Summarizing Reflection Questions
Please respond to this question by elaborating on what we discussed in the large group.
How will you use what we have learned about summarizing in the first few weeks of school this year?
Then, respond to at least 1 of these questions:
1. As you consider this information, think back on your own learning experiences from elementary school through your present learning situations and evaluate your ability to summarize and take notes. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and try to conclude what effect your ability to engage in these processes has had on your learning.
2. To what extent were you taught how to summarize and take notes? If you had no instruction, consider how explicit instruction might have influenced your learning.
3. The summary frames provided in this chapter are often new to teachers, and they react with concern with the time it might take to teach students to use these frames. Try to explain why you think it might be worth taking class time to help students become proficient at using these frames or any frames that provide students with general organizational structures.
4. This chapter describes "summarizing" as a process of deleting, substituting, and keeping information. Although these three aspects of the process are easy to understand and model, students often find it difficult to summarize effectively. Describe some reasons you think that summarizing is such a challenge for students.
How will you use what we have learned about summarizing in the first few weeks of school this year?
Then, respond to at least 1 of these questions:
1. As you consider this information, think back on your own learning experiences from elementary school through your present learning situations and evaluate your ability to summarize and take notes. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and try to conclude what effect your ability to engage in these processes has had on your learning.
2. To what extent were you taught how to summarize and take notes? If you had no instruction, consider how explicit instruction might have influenced your learning.
3. The summary frames provided in this chapter are often new to teachers, and they react with concern with the time it might take to teach students to use these frames. Try to explain why you think it might be worth taking class time to help students become proficient at using these frames or any frames that provide students with general organizational structures.
4. This chapter describes "summarizing" as a process of deleting, substituting, and keeping information. Although these three aspects of the process are easy to understand and model, students often find it difficult to summarize effectively. Describe some reasons you think that summarizing is such a challenge for students.
posted by Laurie at 10:28 AM
21 Comments:
I will have my UA students summarize the course syllabus by listing which assignments are worth the MOST points. Hopefully, this will help them remember which assignments they need to spend the most time on.
Question 1--I learned to do this pretty well because I was one of those kids who could take notes and read a book on the sly at the same time in class (at least through middle school). My strengths were that I knew to write something down that teachers repeated, or that they wrote on the board or things that were in bold print in the book.
In college, one of my weaknesses was trying to write down everything the professor said instead of using the summarization skills I already knew.
I do not ever remember having been taught the skill of summarizing, but it may have been one of those skills that was taught and I just don't remember.
I think the ability to determine the important information from all that someone hears, reads, or sees is a critical skill. We live in the "information age" and cannot possibly retain all the information we encounter, so we need to be able both to determine what's important.
Jill
2.I was taught to summarize and take notes in elementary school. I improved this ability in high school and college. Degrees in history and English were much easier to obtain with the ability to summarize and take notes. I am excited about the possibility of teaching this to my students. Sherry
during my school years , i was briefly taught how to summarize and take notes. I do believe that if I had been taught how to summarize, my grades would have been better and I would have been more knowledgeable in the content areas. Understanding the material is very important and not being taught makes it harder to understand the instructional material. Jewel Hannah
I taught myself to summarize information while employed as the secretary of the Planning and Zoning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment at the City of Northport. Board members, the public, and media focus on essential facts when making and reporting zoning decisions. The demand for success and ability to produce effective work efficiently forced me to learn summarizing skills. Later, graduate school instructors taught me how to summarize information as a part of effective teaching and learning strategies. (Question 2)
Linda Johnson
Q:2 - I was never really taught to take notes; I just knew by instinct what was important for me. Notetaking was not as important in elementary school or my high school, I was really introduced to notetaking when I entered college. I learned then that it was mandatory in order to stay ahead in various classes. I still say that even then I knew what was important to remember when it came to referring back in order to pass certain tests. I was blessed with a good memory, so I had no problems summarizing anything I read. so I was never really taught any particular strategy by my teachers because they just knew your potentials and expounded on them as they taught.
Flora
Question #4
Summarizing is definately a challenge for students because they first have to read the material. Many times students are not motivated to read so they skim over the content instead of actually reading it.
I think students also have a hard time picking out the essential information. They are unwilling to leave any information out, therefore they end up either copying the material or paraphrasing.
T. Yates
#3 I do not remember being taught how to summarize and take notes in junior and high school. I developed my own method of doing it in high school and college. It is because of this reason that I believe it must be taught in the classroom. There is so much information in history that must be taught. All of that information is not important for a student to remember. It is important for students to read the material and determine the most important points to remember about a time period. These organizational skills will be with them the rest of their lives. Wanda Smelley
Question 2
I was not taught to summarize or take notes formally in school. I would get caught up in writing everything the teacher was saying and not be able to keep up with her. When I would get home I could not read my notes and when I refered back to the text or chapter nothing made sense. During college I learned to go home and rewrite my notes each day which I guess now is summarizing then I could understand my notes.
