Summarizing and Sythesizing

Text Set: Summarizing and Synthesizing

Going to School in India by Lisa Heydlauff, Nitin Upadyhe, and Global Fund For Children



Summary of the book: This is a children's book that talks about what it would be like to go to school in India. There is information in the book from how the students get to school to what they learn while they are at school. There are individual sections of the book that focus on different children who give information about what school is like for them in India. There are real photographs of students in India as well as pictures to show what the schools in India look like.
Classroom Connection: This book would be great for teaching students how to summarize and synthesizing because it has enough information to be useful in both areas. For summarizing, students could read a page and then summarize it in a few short sentences to prove that they understand what is happening in the book. Synthesizing can be taught in this book because it takes information that students already know and builds on that knowledge. Students know what it is like to go to school but they do not know how that is different from the students that go to school in India. A teacher could have students make a chart for this book about what they already knew, what they found interesting, and what they learned from the book. This activity would allow students to practice synthesizing with the use of this book.










What If You Met A Pirate? by Jan Adkins




Summary of book: This book is all about things that would happen if you met a pirate. The book describes what it is that people think pirates look and act like but then it talks about what pirates are really like. Facts are included in this book about what pirates are like at every age.
Classroom connection: This book would be best for synthesizing because it talks about a topic that is familiar to children and then explains the myths behind pirates. Students would be able to take what they know about pirates and turn their opinions around based on facts learned from the book.

Global Warming: The Threat of Earth's Changing Climate by Laurence Pringle

Summary of book: This book is an unformational text about global warming. It talks about the threat of global warming and educates readers on the impact global warming is having on our Earth.
Classroom Connection: This text could be used in the classroom to practice summarizing because it is a topic that students may not know much about just yet. It would be a good tool to read and summarize the information that comes from the book. By reading each page and then summarizing what was read or reading the entire book and summarizing it in paragraph form at the end would be helpful for students to develop the skills to summarize information.