Title of Video Segment: Into the Book: Behind the Lesson, Synthesizing
Running Time: 9 minutes, 34 seconds
Synopsis of Segment: Synthesizing … Using a newspaper article and books at differentiated reading levels, a teacher helps students compare their prior knowledge with information in the text, allowing them to see what new knowledge their reading gives them.
     

DR. MICHAEL P. FORD: How do students use synthesizing to get into the book? Let's go Behind the Lesson and see how teachers make this happen.

CHERI POLSTER: Do you remember, boys and girls, last week when I had you write about strategies? You've been working, somebody told me the other day, since kindergarten--since kindergarten--on strategies.

I asked you to think about what strategies you use and how strategies help you. Some of you wrote and told me that sometimes you feel like you use some strategies more than other strategies. We talked about that that's probably true, depending on what you're reading. It depends on what kind of strategies you use.

Do we use just one strategy or are we using lots of different strategies all the time?
     
STUDENT: Mostly you don't realize that you're using a lot of strategies When you're probably using more than only one.
     
CHERI POLSTER: Right.
     
DR. FORD: Your kids told us that they've been working on strategies since kindergarten. What does the strategy instruction look like at the earlier grades?
     
CHERI POLSTER: In kindergarten, it starts with a lot of modeling. Modeling with big books. They talk about visualizing. They're questioning, asking what do you think will happen, why did the character do that?

We read a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons, don't we? A lot of times, I like to do a lot of information reading. One of the things that I read every night is the newspaper. Now, today, what I'm going to show you is exactly what I do when I pick up the newspaper.

This one says, "Bald eagle closer to coming off endangered list." Now, right away, my brain starts thinking. I think about what I already know about bald eagles. I'm going to think just like I do when I pick this paper up. I thought, okay--I'm going to have Ms. Spielbauer write down what I'm thinking. I want you to see. This is like I'm opening my brain up for you. Okay, I'm looking at that, and I'm thinking there's a bald eagle by the river in Amherst. I know that.

DR. FORD: What was your outcome for today's lesson?

CHERI POLSTER: What I wanted to achieve with the students, was I wanted them to understand what synthesizing was and how we think about things before we read, and that we come away with something new when we're done reading, which was very evident today as the students had those "ah-ha" moments.

Now, I want you to turn to the person next to you and come up with something that you know about bald eagles.

STUDENT: They are our state bird and they are very rare.
     
CHERI POLSTER: Does somebody have something they want to share? We'll put it up there, because we're going to read the article and see if we're right, or if our thinking changes. What do you think?

STUDENT: The bald eagle is our state bird.

CHERI POLSTER: Okay.

STUDENT: They're called bald eagles because their heads are white.
     
CHERI POLSTER: Okay, I'm going to start reading, and if you hear Something that we talked about, I want you to put your hand up. Okay, are you ready?

"The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service issued draft volunteer guidelines spelling out how landowners, land managers and others should protect the bird, once it is no longer safeguarded by the 1973 law."

Oh, you heard something. Brianna?
     
STUDENT: Protected by a law.
     
CHERI POLSTER: Okay, they are protected by law, so are we right? Ms. Spielbauer, do you want to put a plus by that, because we know we were right.
     
DR. FORD: I liked your use of the newspaper as part of your shared Reading lesson today. How important do you think it is to bring in real-life texts?
     
CHERI POLSTER: We really try and do that a lot. As research is looking at, kids need to read a lot of nonfiction. The kids love the magazines. It's really important that they see we read all the time, everywhere. We're always looking for information.

Have I learned some new things? Have you learned something new about bald eagles that you didn't know before? So, are you coming away with a new learning? So you know what you just did? We synthesized.
     
Today, we're going to do something called an anticipation guide. I've written little statements out for you. What you're going to do, is I'm going to read the statements and you're going to use that colored pencil at your desk to mark whether you agree or disagree with the statement.
     
DR. FORD: The lesson featured the use of a technique called the anticipation guide. Can you tell us a little bit more about why you selected that instructional technique?
     
CHERI POLSTER: I like to use the anticipation guide for nonfiction. One of the reasons is because it is very obvious for students who have misconceptions. When they are done looking through the resources, they can look and see whether it was a misconception, and how their thinking has changed. And it's very personal because they each answer whether they agree or disagree. And they go back and they prove. It's not threatening, because they know there's no right or wrong answer. It sets that purpose for reading. They're looking for that information.

You're going to get with your partners. We have books with your names on them. What we want you to do, is you are going to go through those books see if you can prove. Remember as I was thinking out loud, and what I anticipated reading? You're going to write whether you were right or not. So, you can just do a plus in front if you were right. Then, any notes you have, maybe you find something really interesting.

When you're finding out that bees are insects, how come they're insects? If that's right, then write down a couple things. Now, if you find something really good that you're really interested in, and you think other kids would be interested in about bees, I've got sticky notes over here. You can put a sticky note on that page, and you can put a couple words on that sticky note so you remember. Because when we're all done, just like we always do, we come back and we talk about what we found, and we share. Because when we share, everybody learns new information and everybody will come away with new learning.

DR. FORD: Now this lesson, dependent on a lot of resources, in fact there was at least one book per every child on the same topic. Talk about your preparation for the lesson.

CHERI POLSTER: I knew they were going to be doing a unit on plants. There were a couple kids in here who I knew were a little more concerned about bees. I went into the library one night after school, and just pulled everything I could find. Then I asked a couple other teachers and went through my own resources, and had more than enough books.

STUDENT: "Every year they build a new nest out of thin sheets of paper. They make the paper themselves by chewing tiny pieces of food and mixing it with saliva."
     
STUDENT: "Honey bees live in groups called a colony."
     
STUDENT: You write that, I'll write this. Okay?

STUDENT: "These homes are called hives." Most people already know that they live in hives, so you should write beekeepers build homes for honey bees and they are called colonies.

STUDENT: If it weren't for bees, what would the earth be?

STUDENT: Just plain grass and dirt.
     
STUDENT: Yeah, and trees.

STUDENT: And some water
     
STUDENT: And plus, if we didn't have flowers, it wouldn't be, like on Valentine's Day or Christmas, some people give flowers away. If they didn't have flowers, what would they give away, just chocolate?
     
CHERI POLSTER: Who has something to share that they found out that their thinking changed? Hannah.
     
STUDENT: There can be more than 6,000 bees in one hive.

STUDENT: That bees have six legs and four wings.
     
CHERI POLSTER: So what did you find out? They are what?

STUDENT: That they are insects.

DR. FORD: My sense is that you felt the lesson was fairly successful for today. Was there anything that you would change if you were teaching this again?
     
CHERI POLSTER: I felt it was successful. What I would look at is some thing's I've implemented with a couple students who have a little more difficulty reading, because of having special needs. I would look at some other options for them. I try and keep them with everyone else. We have different assistive technology devices we use. Sometimes, those devices are more effective than others.

DR. FORD: It was an excellent lesson to observe. We really want to thank you for sharing it with us.
     
CHERI POLSTER: Well, thank you.