Using Digital Media to Scaffold the Development of "Synthesis" in Young Students

At its most basic level, synthesis is essentially combining two or more summaries (Jamieson, 1999). Synthesizing most likely needs to be modeled and directly taught for most students, particularly young ones (Gardner, 2007). For these young students, even writing a basic summary is a relatively high-level task, so introducing synthesis to their repertoire will require significant scaffolding. Recently, we used the web-based mind-mapping program “bubbl.us” to plan persuasive writing pieces. The students absolutely loved using this tool, and became very adept at it very quickly. 

My initial “synthesizing” work with third graders would use bubbl.us. We would begin with two engaging and related non-fiction pieces—Dorling Kindersley’s Amazing Bats, and Ranger Rick Life Science Series: Bats! Starting small, we would begin with a single, basic inquiry question such as: What do bats eat?

The initial map might look something like this:

The students would gather facts from each source...then, using the program, connect the similar facts. It would be visual and kinesthetic, and the kids would be highly motivated simply by using this easy and fun program. After constructing the mind-map, we would use interactive writing to construct a synthesis paragraph that wove information from two sources into one informational text. We would gradually transition from group writing, to partner writing, to individual writing. As we became more and more proficient, we could add a third resource. All of this would transfer directly into content-related research and writing required throughout the year. It would also reinforce note-taking and, optimally, transfer over time into students “synthesizing” with a degree of independence and automaticity. 

  

Cole, Ron (1997). Bats!  New York. New York. Doubleday Book and Music Clubs. 

        Retrieved from: http://www.amazon.com/Bats-Ranger-Science-Spectacular-Series

Gardner, Howard. (2007). Five minds for the future. Boston: Harvard Business School 

         Press.

Greenaway, Frank (1991). Amazing bats. New York. Alfred A. Knopf

Jamieson, Sandra (1999). Drew University on-line resources for writers. Retrieved from:

        http://www.users.drew.edu/~sjamieso/Synthesis.htm

LKCollab, LLC (n.d.). bubbl.us. Retrieved from: https://bubbl.us/