I’ve made it to page 118 and I hope to finish the remainder of the book before Sun Belt starts on Monday.

Let me start by saying that I really liked how Rick Wormeli included the “Chart of Summarization Techniques” in the beginning of Part 3.  I believed he used his “Analysis Matrix” strategy to summarize his strategies for summarization!  I can see myself making a poster of this and placing it on my front board as a reminder to myself. I can easily look and “pull one out of a hat” for an activity at a moment’s notice.

I will be honest and say that I didn’t fall in love with all of his techniques. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they would work- it’s just that I think some of them would be a little difficult for my third graders.  The examples he gave of uses in the classroom all seemed to cater to middle-school students, however, all of them could be modified for use with younger students.

I did have some favorites.  I find myself using advanced organizers all the time, so I enjoyed reading the section on Analysis Matrices and Graphic Organizers.  I also really liked the body sculpture ideas. I have students who are timid and don’t always like to act in front of the class.  This strategy only has the student posing, so I think this might be less intimidating for some of them – especially if they can do it with a group.  

I never thought of using camp songs to help students remember important material.  I didn’t know all the tunes listed, but I did know most of them.  I know that I had some students last year that would have loved to complete this kind of activity – some I’m sure who will audition for American Idol Season….hmmmm….16?!

I’ve done the Carousel Brainstorming with a group of my peers, but I’ve never transferred it to my classroom.  I think that this may be an even better way to complete KWL charts – at the beginning and end of units.

I will definitely add the “Human Bingo” activity to my list of regular activities.  I think this activity would really get the students thinking and out of their seats to release some energy and the bingo sheets can be created quickly for a variety of topics.

How about you all? Any favorites?  Any ideas on how to incorporate his strategies into an elementary classroom?

P.S. – Have you all noticed that this blog’s spellcheck does not like the word “summarization”?  I’ve looked at it several times…am I spelling it wrong?