1. Summarizing & Note Taking
Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement From Classroom Instruction that Works by R. Marzano, D. Pickering, J. Pollock Created by The School District of Lee County, CSDC in conjunction with Cindy Harrison, Adams 12 Five Star Schools and Woody
This training was written by staff in The Curriculum & Staff Development Center for The School District of Lee County with the assistance of Cindy Harrison, the Director of Staff Development for Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Colorado.
It is based on the work of Dr. Bob Marzano and McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education & Learning as presented by them and found in:
Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock
A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works
by Marzano, Norford, Paynter, Pickering, and Gaddy
and
A Participant’s Manual for Classroom Instruction that Works
By McREL

2. Participant Outcomes Participants will:
Understand the purpose and importance of summarizing and note taking
Identify ways to implement summarizing and note taking in the classroom
Review examples of summarizing and note taking activities
Take better than average students and give them the tools to become truly exceptional
Review slide

3. Engineers are/will be next critical shortage in Florida
U.S. ranks sixth in the world in producing engineers
Florida ranked 8th in the nation in 2002
Existing engineers are part an aging workforce

4. In the early 1970’s, educational researchers began studying the effects of instruction on student learning.
With the assistance of Dr. Bob Marzano, McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning) analyzed selected research studies on instructional strategies that could be used in K-12 classrooms.
What they found was that 9 instructional strategies produced the highest yielding gains in student achievement.
While these findings are significant, it is important to remember that not there are not the only instructional strategies that should be used and that no instructional strategy works equally well in all situations.
Additional notes if needed:
(ES) or effect size expresses the increase or decrease in achievement of an experimental group (the group exposed to a specific instructional technique). These are measured in standard deviations (remember from stats classes 1 standard deviation above or below the mean is about 34% of your population).
Percentile Gain were configured by McREL using a statistical conversion table.
No. of ESs were the number of experimental studies that were examined for each strategy

5. Summarizing Discussion question:
How and when do you currently teach students in your classroom to summarize information to enhance student learning?
Do you instruct your students how to summarize?

6. Teaching Summarizing Story Problems Ignore nonsense
Pick out pertinent information and
label it (with unit)
Place a good summary and a bad summary on the overhead and have the students discuss the attributes of each.

7. Research and Theory about Summarizing
Generalizations based on research:
Students must delete, substitute, and keep some information when summarizing.
Deep analysis is needed in order to do #1.
Must be aware of explicit structure of information.
Review slide

8. When to have students practice Generalization #1
D.E.A.R. - instead of students reading whatever, copy an article from a science magazine and have them summarize it, and discuss it.
Lab Procedures – have students read through lab, and summarize.
Story problems, A.P. Free-Response questions

9. Research and Theory about Summarizing
Generalization #2:
To effectively delete, substitute, and keep information, students must analyze the information at a fairly deep level.
Seems simple but requires analyzing content
Students need practice (including at home) to be good at analyzing information
Generalization #3:
Must be aware of explicit structure of information.
Most writers present information with an explicit structure or pattern. The more students understand these structures, the better they are able to summarize information.
Review slide

10. (Refer to Newtonian Mechanics handouts)
Goal is to have students that can handle any curriculum without feeling stymied
Is there a correlation between the need for good summarizing skills and perceived difficulty?

11. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Summarizing
Teach the “Rule-Based” Strategy
Follows a set of rules that produce a summary
This strategy gives specific steps students can follow to produce a summary.

12. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Summarizing
Steps in Rule-Based Summarizing for Students
Delete trivial material that is unnecessary to understanding.
Delete redundant material.
Substitute subordinate terms for more specific terms (e.g. use fish for rainbow trout, salmon, and halibut.)
Select a topic sentence or invent one if it is missing.
Here is a set of instructions for students.

13. TRY IT!
Apply the Rule-Based Summarizing techniques to the “timer” lab.
This shows a specific content example of the text before summarizing and what it might look like after summarizing.

14. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Summarizing
Use Summary Frames
Choose frame to match information type
6 different types of frames
Narrative
Topic-restriction-illustration *
Definition *
Argumentation
Problem/solution *
conversation
Different frames are useful for different types of information because each frame captures the basic structure of a different pattern of text.
Each frame has a specific series of questions designed to highlight the important elements that make up patterns.
These questions help students gather key pieces of information that will help them summarize text.

15. Topic – Restriction - Illustration
T – What is the general statement or topic?
R – What information narrows or restricts the general statement or topic?
I – What examples illustrates the topic or restriction?

16. Topic – Restriction - Illustration
Could be used as a pre-learning tool
- have student read through text about topic such as 2D motion
Topic: 2D motion
Restriction: motion must be in 2D, with/without friction
Illustration: students draw projectile problem pictures

17. Definition What is being defined?
To which general category does the item belong?
What characteristics separate the item from other things in the general category?
What are some different types or classes of the item being defined?

18. Definition - Example Frictional Forces Forces
Force opposing relative motion of two objects that are in contact
Kinetic and static

19. Problem/Solution What is the problem? What is a possible solution?
What is another possible solution(s)?
Which solution has the best chance of succeeding?

20. Problem/Solution Example
Have students (perhaps in groups) devise a lab procedure to solve a problem.
Allow class to compare various procedures.
Ask them to choose the procedure they feel is most likely to succeed.

21. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Summarizing
Teach Students Reciprocal Teaching
4 step process
Summarizing
Questioning
Clarifying
Predicting
Reciprocal teaching incorporate the process of summarizing and engages students in other thinking processes.
There are four steps to follow in reciprocal teaching.
When summarizing, students read a short section of a passage. One student leader summarizes what has been read, heard, or seen. Others may add additional information.
Next, the student leader asks some questions that are designed to help students identify important information. The rest of the group responds to the questions based on what they learned.
Then the student leader clarifies any points that may be confusing. Others can add in, as well.
Finally, before the group moves forward with the section, the student leader asks for predictions about what will happen in the next short passage. The student leader can write these out on chart paper or notebook paper. Each student can also write them in their notebooks.
Repeat cycle until reading piece is completed.

22. Reciprocal Teaching
When summarizing, students read a short section of a passage. One student leader summarizes what has been read, heard, or seen. Others may supplement.
Next, the student leader asks some questions that are designed to help students identify important information. The rest of the group responds to the questions based on what they learned.
Then the student leader clarifies any points that may be confusing. Others may supplement.
Finally, before the group moves forward with the section, the student leader asks for predictions about what will happen in the next short passage. The student leader can write these out on chart paper or notebook paper. Each student can also write them in their notebooks.
Repeat cycle until reading piece is completed.
Give an example of what this might look like in a classroom of your grade level/content area.

23. Some places to use Reciprocal Teaching
Pairs Read
D.E.A.R.
Lab procedures
Passages in the textbook that you would like your students to read

24. Note Taking Discussion statement:
It is appropriate for the teacher to provide students with a complete set of notes on a topic.”
Do you…
Review discussion statement and answers from participants.
The purpose of note taking is to synthesize information. This strategy (along with summarizing) requires students to identify important information and restate it in their own words.
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

25. Looking at your methods
What do your “teacher presented” notes look like?
How do students notes differ from your work?
How much of the students notes are student generated?

26. Generalizations based on research:
Research and Theory about Note Taking
Generalizations based on research:
Verbatim note taking is least effective.
Should be a work in progress.
Should be used as study guides for tests.
The more notes taken, the better.
Review slide

27. Research and Theory about Note Taking
Generalization #1:
Verbatim note taking is least effective.
Generalization #2:
Should be a work in progress.
When students are trying to record everything they hear or read, they are not engaged in the act of synthesizing information.
Trying to record everything takes up much of a student’s working memory and therefore he or she does not have “room” to analyze incoming information.
For #2, students should continually add to their notes and revise them as they deepen their understanding of the content. Teachers need to provide time for students to go back over their notes and make changes.

28. Research and Theory about Note Taking
Generalization #3:
Should be used as study guides for tests.
Generalization #4:
The more notes taken, the better.
If notes have been well designed and students have added or revised them, they can be a powerful study guide.
There is a strong relationship between the amount of notes taken and students’ achievement on examinations. Remember we are not talking about verbatim notes but notes that are specific to the learning objectives.

29. Research Shows
When students are taking notes verbatim, they are not engaged in the act of synthesizing information.
Trying to record everything does not allow student to analyze incoming information.
Students should continually add to their notes and revise them as they deepen their understanding of the content. Teachers need to give students time to review their notes.

30. Research Shows
If notes have been well designed and students have added or revised them, they can be a powerful study guide.
There is a strong relationship between the amount of notes taken and students’ achievement on examinations.

31. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Note Taking
Give Teacher-Prepared Notes
Model
Teacher Prepared Notes
Graphic
Questions
The Basics A.
ii. Characteristics
This is a good strategy for introducing students to taking notes. Teacher prepared notes provide students with a clear picture of what the teacher considers important and models for students how notes might be taken.
Here is an example of one type of teacher prepared notes.

32. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Note Taking
Teach Multiple Formats ex. Web
Teaching multiple ways to take notes provides opportunities for students to select which note-taking format they prefer.
Here are some examples.

33. Recommendations for Classroom Practice on Note Taking
Use Combination Notes
Uses 3 parts:
Informal outlining
Graphic representation
summary
This note-taking strategy involves three parts.

34. Combination Notes Regular notes Symbol, picture or graphic Summary
On the left-hand side of the page the student records notes using informal outlining or a variation of it. The right-hand side is reserved for some type of graphic representation. The bottom portion is where the student writes a summary.
Summary

35. Velocity, Acceleration, Time, Displacement
If over a given
time, an object
has no accel,
then the graph
will show
constant vel.
Student would
draw a V v T
that shows
this.
Here is what an example might look like.
Summary – Student would say
something about how no accel
would show up as a horizontal
line on the V v T graph.

36. Check for Understanding
What have you learned about summarizing and note taking?
(Participants should go around the room, each giving a new idea. If a participants idea was already given, he/she can say pass. Keep going around the room until all ideas are presented).
Optional alternate if time short, can just solicit responses from the whole group.

37. What thoughts, questions, challenges, or ideas do you have?
Review slide.