5+Teaching+Students+to+Synthesize+Reading+Materials

Teaching Students toSynthesize ReadingMaterials

DefinitionAccording to Shannon Bumgarner:“Synthesizing is the process whereby a studentmerges new information with prior knowledgeto form a new idea, perspective, or opinion or togenerate insight.”Therefore, synthesis is an ongoing process. Asnew knowledge is acquired, it is synthesized withprior knowledge to generate new ideas.

Skills Needed to Synthesize• Summarize and paraphrase• Make accurate inferences• Recognize author’s purpose andtone• Recognize author’s tone• Understand author’s perspectiveand/or bias• Determine the validity andreliability of information

Synthesizing Skills• “Synthesizing is the most complex of thereading strategies. Synthesizing lies on acontinuum of evolving thinking. Synthesizingruns the gamut from taking stock of meaningwhile reading to achieving new insight.Introducing the strategy of synthesizing inreading then primarily involves teaching thereader to stop every so often and think aboutwhat he or she has read” (Strategies That Work).

Explaining with MetaphorsSynthesizing can be compared to a journey. Thestudent begins with prior knowledge of a topic,gains new knowledge about that topic from avariety of sources, combines and analyzes thisinformation, and as a final destination, makes anevaluation and forms an opinion.

Puzzle MetaphorAnother way to viewsynthesizing is to look at it asputting the pieces of a puzzletogether. The student collectsthe pieces of information fromvarious sources and findsconnections to put togetherthe entire picture.

Building Upon Prior Knowledge• Since newly acquired information shouldbe synthesized with previously learnedinformation, faculty can assist in thisongoing process by activating students’prior knowledge of each new topic beingintroduced in the classroom.• At the start of the lesson, ask students towrite down what they already know aboutthat topic before they being reading.• Then, have students make connections asthey read using a synthesis journal orgraphic organizer.

Caution!• McAlexander and Burrell warn: “Synthesis is acomplex process” and “it will need to bemodeled by the teacher beforehand.”

Graphic Organizer

Conclusion• Teachers of any discipline can aid students insynthesizing information by having them use a graphicorganizer or a synthesis journal. Students will be morelikely to effectively utilize these techniques if they arefirst modeled by the instructor.• Finally, by activating prior knowledge on the topic,guiding the student in comparing and contrastinginformation, and assisting the student in separating factfrom opinion, Teachers can steer students towardmaking judgments, forming opinions, and drawinglogical conclusions.

Sources• Bumgarner, Shannon. Ohio Resource Center forMathematics, Science, and Reading.http://ohiorc.org/adlit/strategy/strategy_each.aspx?id=000002• Reading Strategies: Scaffolding Students’Interactions with Texts. Key Concept SynthesisStrategy.http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction.