Summarizing Activities from NNWP Consultant, Kelly Rubero

A New NNWP Guide is Under Construction!

Hello, my name is Kelly Rubero, and up until three years ago I can honestly say that my students did not know these “processes” for summarizing and note taking. I was reading reports and summaries that read like an encyclopedia, and my students were becoming merely “word movers”, thinking that it was okay to rearrange information and report it back to me. My students were unable to recognize plagiarized material, and they were lacking summarizing and note taking skills.

During the 2006-2007 school year, I taught a 7th grade Reading Strategies class. One of the first things that I assigned was a summarization activity. As it turned out, my students thought that it was ok to just copy word for word what they had read. I ended up putting together an entire unit on how to summarize and take notes. I also talked with my students about the differences between summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. And I always started off my unit with a lesson or two on plagiarism. Below are four of the short lessons that I used with my 7th graders to help them grasp the idea of summarizing. I also tied in other reading strategies as I went along with my planning. The REAP Strategy was given to my staff from one of our Instructional Coaches and it can be used with any level in any content area.

• Summarizing Teen Star Quotations Activity
• Three-part Paired Guided Reading & Practice with Summarization Activity
• Two-Column Note-Taking and Summarization Practice
• REAP Strategy Worksheet

Here we grow again! Welcome to a new section of resources being developed at WritingFix in 2009 and 2010.

Meet Kim Cuevas, Director of the Northern Nevada Writing Project since 2007. In January of 2009, Kim brought together a group of talented and energetic Northern Nevada Writing Project Consultants to begin work on the NNWP's eighth print guide. This new print guide will focus on helping teachers explore two important topics: note-taking and summarizing.

In Robert Marzano's Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, Marzano shares research on which strategies have the most impact on student learning. Two of those strategies are note-taking and summarizing. It's not hard to have students take notes, or to have them write summaries of their learning. What is hard is using these strategies in a way that all students benefit from the experience.

Kim's group of teachers will focus on techniques for summarizing and note-taking that are more likely to impact all students.

On this page at WritingFix, we will be note-taking strategies published by Kim and her group of NNWP TCs. In September of 2009, Kim and her group will begin the process of publishing their ideas. If you check back with us in October, you will see the work that Kim and her colleagues created during this year-long workshop. Kim's group's note-taking strategies will be published on this page.

Summarizing In-service from NNWP Consultant, Corbett Harrison

Five Summarizing Resources from the NNWP's RICA Guide:

Hello, my name is Corbett Harrison, and in 2000, I was fortunate to meet author Barry Lane during a workshop he presented on revision here in Northern Nevada. That's Barry (on the left) and me in 2007, using a goofy effect on Barry's computer. I consider myself lucky to not only have stayed in touch with Barry over the years but to also now call him my friend. To be friends with one of your favorite authors is a really great thing.

One of my absolute favorite books by Barry is his 51 Wacky We-Search Reports: Face the Facts with Fun. In this book, Barry provides 51 techniques that "force" students to summarize (without plagiarizing) information they have learned in the classroom. Barry's activities provide a format for the students to write in that pretty much cannot be plagiarized. In addition to the formats, Barry's Wacky We-Search Reports do two wonderful things: 1) provide meaningful activities for groups working together and 2) encourage students to think with their funny bones.

In 2006, I received a grant and purchased 200 copies of Barry's 51 Wacky We-Search Reports. I have been teaching inservice classes and workshops since then, and each participant receives a copy of the book upon completion of the workshop. To complete the class, I ask the teachers to create an original Wacky We-Search Report format--one that's not in Barry's book.

Below, with my friend Barry's blessing, I have posted the original Wacky We-Search Report that I created (my teacher model, if you will), and I am in the process of posting my favorite original Wacky We-Search Reports posted by my classes' participants.

My Template for Proposing a Wacky We-Search Report -- you will want to have a copy of Barry's original book to understand the sections of this template. If you are a teacher from outside of Northern Nevada who wants to propose an original Wacky We-Search Report, I will gladly look your report idea over. If I end up posting it, I'll send you a copy of one of the NNWP's Publications for your classroom. Send completed proposals to me at webmaster@writingfix.com.

My original Wacky We-Search Report Write-up:

• The Wacky "I Will Not" Chalkboard -- When you do something bad in school, the teacher might make you write “I will not [fill in offense here]” repeatedly on the chalkboard. Every episode of The Simpsons opens with Bart writing something different on the chalkboard at his school. Bart has done this so many times now that he could actually fill up an entire chalkboard with different “I will not” statements from his past. This writing activity has students create multiple “I will not” statements a person, place, or thing the class has studied.

An original Wacky We-Search Report from an NNWP Guide:

• The Wacky Smear Campaign -- originally featured in our Going Deep with Compare and Contrast Thinking Guide, this wacky report format asks students to imagine that any two things might run against each other in a wacky election. Students create campaign posters, print media, or radio ads that would discuss the opponent's weaknesses and reasons for not electing him/her/it. All good smear campaigns should end with the words, "I'm [insert name here], and I approve of this message."

