Metacognitive Skills in
Literacy
Series B
Part V: Synthesizing
Facilitator’s Guide
Professional Learning Module Facilitation Guide for the 3 hour workshop. This workshop should follow
the Summarizing workshop that is a part of the Metacognitive Skills in Literacy series.
.
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Metacognitive Skills in Literacy, Series B
Part V: Synthesizing
Professional Learning Module Facilitation Guide for the fifth 3 hour workshop on synthesizing. This
workshop should follow the Summarizing workshop.
Participants Need to Bring:
 Narrative and expository text that they will be using for literacy instruction with their students in
the next units of instruction in reading (ELA), science, or social studies.
Materials Needed by Facilitator:
 Participant Booklets: Metacognitive Skills in Literacy, Series B – Part V: Synthesizing
 LCD projector and computer with presentation slides
 Chart paper and markers for each team of 4 to 5 teachers
 3x3 sticky notes/PostIts
 Copies of Pink and Say; The Boy’s War: Confederate and Union Soldier Talk About the Civil
War; Yankee Blue or Rebel Gray; and Mr. Lincoln’s High-Tech War, least one for each two
participants*
*The Curriculum and Instruction Department has multiple copies of this text which can be loaned out
for the professional learning session.
Stage One: Desired Results
Essential Questions:
1. How can we ensure our students are metacognitive readers?
Mastery Objectives:
1. Participants will review their student data on the use of summarizing strategies and determine
next steps for instruction based on the data.
2. Participants will define the key strategy of synthesizing in kid friendly terms.
3. Participants will develop their own ‘think-aloud’ scripts for modeling how good readers
synthesize.
4. Participants will develop unit lesson plans for reading instruction in ELA, science, or social
studies that include: a) instruction and practice in synthesizing with texts students will use to
master unit transfer goals, and b) identification of data points to determine student outcomes.
Stage Two: Assessment Evidence
Pre-Assessment:
 Write a kid friendly definition of synthesize.
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
Identify how they, as readers, use synthesizing skills with fiction and nonfiction text.
Formative Assessment:
 Write ‘think-aloud’ scripts for modeling synthesizing with narrative and expository text.
 Identify data points or evidence that indicates student mastery of desired strategies.
Summative Assessment:
 Write lesson plans for a unit of instruction in ELA, science or social studies that involves student
reading of text and incorporates cooperative learning structures, synthesizing strategy instruction
and practice.
 Collect student outcome data to document impact of instruction on synthesizing.
Stage Three: Learning Plan
(Organize the workshop area so that teachers are sitting in teams of four. Give each team member a
number: 1, 2, 3, or 4. Have each team sit around a table to facilitate the work. The words in italics are
notes to the facilitator related to processes. This script is NOT intended to be read. It is to give the
facilitator an idea of the learning plan. The facilitator should use her/his own words when conducting this
workshop.)
1. Framing the Learning – 30 minutes
We are working on helping our students become metacognitive readers. In our last session we look
specifically at the strategy of summarizing. One of the mental acts that a reader engages in when reading
texts to ensure they are understanding. We have learned or reviewed that good readers pause periodically
while reading to review or paraphrase what they have read. In addition, good readers make predictions
about what they think will come next in the text. Good readers ask questions while they are reading and
stop from time to time to summarize what they have read. Today we will work on how good readers
synthesize what they are reading. Good readers synthesize information from multiple sources or texts as
well as with their prior knowledge and life experiences.
Last time we were together we identified three data points that that we would collect to help us
understand how well our students are doing in using summarizing strategies.
This is a part of the Plan-Do-Study-Act process. Last time we
planned for teaching our students to summarize. Then we
went to our classrooms and tried it out: that was the Do stage.
Now we are in the Study stage.
In our table teams we are going to share the data we collected
and our analysis of what the data are telling us. We want to
look at data that not only verifies that we tried teaching our
students to summarize, but also evidence of what they are able
to do themselves in relation to summarizing.
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



These students are masters at summarizing and do so
without prompting.
These students are learning to summarize and do so
with prompting.
These students are not yet able to summarize.
I don’t know if these students can summarize.
Take a few minutes in your teams to share the data you
collected and your conclusions about the data. You can use
p. 5 of your participant booklet to record your thinking.
(Give teams time to share)
Now, that we have reviewed the evidence about our students ability to summarize, let’s talk about why
they are where they are with this strategy and what our next steps might be.
(Use chart paper or smart board chart such as the one below to collect teacher input on why they think
students are at the different stages in summarizing and what next steps might be. Be sure to start with a
blank chart. The answers in the chart below are just suggestions of what thoughts might be generated.
However, be sure to raise the point that if the plan was not moved to the Do stage, there will be no data
or students will most likely not be able to summarize. You have to work the plan.)
Why
Next Steps
Students
summarize without
prompting.
 Students stop
periodically
while reading to
ask summarize
what they are
reading.
 Expectation
established that
reading means
checking your
understanding
and summarizing
the text.

