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Writing from Sources Part 1
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.
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Writing from Sources Part 1
- 1. Writing from Sources:Part 1 Emily Kissner June 2014
- 2. Agenda 1. Why writefrom sources? 2. Steps for synthesis 3. Unpacking the process (see Part 2) 4. Classroom activities (see Part 2)
- 3. Common Core ShiftVideo 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 atime 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 fromsources? 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 Thereis 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 Theidea 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 selectinformation relevant to the writing task
- 9. Connecting: Students must makeconnections among ideas.
- 10. Organizing: Students must organizeideas into a new piece of writing.
- 11. Think about it Considerthe 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 Inthe least successful synthesis products, students merely summarized or copied sentences from various texts.
- 16. Less successful strategies Theresulting synthesis papers do not show integration of ideas. Have you seen this in your students’ writings?
- 17. “Just get itdone!” 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 theclassroom 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 Theprocess of integrating ideas and figuring out how to say them helps students to become stronger readers and writers.
- 20. In the nextpart… Low stakes classroom activities to help students build the skills of connecting, organizing, and selecting information
- 21. References Gil, Laura, IvarBraten, 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.