I would have enjoyed reading more it I could have used the narrative framing If I had a purpose to read. Understanding abtract content would have been easier if I knew what to look for in the textbook.
After today I feel that I can model summarizing to my students by using the framing questions on the book markers. Ginny
Question #4. I think that students have a hard time summarizing because they have never had the responsibility of thinking, making decisions, or drawing conclusions for themselves. Students depend on teachers to tell them all the important points/facts, and even test questions, so that they will not be incovenienced (maybe by giving up a video game) and actually have to think for themselves. Also, if a student has to summarize a story, article, or text page, then that means the student would actually have to read the text to summarize it. Teachers can start modeling techniques such as summarizing and empower students to use tools that can aid the students' own learning.
Polly Davis
question 4
I think students have a difficult time summarizing is because they try to finish the reading material too fast. If they do not take their time reading the article and retain what what is read, then they will have trouble summarizing
the article.
R. Hughes
Summarizing is challenging for the following reason:
Students often do not know what in the reading is important enough to summarize.
Students think that a lot is better so the try to include everything in the summary.
Students may not have comprehension skills to understand material and pick out important information.
They lack organizational skills.
Viv
In response to question 3, I really believe that it is worthwhile to teach students how to use the frames because we are giving them so much more than academic information in our specific subject area. We are equipping them to be successful across the curriculum and not just make them better science students but better students in general. These are strategies that they can take with them long after they leave us.
I always tell my special education students that we work so hard because I want them to no longer need me. I feel that these tools will help us reach that goal.
Rhonda Mack
question 1
Looking back on my developemental stage in school ,my ability to summarize well was key to leaving high school and being successful in college. I was able to convert 2-3 chapters into 2-3 pages of notes or one ice outline allowing for more free time . I learned how to focus key points ,topics,subtopics and key words in bold print. My greatest weakness in summarizing was often missing the main point because of no bold print and failing to identify the correct thesis or topic in paragraphs .JAGreene
Question4-- In my opinion summarizing is a challenge for students (especially middle school) because they have a hard time deciding what is "important". They haven't been coached in strategies and higher order thinking skills that allow them to judge what teachers deem as important information. It is hard to judge, in any content area, what the teacher thinks of as important information. It is easy for us to decide what is important because we know our content area, and honestly we can peek at the test itself! Modeling for our students in essestial in helping them to understand what it is that we are looking for on a more regular basis. Hopefully allowing them, through time, to be better judgers of what we deem as "important" information.
Carrie Jo Aldridge
3. I feel it is very important to take class time to teach summary frames because it provides students with a valuable, tangible tool that helps the students process,organize and remember the information presented. As a result of learning summary frames, the students becomes aware of exact expectatations and perform according.Summary frames provide clear and concise instructions of the expectations of an assignment therefore I feel it is extemely important to relay these summary frames to the students.
Rhonda McSorley
Bless my high school chemistry teachers' heart.........she made me not want to take another note! I recall writing pages and pages of information until my hand was temporarily deformed from the process. I am so excited that you are apart of our professional learning group and I hope you will gain insight as to how you can use the nine strategies (especially note taking) to enhance the learning environment for your students and hopefully none of you will be remembered in the way I remember my high school chemistry teacher.
Terri
4. Lack of interest is the main reason I feel students are having a diffuclt time with "summarizing"--- deleting, substituting, and keeping information. If we as teachers show the importance of this with our teaching, students will start to put summarizing and learning together. Then they will take the "time" it requires to develop and use this skill. P F
Question #2: Most of my formal training on how to summarize and take notes came through teacher modeling and trial and error. I can only remember recieving formal instruction on how to take notes in one or two classes in elemetary and secondary classrooms. My skills were primaryily learned from my own trial and error methods. It wasn't until I took a Intorductory Biology course, my second year in college, that I noticed that I advanced my understanding of the subject in different ways. The professor gave subject notes in a outline/lecture format. I would preform higher on the subjects that I summerized in my own words and rewrote at home. I feel that if my teachers had introduced these skills(summerizing and taking notes)in the 5th grade and continued to build on theses skills with each grade level I would have entered those upper level courses with a greater retention of subject matter.
1.) I remember in middle school speech class. I gave a speech on gymnastics. I entered the room by turning a cartwheel( one of the elements we were suppose be illustrating were attention-getting methods).The teacher was so impressed she asked me to give the speech to her other classes. She told other teachers about tmy speech. I gave this speech to other teachers' classes as well.
One situation that was not so positive happened in middle also. I will never forget being hit with a ruler on the palm of my hand because of my behavior. I was so embarrassed.
Rhonda McSorley
2.) I do not remember any instruction. I taught myself in college by looking at other students' notes. I feel explicit instruction would have increase my ability to learn the content greatly.
Rhonda McSorley
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