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Gwinnett County Public Schools

Summarizing

SEL Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self- Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision Making

Frequent Use Strategy

Summarizing ensures students recap knowledge, skills, processes, and sequences of events. This strategy allows students to capture, reflect, and organize their knowledge to build upon, access, and apply their learning.

When using Summarizing, the teacher will explicitly model through think-alouds, written expressions, and nonverbal representations— how they justify their thinking, understanding, and reasoning. The teacher will support students’ use of this strategy by listening, asking probing questions, addressing any related knowledge or experience gaps, and providing frequent and specific feedback to help students refine their ability to summarize. Teachers will provide opportunities for students to summarize throughout the learning process— not solely as an ending event.

Students will engage in summarizing through purposeful observation of teacher modeling and practice that includes speaking, writing, and reflecting upon their understanding. Students will frequently summarize learning in ways that require them to recall, synthesize, and build upon their understanding.

Summarizing is not simply recall, at the end of a lesson, and the product is not the same for all students. Summarizing is most effective when used to help students reflect and communicate their learning, when it is responsive to students’ experiences, and when it is intentionally and purposefully connected to authentic AKS and future learning outcomes.

Look Fors

Teacher Behaviors for Promoting SEL Competencies

  • Develop students’ communication skills to ensure students know how to extend their own thinking and expand on the thinking of their peers. Teach them to listen attentively and pick out the main ideas of what classmates are saying.
  • Ask questions that require students to analyze.
  • Allow alternative methods for students to demonstrate understanding.

Student Behaviors for Developing SEL Competencies

  • Give and receive productive feedback.
  • Use different methods to demonstrate learning.

References

Model Lessons

Informative Writing Based on a Text Set

Students will create questions centered around the AKS that force inquiry into the cause of war providing insight for students as they gather evidence.

Quadratic Functions: Every Graph Tells a Story

Students will use the say something protocol to respond to questions and discuss their thinking related to a graph presented.

 

Videos

Math ES 1195-4

In this video, the teacher designs a grade level appropriate question for students to use in communicating their learning at the end of a lesson.

Math ES 1196-1

In this video, the teacher provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning at the conclusion of math class. The teacher provides support in clarifying student thinking on the math concept.

Math HS 1207-16

In this video, the teacher provides a structure for students to summarize their learning.

Math HS 1219-12

In this video, teacher asks students to think strategically about the small group task and communicate their learning at the conclusion of the small group task.

Math MS 1219-9

In this video, the teacher provides an opportunity for students to communicate learning during the small group task.

 

All QPTS Tools

For any questions with this guide or its content, please call Instructional Support at (678) 301-6804.