Teaching Each Other - Accommodating Processing Difficulties

To evaluate a student's understanding of course material, and to provide an opportunity to review this material, have students "teach" each other important concepts.

Jigsaw Exercise for Paraphrase, Summary, Direct Quote:

Goal:
Each member of the class will understand the difference between paraphrasing, summarizing, and directly quoting sources.  They will also understand how to create an in-text citation for each.

Part One - Becoming Experts in the Material:

  1. Divide class into groups of three student
  2. Assign each group a subject to discuss, i.e., paraphrase, summary, direct quote.  Provide each group with appropriate handout (see example below).
  3. Give group 10 minutes to discuss handout and become "experts" on this subject.

Summarizing Handout

You will be responsible for teaching two other class members about the proper use of summarizing.  This is discussed in your Simon and Schuster handbook, page 568-572. 

As a group, prepare what you will individually teach.  Review these pages and outline what you think are the important points discussed.  Find some examples of summary in the book.  Find a longer passage in the book and write a summary that you can share as an example.  The following are some important points that should be taught.

  1. "A summary condenses the essentials of someone else’s thought into a few general statements" (568).

  2. It is "much shorter [than a paraphrase] and provides only the main point of the original source" (568).

  3. When summarizing, isolate the main point of the text, and condense it without losing the meaning.  You can do this by

    1. asking "what is the subject of the text" and "what is the central message of the subject"

    2. tracing a line of thought throughout the text to be summarized and delete the ideas that are not central to the subject

  4. Your own opinions do not belong in a summary.

  5. You must document a summary.

  6. Sometimes it may be too difficult to summarize without using a direct quote from the text.  This is fine; just be sure it is set off by quotation marks.


Part Two - Teaching the Material:  
  1. Redistribute the groups.  Combine so there is one summary "expert," one paraphrase "expert," and one "direct quote" expert.
  2. Have each expert take 5 minutes to teach the other group members about his or her topic.
Part Three - Testing Comprehension

Give the group a long excerpt from a source.  Have the group develop a paragraph that a) summarizes the main idea of the excerpt, b) paraphrases a supporting idea of the excerpt, and c) uses a direct quote from the excerpt to clarify the supporting idea.

Return to "Accommodating SLD's" main page