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Enhance students' ability to synthesize information and organize it in a way that captures the main ideas and supporting details.

Generalizations From Research

1. Students must delete some information, substitute some information, and keep some information when they summarize.
2. To effectively delete, substitute, and keep information, students must analyze the information at a fairly deep level.
3. Being aware of the explicit structure of information is an aid to summarizing information.
4. Verbatim note taking is, perhaps, the least effective way to take notes.
5. Notes should be considered a work in progress.
6. Notes should be used as study guides for tests.
7. The more notes that are taken, the better.

Example Activities

• Cornell Notes
• Concept Maps
• Interactive Notebooks
• Summary Frames

Recommendations & Ideas

1. Teach students the rule-based summarizing strategy
2. Use summary frames
3. Teach students reciprocal teaching
4. Give students teacher-prepared notes
5. Teach students a variety of note-taking formats (like Cornell Notes)
6. Use combination notes

Web2.0 Tools: My preferences*

Category Key: and links to more web tools

SD = Identifying Similarities and Differences CL = Cooperative Learning SNT = Summarizing and Note-Taking ER = Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition HP = Homework and Practice NR = Nonlinguistic Representation OF = Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback HYP = Generating and Testing Hypotheses QCO = Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers