Summarize infer - main idea

TACKLING THE TERRIBLE 3Main Idea, Inferencing, and Summarization

Richard James

Consultant

Reading & Writing Processes

Reading Comprehension (Figure 19)

A. Establish purpose

B. Ask questions

C. Monitor comprehension

D. Make inferences, draw conclusions

E. Summarize/paraphrase

F. Make connections

Writing Process

A. Plan

B. Draft

C. Revise

D. Edit

E. Publish

SUMMARIZATION, ORGANIZATION &

DETERMINING IMPORTANCE

Why Should We Teach Determining Importance and Summarizing?

Students are expected to:

• 3.13(A): identify the details or facts that support the main idea.

• 4.11(A): summarize the main idea and supporting details in text in ways that maintain meaning.

• 5.11(A): summarize the main ideas and supporting details in a text in ways that maintain meaning and logical order.

• Figure 19(E): summarize information in text, maintaining meaning and logical order.

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Determining Importance helps readers to…

• Monitor understanding.

• Make connections.

• Manage excessive amounts of information.

• Extract relevant information.

• Understand the author’s purpose.

• Remember text.

• Improve overall comprehension.

(CIERA 2003; Coyne, Chard, Zipoli, & Ruby, 2007; Duke & Pearson, 2002; Keene & Zimmermann, 2007; Silver, Strong, & Perini, 2000)

5

Why Should We Teach Determining Importance?

6

Topic, Main Idea, or Summary?Term Definition Example

Topic Who or what the text is about; can often be expressed in one or two words.

Sharks

Main Idea What the text says about the topic; can often be expressed in one sentence or less.

Sharks do many things.

Summary A synthesis of the important ideas in a text; may be of varying length, expressed in the reader’s own words.

Sharks swim through the oceans hunting for prey, such as fish and seals. Sometimes, they work together to attack prey and may even engage in playful activities.

(Silver, Strong, & Perini, 2000; CIERA, 2003)

Questions to Answer

1. What does it mean to summarize and organize?

2. How are the two skills related?

3. How can we help students become better organizers of their thinking?

Summary

Organization

Summarize

“An average of 14% increase in retention has been noted when children are taught to make summaries of the texts they read.”

Mangieri & Block, 1996

“The brain retains more information when facts and details are organized into meaningful chunks.”

Wolfe & Nevills, 2004

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

ORGANIZATION

SUMMARIZATION

A look at the rubrics…

• The organizing structure of the essay is clearly appropriate to the purpose and responsive to the specific demands of the prompt. The essay is skillfully crafted because the writer uses organizational strategies that are particularly well suited to the expository task.

STRUCTURE ____________ PURPOSE

• The writer establishes a clear central idea. All ideas are strongly related to the central idea and are focused on the topic specified in the prompt. By sustaining this focus, the writer is able to create an essay that is unified and coherent.

FOCUS _______ CENTRAL IDEA (MAIN IDEA)

• The writer’s progression of ideas is logical and well controlled. Meaningful transitions and strong sentence-to-sentence connections enhance the flow of the essay by clearly showing the relationships among ideas, making the writer’s train of thought easy to follow.

ORDER/PROGRESSION ____ CONNECTIONS

Working backwards….• Use assessment to help clarify and guide instruction…

Analyzing Organization….

• Look at the diagram below (sequential) Which event belongs

in the empty box?

• The author organizes this article by –

• The author wrote this selection most likely to –

• What is the most likely reason the poet ends the first stanza

after line 13?

• Which of these is the best summary of the selection?

• The primary purpose of the series of drawings is to help the

reader –

• Paragraph 3 reveals that the author intends to

• A theme expressed in the story centers on –

• Paragraph 30 is important to the play because it shows that

the banker –

• Why is the letter important to this story?

Pattern of Questions: Main Idea

Main idea questions have almost always included the phrase "mainly about" or “mostly about”:

• What is paragraph___ mainly/mostly about? (for narrative and expository passages)

• Paragraphs 11 and 12 are mainly about the — (for narrative and expository passages)

• What is this selection mainly about? (for expository passages)

Correct Answer• Main Idea: A broad statement that explains what the passage (or portion of the passage) is mostly about; the statement is supported by accurate details from the passage

• Supporting of Main Idea: An accurate statement from the passage that supports/explains the/a main idea (the/a main idea is given in the question). On cause/effect questions, the correct answer must be in a cause/effect relationship with the event in the question.