Teach other
metacogntive
Students
summarize with
prompting.
 Students work in
pairs/teams that
are structured to
support each
other in
summarizing the
text or portions of
the text.
 Reading of text
assignments are
given in a format
that prompts
summarizing.
 If teacher asks
student to
summarize the text
being read,
student can use
strategies to
summarize.
 Continue to use
student
Students not yet
able to summarize.
Text is at too
difficult of a level
and student is
using all brain
power to try to
decode words.
Student
approaches
reading as the
calling of words
and does not take
time to monitor
his/her
understanding.
Student knows
when he/she does
not understand but
unsure how to fix
it.

Identify why
meaning breaks
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Don’t know if
students can
summarize
 Didn’t collect
data.
 Didn’t work the
plan.
 Didn’t provide
explicit and
scaffold
instruction in
summarizing.


Work the plan.
Provide explicit
4

strategies.
Provide students
with text at the
next level of
difficulty.

pairs/teams to
reinforce use of
summarizing
strategies.
When assigning
reading of a text
remind students
to summarize
the text
periodically and
include tasks in
the assignment
that prompt the
use of
summarizing.


down for and
model explicitly
for student
through ThinkAlouds
strategies
related to the
why meaning
breaks down for
the student
(teacher or
other students
demonstrating).
Provide guided
practice with
teacher or
partner
pair/team.
Check in with
student
frequently while
he/she is
reading and ask
them to
summarize
portions of the
text.
Ask student to
write one
summarizing
statement at the
end of each
page read.


