This clip shows the first two steps of a mini-lesson: "Connect" and "Teach." I connect today's lesson with previous lessons, reminding everyone that today's work is part of our ongoing personal narrative unit. Next, I introduce what I want the students to try in today's lesson, which is to use a mentor text.
Summarizing can be highly effective for helping students identify main ideas, generalize, remove redundancy, integrate ideas, and improve memory for what is read. It is especially worthwhile when used with other strategies such as generating questions and answering questions (NRP, 2000). Although sometimes considered similar to synthesizing, it is important to note that summarizing is more of a part of synthesizing. While creating a synthesis lends itself toward the achievement of creating a new perspective or thought out of what one is reading, summarizing provides more of an opportunity to understand and restate the text (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000).