What are the incorrect answers/distracters?

Main Idea

• Statements/details from the passage (completely or partially accurate), but not the main idea

• Inaccurate/contradictory information from the passage

• Main idea of a different part of the passage, but not the main idea of the targeted section

What is the correct answer?

Support of Main Idea

An accurate statement from the passage that supports the/a main idea

(the/a main idea is given in the question)

What are the incorrect answers/distracters?

Supporting of Main Idea

• Information from the passage (completely or partially accurate), but not responsive to the question

• Inaccurate/contradictory information from the passage

• Plausible statement, but not in the passage (and/or not responsive to the question)

Summarization vs. Summary

What Is a Summary?

“A summary is a synthesis of the important ideas in a text. Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading, to condense the information, and to put it into their own words. Instruction in summarizing helps students: • Identify or generate main ideas;• Connect the main or central ideas; and• Eliminate redundant and unnecessary information, and…”

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(CIERA, 2003, p.53)

Summarization & Organization involve…

• Determining topic/subject• Determining purposes• Determining important ideas/events• Connecting ideas/events

Going beyond SWBST

Somebody wanted, but, so, then

Beyond PIES

Purposes for writing go far beyond PIES (persuade, inform, entertain, or show).

The author wrote this selection most likely to –

Show Create

SuggestSupportExpressReflectAllow

Represent

Explain

Highlight

Influence

Reveal

Relate

Emphasize

Affect

Describe

Illustrate

Present

Help

Signal

Contribute

How do we determine what is important?Explain

HighlightInfluenceRevealRelate

EmphasizeAffect

DescribeIllustrate Present

HelpSignal

Contribute

What makes an event important?

Event

Event

Event

Event

Event

What? What about it? Why?

1. What is the topic/subject? What happened?

2. What does the author want me to remember about it?

3. Why is it important that I remember this?

1. What is the topic/subject? What happened?

2. What does the author want me to remember about it?

3. Why is it important that I remember this?

Readers who understand text structure…

• Approach reading with a plan.• Expect information to unfold in certain ways.• Identify important ideas more easily.• Infer relationships among ideas more easily.

Akhondi, Malayeri, Samad, (2011)Hall, Sabey, & McClellan, (2005)

Organizational Patterns – Informational Text

Organizational Pattern: the pattern an author constructs as he or she organizes his or her ideas and provides supporting details

• Proposition-and-support• Problem-and-solution• Cause-and-effect• Sequential order• Description• Order of importance• Compare-and-contrast• Logical order• Classification scheme

Note:• Organizational patterns can be found in sections of text

(single or multiple paragraphs) or throughout an entire text.

• Graphic organizers may be used to show relationships among ideas.• Visual representations of the relationships between main

ideas and details• Way of summarizing text

Determining Importance & Summarizing

35

Mathematical Formulation

The inner product between two state vectors is a complex number known as a probability amplitude. During a measurement, the probability that a system collapses from a given initial state to a particular eigenstate is given by the square of the absolute value of the probability amplitudes between the initial and final states.

(“Quantum mechanics,” in wikipedia.org)

Identify text type

Use text features.Rely on background knowledge.

Look at ideas that are repeated

Reread!

Modeling With Think-Alouds

I notice…

This is mostly

about…

The topic is…

Modeling With Think-Alouds

I notice…

This is mostly

about…

The topic is…

Determining Importance Toolbox

• Purpose for reading

• Scanning the text

• Background knowledge

• Location in paragraph or text

• Rereading

• Text features:• Headings and subheadings

• Fonts (colored, italics, bold)

• Signal words and phrases (in conclusion, most importantly…)

Laying the Foundation for Summarizing

“Model many times over how to make a summary of a short passage or a paragraph; progress gradually to longer segments of text. Summarizing is difficult and in the beginning should be taught through extensive modeling and supported practice.” (Moats, 2005, p. 52)

Think-AloudTopic (This text is about…): Iceberg Formation

Main Idea (This text is mostly about…):Icebergs are created when waves beat against a glacier until a large piece of ice breaks off.

