Text Set: Synthesizing & Summerizing

Smith, L. John, Paul, George & Ben


The book John, Paul, George and Ben is a great book to read during a subject about four historical people. This book takes the four people and tells a story about how they were when they were children. The way that the children act as a child are looked down on by the other people, but those same actions become benefited when they become older and make historical actions in history. This book is a fun way to learn about important people in history. Also in the back of the book there are true and false questions that can help the student reading the book do his or her own assessment of what they read. Also at the end of the book are facts about the four people which can help the student learn even more historical facts.

Strategy Connection: This book would be great to use when asking the students to summarize or synthesize. The students can read this book and summarize what they read, learned and what they already knew about the people in the book. This is a great book for synthesizing because they can take what they already knew and add it to what they learned to help them understand what they learned in the book. Also because of the true false quiz in the back students are able to review and help them summarize the important facts they learned in the book.

Climo, S. King of the Birds

This book is a great way for students to learn about birds and also have fun while reading. This book talks about how birds act and what different types of birds there are. While the book is giving facts it is also telling a story. The book goes through different birds and talks about why that bird thinks they should be king. Each bird tells what characteristics they have that would make them a good king.

Strategy Connection: this is a good book to use for synthesizing because the student can write down what they are learning while also thinking about what they already knew about some of the birds from the book. So while students are synthesizing they can think about what they are learning while tying that to facts they may have already new.


Kramer, S. Hidden Worlds

This book is a factual book about looking at different objects though a microscope. The book goes through different animals and objects and asks the students what it would be like if you were so small you could look at those things up close. The book also is great for learning because it gives info on what the object you are looking at, making the student think by asking questions and showing the students pictures of things they have never seen before.

Strategy Connection: This is a great book because it gives great information. Students can use this book to summarize what they learned. Students can read this book and put post it notes on pages where they learned something new and also in places that they have questions. So this book can be used to summarize and also synthesize by having the students connect what they see to what they thought it looked like without looking though the microscope.