5 Fantastic Strategies for Synthesizing

In order for a reader to be able to read and understand a text there is a great deal of work that they must do in their head. As shared in The Importance of Strategies, readers use a variety of strategic actions and strategies to process what they are reading.  Synthesizing is one of twelve strategic action we will explore in this Strategic Action Series. 

Strategies Change Over Time

When young children begin reading, they may use very simple strategies like memorizing or remembering the words in a story and reciting them as they see the pictures. As they learn more about letters, words, and books, they will begin using strategies like:

• Pausing when something doesn’t make sense (self-monitoring)
• Looking at the picture, thinking about the sentence, and looking at the first letters to make sure what they have read “looks right,” “sounds right,” and “makes sense.” (cross-checking sources of information)
• Reread a word to read it correctly when they misread the word the first time. (self-correcting)

As young readers have more and more time to read and experience books, they develop their ability to use more sophisticated strategic actions as they read.

IMPORTANT REMINDER

It is important to note that readers use strategic actions simultaneously. Unfortunately, many children view them as separate actions or even as their goal of their reading. This may be the case if you’ve ever heard your child say, “This week I am inferring.”  This happens when strategies are talked about in isolation or if your child does most of their strategy work with worksheets. Even though we may attempt to strengthen a strategic action by talking about it in isolation, it is always important to remind your child that they use many strategic actions and strategies to understand what we are reading.

Here is an example shared by Fountas and Pinnell in Guided Reading (2e) 

• A child who is automatically solving words and monitoring his comprehension might realize it and pause to reread or search for more information. He might also search his background knowledge, make connections, and, by comparing present knowledge to new learning, synthesize new ideas

Even though these actions are listed in a sequence, many take place simultaneously. Our brains can work so quickly and can do such much.

Now let’s take a look at Synthesizing, a strategic action identified by Fountas and Pinnell (Literacy Continuum, Expanded Edition, 2017).

Synthesizing

Readers are continually encountering new information and ideas from texts. It is important for them to incorporate new information they gain from the text with they already understand and know. Incorporating this new knowledge with their existing knowledge helps readers think deeper, understand more perspectives, and gain understanding of experiences that they cannot directly experience.

Check out the Reading Level Specific Posts  to see questions you can ask or prompts you can give to support your child’s use of this strategic action.

5 Fantastic Strategies to Encourage Synthesizing

1. Look for Patterns with Characters

Great for Reading Levels H-M

Strategy Steps

1. Look at the character in multiple parts of the text.
2. Consider what actions, thoughts, or dialogue repeats across the text.
3. Notice if there is a pattern.
4. Use that pattern to name a trait.

You can prompt your child to think about the characters by asking the following questions:

• Can you describe the character in the beginning?
• Can you describe the character at this part of the story?
• What character trait could describe the character?
• How is the character behaving over and over?

2. Look for Repeating Words in Nonfiction

Great for Reading Levels A-M

Strategy Steps

1. As you read, pay attention to words or phrases that you see over and over.
2. Look at the images and other text features to see if the word or phrase is shown in those as well.
3. Consider if there are any patterns in the images and text features.  
4. When you find a pattern (repeating word or phrase or in images), ask yourself if it tells you about what the book is mostly about. 

You can prompt your child to look for patterns in nonfiction by asking the following questions:

• Is there a word that repeats on each page?
• What patterns do you notice in the images or text features?
• How do the images/text features support the words in the text?
• Do you notice a connection between the repeating word and the images/charts/graphs?
• What is this book mostly about?

3. Pay Attention to Unusual Behavior

Great for Reading Levels N and up

 Strategy Steps

1. As you are reading, pay attention to how the character acts, talks, and responds to others.
2. Notice when a character acts in an unusual way.
3. Think about what the character is saying and/or doing in this particular scene that is different from past scenes.
4. As you continue to read, pay attention to whether the character has changed or if their unusual behavior was temporary (like showing you a glimpse of another side of them).
5. After reading, compare the time the character acted in an unusual way to their previous and latter behaviors to form an idea or theory about the character.

You can prompt your child to pay attention to a character’s behavior changes by asking the following questions:

• What’s unusual about the character’s behavior here?
• How is the character acting differently here?
• Do you think the character changed or do you think they are only behaving differently in this moment?

 4. Going Beyond the Topic

Great for any Reading Levels M and up

 Strategy Steps

1. After reading, think about the main topic.

Example: In Face to Face with Lions the main topic is Lions.

1. Think about what the author says about the main topic.
2. Examine the kinds of words the author uses to describe the topic.
3. Next ask yourself why you think the author wrote this particular book or what perspective does this author bring to this topic.
4. Put together what you notice in the text and the answer to your question (step 4).

Example: Face to Face with Lions is about the importance of lions and how humans are impacting their survival.

You can prompt your child to synthesize elements of the text by asking the following questions:

• What’s the topic of this book?
• What’s this section mostly about?
• How does the author present this topic?
• What do you think the author is trying to say about this topic?

 5. Nonfiction Structures

Great for Reading Levels M and up

 Strategy Steps

1. Read through the text.
2. Consider how the information is being presented and the overall structure.
3. Think about the information you learned in the text.
4. Make a main idea statement including the structure.

This strategy works if your child is familiar with nonfiction text structures:

• Description (main idea and details)
• Cause and Effect
• Compare/Contrast
• Sequence

You can prompt your child to identify the structure by asking the following questions:

• How is the information being presented?
• What’s the relationship between the information being presented?
• (Cause and Effect) Can you include both the cause and effect in your main idea statement?
• (Description) Can you include the theme or lesson learned in your main idea statement?

Check out these posts for more strategies to support strategic actions:

• Searching for and Using Information
• Monitoring and Self-correcting
• Solving words
• Maintaining Fluency
• Adjusting
• Summarizing
• Predicting
• Making Connections  
• Inferring
• Critiquing
• Analyzing

Resources:

• Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2017). Guided reading: Responsive teaching across the grades. Heinemann.
• Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2007). The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-8: Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support. Heinemann.
• Serravallo, J. (2015). The reading strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled readers (Vol. 11). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.