instruction and
guided practice.
Collect the data.
Identify other
data points to
collect that are
less
cumbersome.
In light of what we have learned from teaching summarizing in our classrooms and reflecting on the data
from our students, let’s look again at our essential question and discuss it anew now that we have more
experience to bring to this conversation.
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2. Presenting Information and Creating Engagement
Monitoring Comprehension Through Synthesis – (90 minutes)
Today we are going to work on another metacognitive strategy. As in all metacognitive strategies, it calls
for listening to your inner voice. However, this time when you are listening to your inner voice you are
not only clarifying what the text is saying by either paraphrasing to yourself or fixing it when your inner
voice says, ‘huh,’ you are also synthesizing information from the text with other texts or prior
knowledge.. Synthesizing what we are reading is critical for creating connections between discrete pieces
of information and creating new learning.
Let’s think about how we as good readers synthesize. When you are reading a novel, how do you
synthesize? When you are reading technical information, how do you synthesize? When you are reading
a ACPS curriculum guide, how do you synthesize it with other text or prior knowledge? Discuss these
questions in team or the large group.
In order to synthesize you have to have information from various sources such as multiple texts. So we
are going to use multiple texts in our modeling today. Before you can synthesize you have to be able to
summarize the big ideas, one-by-one, from multiple text.
Once again I am going to use the steps of 1) modeling for students by doing a ‘think-aloud’ so they can
hear what is happening in the mind of a good reader while reading, 2) supporting them in practicing the
skill through guided practice with a partner so they are verbalizing their own inner voice, and 3)
supporting independent practice. The think aloud I am going to model today would normally be done over
multiple days. First I need to summarize at least two different pieces of text.
We are making the assumption that we are in a grade 4 classroom that is studying the Civil War or the
War of Northern Aggression in Virginia studies. The students have some basic background on this war.
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First I am going to read Pink and Say and summarize the text
using the summarizing fiction graphic organizer. The text is
based on a true story that was passed down through the
generations so it is historical fiction.
(Read Pink and Say, stopping periodically to model clarifying,
predicting, and questioning or have partner pairs clarify with
each other, etc.)
We know that good readers have an inner voice that is constantly interacting with the text. The
conversation the inner voice has with the text helps the reader understand the text. The inner voice
paraphrases what is read, says Huh when understanding breaks down, makes predications about what is
coming next in the text, is constantly asking questions and summarizes at key points in the text. Even
though we have already taught those metacognitive strategies, we want to continue to model them and
engage students in using these strategies.
When helping students learn to be metacognitive, having them stop at the end of each page to clarify,
predict, ask questions, and/or clarify is a good way of establishing a structure and habit for pausing while
reading to be metacognitive. As students become experts as reflecting on their reading the forced structure
of stopping for each page will fall away.
Okay, on another day I might introduce another text to my students that also deals with the topic of the
civil war. In this case I might have my students engage with
The Boys’ War. This is a nonfiction text so when supporting
students as they begin to read interact with this text I would
use a graphic organizer that helps me summarize nonfiction
texts.
(Read chapter 1 of The Boys’ War noting details as you read
then summarizing this first chapter.)
Next I might have my students read and summarize portions of Mr. Lincoln’s High Tech War and Yankee
Blue or Rebel Gray.
(Ask partner pairs to either read chapter 1 of Yankee Blue or Rebel Gray pp. 6 to 12 and summarize with
a graphic organizer or read chapter 2, pp. 17 to 21, of Mr. Lincoln’s High Tech War and summarize
using an appropriate graphic organizer.)
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We now have information or big ideas from 4 different pieces of text plus whatever prior knowledge we
have about the Civil War from studying it in social studies. We are ready to synthesize.
As the teacher I have now modeled through a Think-Aloud summarizing with fiction. Now it is time to
scaffold this strategy, moving step by step until the student is carrying the entire cognitive load. Talk in
your teams about what steps you would take to move from the teacher doing all of the cognitive load
(reading and summarizing) to the student doing all the cognitive load (reading and summarizing).
Let’s review each of the summaries we have for each of the texts we have read. (Review as a group the
graphic organizers used to summarize portions of Pink and Say; The Boys’ War, Yankee Blue Rebel
Gray, and Mr. Lincoln’s High Tech War.)
How is the information from each of these texts related?
(Think Aloud:) They are about the civil war. More specifically they are about the start of the civil war
when men or boys were signing up to fight and the rest of the people were trying to support the efforts to
prepare for war either through protests, making charcoal, etc. So I know have lots of information and
different perspectives of how the start of the civil war impacted everyday people. I am going to write a
paragraph synthesizing the information that I have gained from these multiple texts. I’ll start by writing a
topic sentence/big idea sentence. Then I will support this statement with details from all of the texts.
(Model by writing a paragraph with the following topic/big idea sentence: When the civil war started the
lives of every-day people were impacted as they had to make new decisions and take on new tasks in life.)
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In modeling this synthesis paragraph I carried most of the cognitive load: reading the summaries,
identifying the topic sentence, selecting appropriate details to include, and writing a summary statement.
Remember when scaffolding the learning, I want to slowly shift the cognitive load from me to a partner
pair or team and then to the individual student.
In your team, plan out what would the next steps as you transfer the cognitive load from the teacher to
student pairs/team and eventually to individual students. Put you steps on chart paper so that when your
team shares out the visual learners in the group can see it while a team spokesperson shares out.
Let’s take a few minutes to write a kid friendly definition of synthesis just as we did for clarify,
predicting, questioning, and summarizing. In your teams on a sheet of chart paper, write a definition for
synthesis that is easy for students to understand. Once your team has finished, post your definition.
(Give participants a few minutes to complete this task.)
Now that all the definitions are posted take a minute to read them.
You can record your favorite definition that you might want to
use in your classroom in your participant booklet.
Just as we wrote scripts for thinking aloud when modeling
clarifying, predicting, questioning, summarizing for our students,
we are also going to write scripts for modeling synthesis for our
students. When you first begin doing think-alouds to model for students writing an actual script can help
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you feel more comfortable in this explicit instructional strategy and ensure you get all the points in you
want to include.
As good readers it is hard for us to slow down our thinking enough to think-aloud for our students until
we have had a good deal of practice. Once you become more comfortable at it, a good teacher still takes
time to carefully plan the lesson he/she wants to model and plans the think aloud often by putting sticky
notes in the text to remind them at specific points what strategy they want to stop and ‘think-aloud’ for
their students.
Take one of the texts you expect to be using with your students in the unit you are planning for. Write a
script for yourself as the teacher that includes: 1) the explicit modeling and thinking-aloud you will do
for the students, 2) how you will engage students in partner pairs or teams to participate in guided practice
so that each individual student has someone listening to their thinking at all times while in this stage of
practice, and 3) how you will then have students practice independently. There is room for you to do your
planning on p. 16 of the participant guide.
(Give participants 20 minutes to develop their script and/or
sticky note prompts.)
We are now going to practice our think-alouds that we just
wrote scripts for with each other. Take turns with your partner
doing your think-aloud for each other. When you are first
learning to do think –alouds it sometimes feels uncomfortable.
You have to plan ahead of time to be sure you are modeling
what you want the students to learn that day. Practicing before
you do them in your classroom with your students is helpful.
(Give participant time to practice their predicting think-aloud with a partner.)
So, we have spent some time planning think-alouds and guided practice sessions for our students on
questioning. We are going to spend some time finishing our outline of our plans of the unit in which we
are going to introduce and/or reinforce these strategies. We are finishing up the Plan stage of this cycle.
We are all going to go to our classrooms and do the Do stage of the cycle. Remember this part of the
cycle includes not just executing our plans, but also collecting evidence/data to show we did our plan and
how our plans are working.
When we come back together next time we want to have evidence/data from the Do stage to examine and
share with each other in the Study stage.
Let’s talk about what evidence or data that we can agreed as a cohort to bring back next time. This
evidence could include:
 The scripts/sticky notes and texts that you used to model summarizing
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





