking that information and forming new, deeper and changed understandings of that idea. In a summary, readers only use information in the text to form their summaries, whereas in a synthesis, readers go beyond the text, beyond what the author has told them to form their synthesis. In summaries, readers are only going to tell the most important information in the order that they appear, whereas in a synthesis they're going to pull out information from multiple texts, if we're talking about nonfiction, to pull together into one final synthesis. I find that having those distinctions side by side on a T chart is really helpful for students to see the difference between a summary and a synthesis. Again, this is probably going to be your most common struggle with students. When you ask for a synthesis, at first you're going to get lots of summaries so make sure that you are constantly bringing your students attention back to the differences. I will include my T chart over in the show notes for you to see so that you can create one for yourself and put it up in your classroom for that assistance to help teach your students the difference between the two.
All right. I know that this is a beefy strategy. There's a lot to think about, a lot of moving parts. Let me just give you that 60 second recap of how to go through teaching this reading strategy with your students. We're first going to start with some concrete examples that we can give our students. I love the ripple image that we can give to our students where we think about how our first initial thought is that first initial drop of a pebble into the water. Then as we read, our thinking grows and grows and grows just like that ripple continues to grow and expand. We want to teach our students that are reading and our thinking builds upon what we've already read and what we've already learned. You can also use analogies like the Russian nesting dolls, the caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, or the baking a cake to give your students all sorts of concrete examples of what it means to synthesize. As you're teaching the strategy to your students, you're going to be prepared for them to give you summaries instead of a synthesis. You're going to have to intentionally and repeatedly teach the differences between a summary and a synthesis. Like I mentioned, I have a T chart over at the show notes that you can look at that. You can then recreate a chart for your own students to refer to, to keep the differences between a summary and a synthesis. As you're going through this strategy with your students and as you model it, you're going to give them both. You're going to give them summaries of the books that you're reading, and you're also going to give them a synthesis so that they can see how they differ and see how they look different on paper or on chart paper or however you're going to present it to your students. I mentioned that using Aesop's Fables is a great way to start because they're short bite sized pieces of literature that you can give to your students to digest this strategy. See how it works from start to finish in a shorter text before you move on to larger and longer texts where they're going to have to carry their synthesis across multiple pages and even have multiple sources and texts that you're reading together as a class. Start there and then build upon that. Of course, I always love to give you some resources to help make teaching the strategy even easier so make sure you grab that free bookmark over at the show notes to give your students to use while they're reading so that they have that visual right in front of them and that definition to help remind them what they're supposed to be doing while they're reading.
I have a forming a synthesis LINKtivity that gives students even more support through video, audio, and visuals to help them fully understand the strategy. It makes a great reading center, it also makes a great activity for students to complete at home because it's a digital learning guide. It's easy to do both in class and at home. If you are unfamiliar with my reading strategy LINKtivity series, I will link to it over the show notes. You can get the one for the synthesis strategy as well as all the other reading strategies. It makes a really nice and consistent way to introduce and present these reading strategies to your students.
My goodness, in the last few months we have covered so much about teaching reading comprehension strategies. I wanted to take up this much time and space here on the podcast to cover them in such in-depth episodes because comprehension is at the core of our reading. If we don't comprehend, there's no point of reading at all. We want to make sure that we are embedding this instruction into everything that we're doing when it comes to reading with our students, because it's the comprehension that's going to make the learning stick. If we can get this right and we can get our students to use these strategies, we are going to see leaps and bounds in their reading over the course of a school year. I hope that you've enjoyed this series. Again, go back and listen to some of the other episodes. Even if you already listen to them, now that you have all 7 strategies laid out before you, it might be helpful to go back and listen to them one by one and just absorb all that information one more time. Make sure you head over to the show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/68 because I've got a lot of goodies for you. I have that free bookmark, I have the anchor chart examples and the visuals that you can use in your own classroom to help teach this strategy. Lots of good things over at the show notes including all of the links back to the other episodes in this series so make sure you check it out over there.
Lastly, if you are loving this podcast and you come back week after week and I am a part of your ride into school, I would love it if you would just take a quick moment and leave a review over on iTunes. It's a great way to give that virtual high five that you're enjoying the podcast and the information that I'm sharing here with you. It also helps other teachers find their way to the podcast as well so if you have a moment, I would greatly appreciate it.
All right, that is all I have for you today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, a good start to your week. I will be back again next week with another episode. Bye for now.
Sonix has many features that you'd love including upload many different filetypes, powerful integrations and APIs, transcribe multiple languages, share transcripts, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.
