Writing across the Curriculum

In using writing to learn, we are actually extending the comprehension by helping students to clarify their understanding. One way to do this is by having students writing a summary of what was gleaned from the presentation. Summary writing like everything must be taught. Again, when you introduce students to the ‘how of writing a summary’ it is important for you to teach the students the strategy that you want them to use. Take a second to recall the steps involved in teaching a strategy. Once you have taught the strategy several times and students are comfortable with it, you can integrate it into you lesson – ‘as a learning tool’ – to check for understanding.
The GIST strategy is one of my favorite for summary writing tool. Here is how it is done?
First you must explain what it is and why it important. Next, model the strategy for the class to see how it is done. Thirdly, have guided practice – teacher and students will practice and finally is the independent practice where students can use the strategy on their own. It is important to go through these steps in teaching any strategy. Once students learn this strategy then of course you can incorporate it into you lesssons.
Check out this video to see how it is done.

Additionally, you can have students respond in one or two words to the questions below as they read or listen to a reading:
Who or what is the passage about?
What is the problem?
How does it happen?

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