How Do I Summarize a Multi-Day Lesson?

Jennifer Partrick
Feb 15, 2010

Summarizing is a critical component of both learning and teaching. When students summarize, they have the opportunity to use content vocabulary and solidify learning. As they summarize, students realize how well they know or understand, or do not know or understand what they are learning and the implication this has on their learning. If students are unable to speak about what they are learning, then they do not yet own the information. In order to speak about what they are learning, they must have the words. If students do not understand what they have learned what recourse do they have? Do they just sit? Can they ask you (the teacher) for support? Will they get the support they need? How will they get the support they need?

Lessons that span several days MUST have Assessment Prompts at predetermined times throughout the lesson. These are critical points where students are talking about what they are learning or manipulating the information they are learning. There are specific learning targets within the lesson that are identified before planning each lesson. At each Assessment Prompt, students have the opportunity to see if they understand the information presented thus far by talking about what they have learned or doing something with what they have learned. You need to look at student output to determine what to do next. Based on student output, make a decision regarding instruction: Should you continue with the lesson? Should you go back to the beginning? Should you hold and give students more time for guided practice? Assessment Prompts help you gauge the learning and make decisions based on student needs. Think about how much you will teach on any day, and use the them to determine how much to instruct per day since the they are natural stopping points within the lesson. At the beginning of the next day revisit earlier prompts allowing  students to talk about what they have learned.

Assessment Prompts help make decisions regarding how to segment lessons, support metacognition and allow you to gain valuable information used to make instructional decisions.

For more information on Assessment Prompts see Connecting Exemplary Practices in Acquisition Lessons.