Directions for the Teacher - Challenge Level Activity

Please Note: This activity (scaffold for helping students synthesize) requires teacher facilitation and modeling for every step because students are expected to pull together the processes of recalling, ordering and recreating of information they have read. Throughout the activity, it is important to help students connect the facts to the central theme or main idea. Your students will only be as successful as the framework you supply. When you see how it generates a deeper understanding of what your students read and increases comprehension, you will agree that it is worth the effort.

Day 1: Read and discuss the material (chapter from a book, information from a Web site, short story, etc.) with students.
Day 2: Use this activity sheet as a scaffold to help students synthesize using the previous day's reading. (The teacher records notes on an overhead transparency of the activity sheet and students write on paper copies.)

1. Discuss with the students the central theme or main idea of the reading material, and then write it in the space at the top of the page.
2. Summarize 1 chunk of information for the students (an event or the first few paragraphs of a chapter), helping them recall and order information from the reading. Next, walk them through identifying Who? What? When? Where? Why? from the chunk of information you just summarized for them. Look at this example created by a fifth grade teacher and her students. Repeat this process (summarize, and then identify Who? What? When? Where? Why? ) for 5 or 6 "chunks" of information from their reading assignment. It usually takes about 30 minutes to go through the process. Here is an example of what the activity sheet might look like when you’re done. Now is a good time for a short "movement" break.
3. Now for the fun part: When the first 5 or 6 horizontal lines are complete, close your eyes and randomly point to one box for each column on the grid. Circle or place a check by the word(s) in the randomly selected box. You should have one box circled for each of the 5 columns on your paper. Look at this example.
4. Model for the students how to combine the five randomly selected word(s) in entirely new ways. Brainstorm "what if" scenarios based on actual facts and truths from the reading material. Let them hear you "think" aloud. Here’s an example using the same fifth grade group of students.
   • create new solutions
   • consider all the possibilities, ask "what if" . . .
   • imagine new uses
   • make new combinations and conjure up entirely new inventions
   • turn your ideas into realities
   • visualize and explore how the authors or contributors could expand on this topic
5. Move students into partners or small groups. Instruct them to complete step d collaboratively and record their unique responses on the activity sheet. Why is this so important?
6. Allow each group’s representative to share. Encourage and promote creative thought while keeping them grounded in actual events, facts, and basic truths from the reading material.

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