Details 1:• snow never melts• thousands of years gets packed into ice called a glacier

Details 2:• waves beat the glacier• causes a crack• chunk breaks off

Details 3:• large and tall• wide and flat

Summary (the important ideas in this text include…): Glaciers are formed over thousands of years as snow gets packed into layers of ice. The glacier is beaten by ocean waves until a large piece breaks off becoming an iceberg. Icebergs can be various shapes and sizes.

MAKING INFERENCES & DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS

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“ Inferring is the bedrock of comprehension, not only in reading. We infer in many realms. Our life clicks along more smoothly if we can read the world as well as text. Inferring is about reading faces, reading body language, reading expressions, and reading tone as well as reading text.” (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000, p. 105)

Making Inferences and Predictions

• Inference: “A logical conclusion based on background knowledge and clues in the text. Inferences are not explicitly confirmed in the text.”

T + BK = I

• Prediction: “A logical guess based on the facts. It is either confirmed or disproved by the text.” (Tovani, 2000, p. 105)

Making Inferences

Inferring includes:• Determining meanings of unknown words.

• Making predictions.

• Answering our questions when the answers are not in the text.

• Creating interpretations and synthesizing information.

(Miller, 2002)

When we infer, we create a personal meaning from the text which helps us to understand the text more deeply. Good “readers actively search for, or are aware of, implicit meaning.” (Keene & Zimmermann, 1997, p. 162)

Why Should We Teach Making Inferences?

Why Should We Teach Making Predictions?

Encouraging students to make predictions has been successful in increasing interest in and memory of what has been read. This is true however, only if predictions are explicitly compared to the ideas in the text during reading. Verifying predictions may be just as important as making the actual prediction.

(Duke & Pearson, 2002)

English Language Arts: Reading Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about…

• Theme and genre in different cultural and contemporary contexts.

• The structure and elements of poetry, drama, and fiction.

• The varied structural patterns and features of literary nonfiction.

• How an author’s sensory language creates imagery in literary texts.

• The author’s purpose in cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts.

• Expository text, persuasive text.

…and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding/analysis.

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Why Should We Teach MakingInferences and Predictions?

Why Should We Teach MakingInferences and Predictions?

Fig. 19 Reading/Comprehension Skills

Students are expected to…make complex inferences about text and use textual evidence to support understanding.

Why Should We Teach Making Inferences and Predictions?

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Why Should We Teach MakingInferences and Predictions?

ELPS Reading 4(J) demonstrate English comprehension and expand reading skills by employing inferential skills such as predicting, making connections between ideas, drawing inferences and conclusions from text and graphic sources, and finding supporting text evidence commensurate with content area needs;

“In fourth grade, I asked my teacher to show me how she figured out a difficult ending. She smiled and said, “Cris, you need to read between the lines.” I skipped happily back to my seat, thinking I had been given privileged information. I opened my book only to find to my disappointment that between the lines was just white space.”

(Tovani, 2000, p. 98)

The Teacher Is Key

“Children’s difficulties on inference-related items often correlate to teachers’ lack of clarity about what good inference instruction looks like… if we’re not sure how to describe inference, our instruction tends to be less explicit, less frequent, and less than memorable.”

(Keene & Zimmermann, 2007, p. 148)

How Should We Teach MakingInferences and Predictions?

When children are explicitly taught inferential skills, “the enjoyment of the task of reading is enhanced and is, therefore, more likely to be undertaken readily, even by pupils who may have initially found reading difficult.”

(McGee & Johnson, 2003, p. 49)

Direct – Explicit – Systematic1. Use a real-world example to create a context (anchor lesson)

2. Give the strategy a name.

3. Define the strategy, how and when it is used, and how it helps with reading.

4. Give students touchstones, such as a hand gesture or icon, to help them remember the strategy.

5. Think-Aloud: model for or explicitly show students how to use the strategy

6. Engage students by providing opportunities for them to share their thinking during the reading. Practice shared application with planned discussion prompts.