Teacher observation checklist of student using specific components of metacognitive strategies
(Point out sample in participant booklet p. 18)
Student work products
Team score sheets
Comprehension tests
Transfer Tasks scores
Etc.
I want you to work in your team to first brainstorm a list of evidence or data you might use to determine
when we get back together to Study if it worked, is working or failed completely. After you have
brainstormed, I want us to identify which three data points you think would be most valuable to collect
and bring next time. After you have worked in teams we’ll share out.
(Give teams time to brainstorm data and then identify the three data points they believe will be most
valuable. Ask teams to share out. Record the data points agreed upon that each member will collect and
brought back to the next work session.)
Okay, as a group/individuals we have now decided what our three data points are going to be that we
bring back next time. Of course you can bring additional data points, especially ones that you feel will be
valuable to you in know what to keep in the Act stage and what to abandon or re-do in this stage.
In your participant guide let’s record the three data points we decided on as a cohort so we remember
what we are to bring back with us next time
3. Consolidating and Anchoring the Lesson – (20 minutes + 40 minutes for planning)
We have been working on five metacognitive strategies that we want our students to use when reading
text: clarifying, predicting, questioning, summarizing, and synthsizing. We have also been working on
instructional strategies to help our student learn to be metacognitive. Let’s take some time to review what
we have learned so far.
In your teams discuss our essential question and make a quick list of what we have learned so far. Be
ready to share out one thing your team put on the list. Also when sharing out you will need to share
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something that another team has not already shared, so you will need to be familiar with all of the ideas
on your team’s list.
(Give teams time to do this task. Provide chart paper if they prefer to make their list in that manner. After
teams have had time to complete the task, randomly call on one team member from each team to share an
idea related to the essential question above. Remind team members they cannot share an idea that has
been previously shared.)
Planning for Metacognitive Instruction in Our Selected
Unit
The rest of our time is for continued planning of our
instruction in the unit from ELA, science, or social studies
that you have selected for incorporating these metacognitive
strategies.
Look at the curriculum unit guide for the text you brought
with you that you plan to use. Look at Stage One: the Transfer Goals, the Essential Questions, and the
Declarative and Procedural Knowledge, including the key academic vocabulary that is to be taught.
Remember with the ACPS curriculum we want to start with what we want students to know and do and
then design our lessons back from this. It is encouraged that teachers share up front with students what
they want them to know and be able to do by the end of the unit. In fact, sharing the Transfer Task up
front so students know what they are working towards is a good practice.
So now, let’s look at the Transfer Task. This will be the ultimate measure of student learning in this unit.
Let’s do a quick review of some important parts of your planning.
1. Read and think through the Transfer Task students will be asked to complete. What will they
need to know and do in order to be successful on this task? What text do they need to read in
order to acquire some of the learning need for success? Make a list of those texts.
2. Which of these texts will you use for modeling clarifying? Do you have your script/notes for your
think-aloud followed by guided practice? Do you need to develop some additional scripts/notes?
3. Which of these texts will you use for modeling predicting? Do you have your script/notes for
your think-aloud followed by guided practice? Do you need to develop some additional
scripts/notes?
4. What assessments will you use in this unit: pre-assessment, formative assessments, summative
assessments?
5. What will be your daily plans for:
 Framing the Lesson
 Presenting Information and Creating Engagement
 Consolidating and Anchoring the Lesson
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You have already made some scripts and notes with at least one of the text the students will need to read
in this unit so that you can use this text to model predicting strategies for your students. Where else and
how in this unit might you incorporate the instruction in and/or practice of the use of summarizing
strategies? Where might you model and/or reinforce clarifying, predicting, and summarizing strategies?
Take some time to read through the unit and make some quick notes on what you think you might do to
weave explicit instruction and guided practice in using clarifying, predicting, and questioning strategies
into the instruction of this unit. If you have colleagues and/or teammates that are preparing to teach the
same unit, feel free to work on this together.
(Give participants about 10 minutes to do this.)
The rest of the time is yours to complete your planning. If another member of the cohort is planning for
the same unit or grade level, feel free to work together on your plans.
Next time we meet will be XXXX. Remember to bring the three data points we agreed upon after you
have tried teaching your lessons on summarizing. We will use this data for the Study phase of the Plan,
Do, Study, Act cycle.
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