What are the most effective ways to teach students to summarize and synthesize complex texts?

I always had every student prepare an Executive Summary of any paper they wrote. In addition, they had to make a 5-minute oral in-class or online presentation summarizing their paper. These exercises taught them to boil down complex issues in ways anyone can understand. They also learned to write things they will need to write in real life. They also learned public speaking, which will be vital for their careers.

If you enjoy and understand, you retain the most. First, discussing the concept with real life examples and then putting it across in bullet points makes it easier for participants to learn and retain.

First I teach them that their first sentence will be the FATT sentence(Cal State technique), where they can summarize any text in one sentence with the Focus, Audience, Text Type, and Title: Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue” illustrates the power of language. Then we chunk the essay—skimming back over the text looking for shifts in ideas and drawing lines between paragraphs, chunking the text into distinct parts. Then they write one or two sentences of summary per chunk, and they have a complete and sequential summary. To write the sentences, have them circle essential words from the chunk, creating a word bank to use. Finally, add transitions and author references as a second draft. Summary is the stepping stone to analysis.

Este enfoque es efectivo y beneficioso para ense?ar a los estudiantes a resumir y sintetizar textos complejos. En mi experiencia, proporcionar retroalimentación y orientación les permite entender sus fortalezas y áreas de mejora. Hacer preguntas, ofrecer comentarios constructivos, sugerir revisiones y elogiar los esfuerzos contribuyen a un proceso de aprendizaje más sólido, ayudando a los estudiantes a desarrollar habilidades críticas de síntesis y resumen. Además, fomenta la autorreflexión y el progreso continuo.

I encourage students to engage in teamwork, apart of course from individual exercises. I invite students from different batches, backgrounds and courses to collaborate so that they can capitalise on different perspectives - preparing them for real corporate life.

Sintetizar información es clave en un mar de datos y ante la infoxicación que vivimos, es una competencia transversal a todos los profesionales. Existen tres reglas claves para llegar a hacer una lectura critica y la síntesis posterior que son: 1. Filtrar la información útil o de calidad para no perder el tiempo con aquella que no vale la pena 2. Hacer una lectura rápida y global de todo el manuscrito, si. Parar en los detalles. 3. Analizar críticamente las ideas clave subrayadas, aclarar los conceptos y sintetizar.

Perhaps we could add that teachers consider different learning styles; there's good reference to graphic organisers to support visual learning, could audio and kinesthetic activities also be incorporated?

Start with what is foundational and fundamental and keep it simple and then build up from there. The key is to start with the broadest perspective, and then see how everything follows from it.

Start with what is foundational and fundamental and keep it simple and then build up from there. The key is to start with the broadest perspective, and then see how everything follows from it.