Big 6 Resources

5. Synthesis

Organize information from different sources
Decide how you will put together your notes and add your ideas and insights.
You may:

• Write a rough draft
• Build an outline
• Create a storyboard
• Draw a sketch

Present the information
If your teacher assigns the product:

• Make sure that you follow your teacher's guidelines.
• Add value to the product by including your ideas along with the information you found in books, web sites, and other sources. Make sure that your final product or paper is more than just a summary of what you found in the other sources.
• Make a product or write a paper that you would be proud for anyone to read.
• Include a bibliography. This is an alphabetized list of your sources. See the citation page for help.

Reviewing the Results
As students look at their diagrams, notes, or other representations of the information they have collected, encourage them to consider the following questions:

• Have the most important questions been addressed?
• Have any new questions arisen?
• Is there extra or repeated information that can be eliminated?
• Where are the "holes" in my understanding?
• Are there other ways to view the information or perspectives I should be considering?

Graphic Organizers
Quotes from the Graphic.org site
"Is a picture worth a thousand words? A graphic organizer forms a powerful visual picture of information and allows the mind 'to see' undiscovered patterns and relationships."

"Graphic Organizers, Mind Maps, Concept Maps are a pictorial or graphical way to organize information and thoughts for understanding, remembering, or writing about. Graphic organizers, mind maps and concept maps are powerful tools that can be used to enhance learning and create a foundation for learning. On the other end, a graphic organizer itself can be the end product or project of a student’s learning experience." View Examples

There is a simple method for creating graphic organizers, it is called paper and pencil. (Crayons, markers, whatever. If you want nicer looking organizers there is great software and even web-based tools to help create graphic organizers:

• OmniGraffle
• Freemind
• Gliffy

Additional Sources for Graphic Organizers

• Graphic.org
• Houghton Mifflin Education Place - Graphic Organizers
• More Houghton Mifflin Graphic Organizers
• Enchanted Learning Graphic Organizers (now requires a membership fee.)
• Graphic Organizers and Generic Patterns (pdf)
• teAchnology Graphic Organizer Makers
• FNO: Graphical Organizers as Thinking Technology

Student Products
Essential Question: How can students show what they understand from their research?

• Technology and Multiple Intelligences

Different Ways to Find Out What Students Understand

Make a chart or diagram	Write an analogy	Write and do a rap	Develop an exhibit	Develop a collection
Write a letter to the editor	Participate in a mock trial	Design a game	Create a dance	Write a diary from the perspective of someone else
Conduct a discussion	Design and create a class	Present a news report	Design a Webquest	Critique a book
Create an advertisement	Illustrate a math concept	Judge an event	Create a puppet show	Solve a mystery
Write an essay	Create a multimedia presentation	Conduct an interview	Keep a journal log	Do a self-assessment
Participate in a simulation	Do a demonstration	Create cartoons	Create a report	Make a learning center
Create a poem	Make a book	Create a flow chart	Make a plan	Make a scrapbook
Do a photo essay	Participate in a debate	Give a performance	Make a mural	Draw a blueprint
Create an invention	Make a video	Defend a theory	Create a new product	Make a model
Devise a new recipe	Design a structure	Create a brochure	Do an experiment	Design a structure

 

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Graphic Organizers for Synthesis

• Problem and Solution: Use to identify a problem and consider multiple solutions and possible results.

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