7. Scaffold practice, providing opportunities for students to use the strategy while reading, with teacher support and monitoring.

8. Provide accountability measures for students while using the strategy independently.

Using Drama to Teach Inferences

"Matthew! Why don't you let those poor fish go?“

Why

You

Those

Fish

Go

In ContextMathew: "You fish are so lucky. You get to live in a quiet,

peaceful world. As long as I feed you, you have no worries at all."

Sister: "Matthew! Why don't you let those poor fish go? Are you as stupid as those poor fish or are you going to answer me?"

Mathew: "They like it in the tank. It's safe for them."

Sister: "How would you like to live in a tank, Matthew?"

In ContextNarrator: Matthew didn't like all the noise in the house. Often, he retreated to

the quiet of his bedroom and spent hours staring at his aquarium. The aquarium stood on a night stand right beside his pillow and was filled with beautiful, multi-colored tropical fish.

Mathew: "You fish are so lucky. You get to live in a quiet, peaceful world. As long as I feed you, you have no worries at all."

Narrator: Sometimes his sister burst into his room.

Sister: "Matthew! Why don't you let those poor fish go?"

Narrator: His sister had taken an environmental unit in school and now wanted to free every animal in the world, including the neighbor's dog.

Sister: "Are you as stupid as those poor fish or are you going to answer me?"

Mathew: "They like it in the tank. It's safe for them."

Sister: "How would you like to live in a tank, Matthew?"

Narrator: Matthew smiled and thought about that.

What’s in our reading/writing toolkit?

(A) Establish purposes

(B) Ask/answer questions

(C) Monitor comprehension/ Revision

(D) Make inferences/ Develop ideas

(E) Summarize/ Plan & organize

(F) Make connections

Common Processes & Skills

Making inferences/ developing ideas

• What is the author trying to say or suggest?

• What can I include to help the reader understand what I am trying to say?

READER WRITER

Working backwards….• Use assessment to help clarify and guide instruction…

What does it mean to make an inference?(13) The books recommended on the website all relate to which aspect of “The Dinner Party”? (D.12)(23) Read the following lines from the poem [I say, “It’s Sunday, and here we are/ in the church of the out-of-doors.”] By using this analogy, the poet emphasizes – (D.3)

(11) What is the primary purpose of paragraph 1? (D.5)(25) Which line best explains why the speaker begins to speak at the end of the poem but then stops? (D.3)(27) What is the most likely reason the poet ends the first stanza after line 13? (D.3)(26) What does the poet mean by the lines “suddenly everything is a metaphor for how/short a time we are granted on earth”? (D.7)

(29) In paragraph 6, what is the effect of the author’s use of figurative language? (D.7)(34) Which quotation from “I Wish I Was a Poet” best reflects the speaker’s overall experience in “Sunday Morning Early”?

(35) Which two actions in the selections have a similar meaning?(36) What is one difference between the speaker of “Sunday Morning Early” and the narrator of “I Wish I was a Poet”?

(37) The mood of both selections is --(38) What do the daughter in “Sunday Morning Early” and Marge in “I Wish I Was a Poet” have in common?

Making inferences means we….• Understand relationships • Interpret figurative language • Understand purpose• Interpret actions or choices• Determine meaning• Identify cause and effect relationships• Support understanding• Recognize similarities and differences• Perceive mood

What does it mean to develop an idea?

The development of ideas is effective because the writer uses details and examples that are specific and well chosen, adding substance to the essay.

• Specific, well-chosen details add substance to the narrative. These details contribute significantly to the writer’s portrayal of the experience and provide the reader with a clear understanding of why this experience was meaningful.

What does it mean to develop an idea?

The essay is thoughtful and engaging. The writer develops the essay in a manner that demonstrates a thorough understanding of the expository writing task. The writer may choose to use his/her unique experiences or view of the world as a basis for writing or to connect ideas in interesting ways.

• The narrative is thoughtful and engaging. The writer demonstrates a thorough understanding of the writing task by establishing a realistic situation, providing plausible motivations for behavior or actions, and revealing changes or insights that developed as a result of the experience.

