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Brainstorming


The teacher writes a different question or word on
the top of four or five sheets of chart paper. The
students move in small groups from sheet to sheet
and work together to brainstorm responses
related to the topic.

Summarizing
Strategies

KW


A KWL chart is used prior to the study of new
material, a discussion, a reading, or an event.
Students are asked to brainstorm all of the things
they know and want to know about a particular
topic. Lastly, at the end of a unit or lesson,
students record what they learned.

In the Hot Seat

Prior to the beginning of class, the teacher will
prepare questions related to the topic of study and
write them on sticky notes. Four to five questions
are usually enough. Sticky notes are placed
underneath student desks/chairs so that they are
hidden from view. At the start of the class, inform
students that several of them are sitting on "Hot
Seats" and will be asked to answer questions
related to the topic of study for the day. At the end
of the lesson, students who have questions on
sticky notes will then take turns reading the
question and attempting to provide an answer.
Alphabet Soup


Using the letters in the alphabet as the beginning
letter, students will connect summary words,
phrases, or sentences about the topic they have
been studying with each letter. This could be done
orally or written.

Reptiles:
A All reptiles have scales
B burrow in the ground
C cold blooded
D dont touch them in the wild
E ears are holes in the head

Word Splash


Using the Word Splash that was created and used
to activate learning, students will again use the
words on it to write factual statements about the
topic they have studied.

Synectics


Students review the topic they have studied by
comparing that topic to some other randomly
selected familiar object or situation. Ex: A
teacher is like a steering wheel because

I have /Who has?

This is a game where students are given cards that
have an answer and a question. The first student
reads the question. The student with the answer
reads the answer and then the next question.

Website for Math card sets:
http://www.mathwire.com/whohas/whohas.html
There are ideas for other ways to use this strategy.

Ticket Out the Door

Recipe
(to the next Subject)




Students list the main ingredients (ideas) of the
In student pairs, ones tell twos 3 major points from lesson on a recipe card.
todays lesson. Twos write it down.

Answer the lessons EQ individually or in pairs.

Five Fingers one fact for each finger

Who, What, When, Where, Why




Dear Friend...


Students compose a friendly letter to a student
announcing what they learned today about a topic.
Dear ________,
Today we learned ___. The most important thing
we learned was ___. If you had been here you
would really have enjoyed ___. I hope that
tomorrow we will learn ___.

Your friend - ___

Choose three for the student that was absent to
read.

3-2-1


3-2-1 is a summarizing strategy use to help
students think about what they have learned in
the lesson or reading.

Students write:
3 things
2 things
1 thing

Ex.
3 different types of rocks
2 ways people mine for rocks
1 question you have about rocks

Tic-Tac-Toe


Create a Tic-Tac-Toe board with pictures or terms
related to content. Using the board, have students
explain to a group or a partner how three of the
pictures or terms relate or connect in a Tic-Tac-
Toe row.

PMI


Plus/Minus/Intriguing Student s list positive
things about the lesson, the things they did not like
about the lesson, and some things that are
interesting or things they dont fully understand.

Inside Outside Circle

Half of the students in a circle facing outward. The
other half of the students creates a circle facing
inward, toward the inner circle. Students will be
facing each other and should be in partners.
Outside circle will be partner A, inside circle will be
partner B. Partner A will talk for 1 minute
summarizing the topic, then partner 2 will talk for
1 minute summarizing the topic. At the end of one
round, the inner circle rotates three people to the
right. Begin again.

The Last Word

When using the Last Word, the topic to be
summarized becomes an acronym. Students
brainstorm all the things they can remember about
the topic studied. They then use the information
to create phrases for each letter of the acronym.
Ex:
T total number of adult teeth is 32
E enamel protects teeth
E everyone should see a dentist 2x/year
T
H -

Four Square


Have students fold a sheet of paper into 4
quadrants and number them as shown.
1
2
3
4

As you are teaching the lesson, stop periodically
and have the respond to a prompt or question.
The responses are recorded in one of the squares.
Collect these to get a picture of students
understanding throughout the lesson.

Concrete Spelling


After presenting lesson content and skills to
students, identify essential vocabulary terms that
are important. Ask students to spell the words in a
form that reveals their meanings.
This should be part art work, part cartoon, and all
definition. This WordArt with pictures.

HEADLINES


In a one phrase summary, students search for one
key idea to represent or summarize a concept or
topic studied in class. It should be written as a
headline for the front page of the newspaper.

The summarizing strategy will give you the main
ideas from the lesson to post in the classroom.

Ticket Out the Door

At the end of the lesson, the students are asked to
describe or explain the major concept of the lesson
in a Ticket Out the Door. This could be done
simply as having student write the answer on a
post-it and posting it on a chart.

Learning Logs


During the last few minutes of the period or at the
end of the day, students should make journal
entries responding to a variety of questions. Some
questions might be: What did I do in class today?
What did I learn?
What did I find interesting?
What questions do I have about what I
learned?
What was the point of today's lesson?
What connections did I make to previous
ideas of lessons?

Shaping Up Reflection


Using the Shaping Up Review, students will
synthesis major concepts from the lesson using
four different shapes. By varying the manner in
which students visually summarize their learning,
retention is increased.

Heart Things I love
Square 4 strategies that worked
Triangle 3 things that I learned
Circle 1 thing that is going around in my head

The Important Thing

The Important Thing summarizer is a structure
within which student write a paragraph-length
synopsis of a topic following the pattern
established and repeated in Margaret Wise
Browns The Important Thing book. The first and
last sentences are the same.

The most important thing about ___ is ___.
Detail sentence about the topic.
Detail sentence about the topic.
Detail sentence about the topic.
The most important thing about ___ is ___.

Writing Think Pair Share

During this activity, students will have individual
time to think and write about a question related to
the topic of study. They will then pair up with a
partner to share their thoughts. The students
exchange papers, read what is written, and
respond in writing. Papers are exchanges a couple
of times for reading/writing responses. Finally, the
pairs will select one major idea to share with the
entire class.