Some original Wacky We-Search Reports Created by my Class:

• The Wacky "Box of Rocks" Assignment -- What if things we studied in school could all be packaged in boxes and containers that eventually found their ways to the shelves of grocery stores? Here, teacher Joni Martindale shares how she uses this wacky idea to have students show what they've learned about the different types of rocks and minerals. She invites you to borrow the writing assignment and use with other scientific or historical topics.
• The Wacky Calendar Assignment -- Each December, you can buy lots of themed calendars that are very visual. Here, student groups design a 12-month calendar about a topic they are learning about. Each month has a different theme and a "wacky holiday" that celebrates the information learned about the topic they've studied.
• The Wacky "Who Doesn't Want to Be a Millionaire" Gameshow -- Inspired by Scholastic's "Who Doesn't Want to Be..." Series, students research the cons of being historical figures. They create a series of questions about their research that would be featured on this imaginary gameshow.
• The Wacky Geography Scrapbook -- Students will demonstrate their understanding of the physical and human features of a city, county or state in a fun and inviting way by producing a scrapbook of a chosen place. The scrapbook, written in the "voice" of the place they are learning about, will include graphics and key information about the particular location.
• The Wacky Frame of History Assignment -- Using a picture frame and a variety of Wacky We-Search ideas from Barry Lane's book, students create a collage of historical pictures with writing on the back. When looked at from both sides, this framed writing assignment summarizes a topic from history.
• The Wacky "Check out my Vacation" Story -- What stories could be interpreted if students spread out a series of cancelled checks to decipher where and when someone has gone? Here, teacher Kathy McCormick invites you to have fun interpreting fake check stories, writing a vacation summary in the form of fake cancelled checks, then creating imaginary reports that summarize other information in the form of fake cancelled checks.
• The Wacky Advertisement (with Disclaimers) Activity -- What could we learn if we really looked closely at (or listened closely to) an advertisement's disclaimers? Here, teacher Stephanie Kveum invites you to have fun writing a simple, creative advertisement for something your class has studied, and then write a long series of disclaimers that should accompany the ad.

More original wacky we search reports will be posted soon!

The five free-to-use resources below come from the Northern Nevada Writing Project's 2006 Reading in the Content Areas Guide. If you like these resources and would like to order a copy of the RICA Guide in order to have access to many more excellent ideas, please visit the NNWP's publication page. All monies earned from the sale of this excellent guide go to fund further free-to-use developments here at the WritingFix website.

In Spring 2010, the Reading in the Content Areas Guide will be officially "retired," which means it will no longer be available for purchase.

Please enjoy and share the summary resources that come from this guide:

• The Concept Web -- Using a Concept Web allows students to create a visual map of the content of a reading selection. The web helps students organize the main ideas and details within the reading and see the relationships and hierarchy between the ideas and concepts.
• Summary Frames -- Summary frames are a series of questions that emphasize the important elements within a text pattern. Students answer the questions, then write summaries based on their responses.
• Key Concept Synthesis -- Struggling readers often have difficulty focusing on the key concepts within a text. Using the Key Concept Synthesis strategy helps students identify the important ideas as they read, use their own words to express the ideas, then explain why the ideas are important and make connections to other ideas.
• Power Thinking -- A variation of traditional outline formats, this strategy helps students take notes as they actively read the textbook, classify information, and understand main ideas and details. Students learn to apply Power Thinking as they read their textbooks in order to help sort the main ideas from details.
• Headings to Questions Guide -- The Headings to Questions Guide combines two reading and note-taking strategies, SQR3 and Cornell notes. Students work to create their own reading guide as they preview and question the text.

Seven Summarizing Resources from the NNWP's WAC Guide:

The seven free-to-use resources below come from the Northern Nevada Writing Project's 2006 Writing Across the Curriculum Guide. If you like these resources and would like to order a copy of the WAC Guide in order to have access to many more excellent ideas, please visit the NNWP's publication page. All monies earned from the sale of this excellent guide go to fund further free-to-use developments here at the WritingFix website.

In January of 2009, the Writing Across the Curriculum Guide will be officially "retired," which means it will no longer be available for purchase.

Please enjoy and share the summary resources that come from this guide:

• Summarize with a Traditional Haiku -- You can't really plagiarize a haiku from the encyclopedia or text book, can you? Teach this simple format to your students and have them create a single haiku or a series of haikus to show they can summarize information.
• Summarize with a Haiku Variation -- Here's a variation of the haiku format--instead of seventeen syllables, the writer uses seventeen words.
• Summarize with an Acrostic --You can't really plagiarize an acrostic poem from the encyclopedia or text book, can you? Teach this simple format to your students and have them create a single acrostic or a series of acrostics to show they can summarize information about vocabulary words.
• Summarize with the Alphabet Book Format -- An alphabet book makes a great group-writing summary assignment. Can you come up with 26 words or ideas (all beginning with different letters of the alphabet) that summarize a topic? Here's a worksheet to help students plan theirs.
• Summarize with a Research Recipe -- Here's a great summarizing assignment: translate research into the format of a recipe. What "ingredients" do you need to summarize a topic? What do you do with those ingredients to "cook up" your topic?
• Summarize with a Board Game--Version 1 -- This is another great group-writing task: have your students design a board game that summarizes their topic. Here's a template to help them design their board.
• Summarize with a Board Game--Version 2 -- Here's a second template for a board game, in case the first version doesn't appeal to your students.

A Popular WritingFix Lesson that Requires Students to Summarize

Lesson: Unlikely Diary Keepers
Mentor Text: The Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin

Focus Trait/skill: Idea Development/putting research into one's own words

Lesson Summary: The writer will assume the role of a living creature (like an arthropod) or an abstraction (like a fraction) that they are learning about.  Writers will do research on the animal or abstraction they have chosen, learning new facts about these topics.  The writer will compose an imaginary 5- or 10-day diary, from the point-of-view of his/her researched role; each entry must contain a reference to a newly learned fact, and some entries should try to include humor (just as Doreen Cronin does in her book on earthworms).

(Click on the lesson title or book cover to access this assignment on-line.)