February+-+Summarizing+and+Synthesizing

In the primary grades, I think synthesis is something that all kids do naturally to some extent when they can make connections from the story. Over time, I am afraid that we get caught up in retelling the story, recalling facts, characters, setting, etc. and we focus on summarizing much more than synthesizing. By allowing time for students to talk about the story, they can bounce ideas off each other and use this shared knowledge to create bigger and better ideas together. Share an example of your students devloping a deeper understanding of a text through synthesizing and collaborating with their peers.