This document discusses writing from sources and the process of synthesis. It explains that synthesis involves selecting relevant information, making connections among ideas, and organizing ideas into a new piece of writing. The document notes that students often take a linear approach to synthesis rather than a recursive one, and outlines classroom activities that can help students build skills in connecting, organizing, and selecting information from sources.

1. Writing from Sources: Part 1
Emily Kissner
June 2014

2. Agenda
1. Why write from sources?
2. Steps for synthesis
3. Unpacking the process (see Part 2)
4. Classroom activities (see Part 2)

3. Common Core Shift Video
As you view the video,
consider:
• What do these speakers
consider “writing from
sources” to be?
• Do you agree with their
claims that this hasn’t
been emphasized in
classrooms?
• How do you feel about
this video?

4. Your Turn!
Remember a time that you had to
write from sources.
-Create three verbs that show what
actions you took to create your piece
of writing.
-Write an adjective that shows how
you felt:
-at the beginning of the project
-during the project
-when you finished the project
We’ll create a Wordle to capture our feelings about writing from
sources.

5. Why write from sources?
Research the standards: Which standards
from your state and grade level explicitly
refer to writing from sources? Which
standards may imply a need to write from
sources?

6. Observing student synthesis
There is a strong line of research
investigating what students actually do when
posed with a synthesis task. As we go
forward, we need to consider the thinking
processes necessary for successful
synthesis—and the thinking processes that
students actually use.

7. Observing student synthesis
The idea is that we can teach many of the
underlying skills for synthesis before
students have to write the formal research
paper.

8. Selecting: Students
must select information
relevant to the writing
task

9. Connecting: Students
must make connections
among ideas.

10. Organizing: Students must
organize ideas into a new
piece of writing.

11. Think about it
Consider the three main processes for
synthesis: selection, connection,
organization. What have you done in your
classroom that supports these processes?
What do you wish you had done?

12. A linear process?
Selecting: Students
must select information
relevant to the writing
task
Connecting: Students
must make connections
among ideas.
Organizing: Students must organize
ideas into a new piece of writing.

13. A linear process?
Selecting: Students
must select information
relevant to the writing
task
Connecting: Students
must make connections
among ideas.
Organizing: Students must organize
ideas into a new piece of writing.
In fact, a linear process
seems to be associated
with less successful
synthesis results.

14. A recursive process
Selecting: Students
must select information
relevant to the writing
task
Connecting: Students
must make connections
among ideas.
Organizing: Students must organize
ideas into a new piece of writing.

15. Less successful strategies
In the least successful synthesis products,
students merely summarized or copied
sentences from various texts.

16. Less successful strategies
The resulting synthesis papers do not show
integration of ideas. Have you seen this in
your students’ writings?

17. “Just get it done!”
A focus on task completion may be
damaging to strong synthesis. Why might
being focused on a product interfere with a
strong recursive process?

18. Thinking about the classroom
The idea of a recursive process and a less
intense focus on task completion is at odds
with the work of most classrooms. What do
you think?

19. The good news
The process of integrating ideas and figuring
out how to say them helps students to
become stronger readers and writers.

20. In the next part…
Low stakes classroom activities to help
students build the skills of connecting,
organizing, and selecting information

21. References
Gil, Laura, Ivar Braten, Eduardo Vidal-Abarca, and Helge StromsoI. 2010. “Summary versus
Argument Tasks when Working with Multiple Documents: Which Is Better for Whom?”
Contemporary Educational Psychology, v35 n3 p157-173.
Mateos, Mar and Isabel Sole. 2009. “Synthesising Information from Various Texts: A Study of
Procedures and Products at Different Educational Levels.” European Journal of Psychology of
Education, v24 n4 p435-451.
Mateos, Mar, Elena Martin, Ruth Villalon, and Maria Luna. 2008. “Reading and Writing to
Learn in Secondary Education: Online Processing Activity and Written Products in
Summarizing and Synthesizing Tasks.” Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, v21
n7 p675-697.
Sole, Isabel, Mariana Miras, Nuria Castells, Sandra Espino, and Marta Minguela. 2013.
“Integrating Information: An Analysis of the Processes Involved and the Products Generated
in a Written Synthesis Task.” Written Communication, v30 n1 p63-90.
Spivey, N.N. 1997. “Transforming texts: Constructive processes in reading and writing.”
Written Communication, 7, 256–287.
Zhang, Cui. 2013. “Effect of Instruction on ESL Students' Synthesis Writing.” Journal of Second
Language Writing, v22 n1 p51-67.