How are they related?

Writing–Development of ideas

The development of ideas is effective because the writer uses details and examples that are specific and well chosen, adding substance to the essay.

• Specific, well-chosen details add substance to the narrative. These details contribute significantly to the writer’s portrayal of the experience.

Reading–Making inferences

(4) What is the most likely reason that the recipe was included with the article?

(5) The photograph of people around the ice-cream maker suggests that –

(21) The doctor’s waiting room is decorated with animals most likely to

(26) Clucas’s observations contribute to the understanding of why squirrels use snakeskin by --

(30) The fact that octopuses sometimes move coconut shells from one place to another is important because it suggests that octopuses –

(32) The photograph is included with the selection most likely to –

(39) The stage directions at the beginning of Scene 1 help the reader by

4th gradeWriting

• The narrative is thoughtful and engaging. The writer demonstrates a thorough understanding of the writing task by establishing a realistic situation and providing plausible motivations for behavior or actions. The narrative conveys a good sense of why the experience was important to the writer.

Reading

(18) Which sentence shows how the brothers feel when their father explains what they really saw in the hallway?

(22) The dialogue used in these lines shows that

(38) These lines suggest that Cara believes the chair –

(40) Which line from the play supports the idea that Cara is proud of the work she has done with Grandpa?

(43) Which quotation from the play best explains Grandpa’s reason for suggesting that he and Cara work on a surprise for Grandma?

(44) What does this stage direction suggest about Grandpa?

What do details do?

Show

Create

Suggest

Support

Express

Reflect

Allow

Represent

Intend

Explain

Highlight

Influence

Reveal

Relate

Emphasize

Affect

Describe

Illustrate

Present

Help

Signal

Contribute

So basically….• The way an author develops his ideas affects the

inferences that a reader makes.

What can you tell about the person who lives here?

Seymour Simon: Tornadoes

• Twisters, dust devils, whirlwinds, waterspouts, cyclones—tornadoes go by different names.

What does the list of names suggest about tornadoes?

• But whatever they are called, the roaring winds of a tornado can toss a truck high into the air, smash a building, and snap the trunk of a tree like a matchstick.

What do these details reveal about tornadoes?

• A tornado’s funnel looks like a huge elephant trunk hanging down from a cloud.

How does this comparison help the reader?

• The funnel acts like a giant vacuum cleaner-whenever the hose touches the ground, it sucks things up into the air.

Why does the author use this simile?

Making Inferences and Predictions in Math

Making Inferences and Predictions While Reading Content Area Texts

CPQ:

How does the blood flow through the heart?

Blood flows into

the heart on the

right side. Then it

gets pumped to

the lungs.

Valves ensure that

blood doesn’t mix

together.

Blood follows a one-way path

through the heart.

Blood from the lungs enters the top left chamber.

The lower left chamber pushes the blood out of the heart into the body’s

largest artery.

In the text. The author says it directly.

In my head. I have to make an inference.

Blood flows into the heart on the right side. Then it gets pumped to the lungs.

Valves ensure that blood doesn’t mix together.

Blood follows a one-way path through the heart.

Blood from the

lungs enters the

top left chamber.

The lower left chamber pushes the blood out of the heart into the body’s

largest artery.

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Blood flows into the heart on the right side. Then it gets pumped to the lungs.

Valves ensure that blood doesn’t mix together.

Blood follows a one-way path through the heart.

Blood from the lungs enters the top left chamber.

The lower left chamber pushes the blood out of the heart into the body’s largest artery.

Inference

Inference

Direct

Direct

Direct

How does the blood flow through the heart?

Diagram shows blood entering on the right side and leaving to go to the lungs.Chambers keep blood that enters from mixing with blood that leaves.

Chambers connected by openings.Valves open in only one direction.Chambers keep blood from mixing.

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“Given the rapidly changing

world in which today’s

students operate and given

the plethora of information at

their fingertips, the

importance of modeling how

we determine importance has

increased dramatically.”

~ Keene & Zimmermann, 2007

Dr. Richard James972-348-1084

[email protected]

www.Region10.org/TEKS-resource-system

Contact Information