The Handbook for the New Art and Science of Teaching. Robert J. Marzano

      • Beginning (1): A teacher asks her students to use the thinking hats strategy to examine a new concept discussed in class. She encourages the students to use the thinking hats to deepen their responses and understanding but does not walk them through the process of using one hat at a time. Students fill out a worksheet using the hat descriptors but are not given the opportunity to discuss their conclusions or summarize how using the hats helped them better understand the new concept.

      • Developing (2): A teacher uses the strategy of reciprocal teaching to help his students engage with new ideas in a unit on energy and motion. Within each reciprocal teaching group, he designates one student the discussion leader and asks that the other students answer the discussion leader’s questions, clarify difficult information, and summarize the new content. After the first round of reciprocal teaching, he asks for the groups’ summaries and predictions and moves on to the next chunk of new information. He does not monitor how well students executed the strategy or if it helped them increase their understanding.

      • Applying (3): A teacher uses collaborative processing to introduce his students to a unit on triangles. He separates the students into groups and explains the overall process and their individual roles. The teacher models how the process works with several volunteers. After presenting each chunk of new content, he observes and assists the students as they implement the collaborative processing strategy. At the end of class, the teacher takes an informal survey to find out if the students found the strategy helpful and if they would use that strategy again.

      • Innovating (4): A teacher uses the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy with her class during a unit on the French Revolution. She separates the class into groups of three and assigns each person in the group an effect of the revolution to investigate. As the students meet in their expert groups, she checks in, answers the groups’ questions, and asks each student to record his or her research. When students reconvene with their original groups, they compile their research into a chart that they can share with the class and teacher. Because the class was extremely successful with this strategy, she extends the activity and their learning by adding a class discussion about which effects of the French Revolution have most shaped modern-day beliefs and society.

Element 8: Recording and Representing Content

      An effective teacher engages students in activities that help them record their understanding of new content in linguistic ways or represent the content in nonlinguistic ways. Research has shown that representing information linguistically (summaries and notes) is associated with student achievement gains (Bangert-Drowns, Hurley, & Wilkinson, 2004; Crismore, 1985; Ganske, 1981; Hattie et al., 1996; Henk & Stahl, 1985; Marzano, Gnadt, & Jesse, 1990; Pflaum, Walberg, Karegianes, & Rasher, 1980; Raphael & Kirschner, 1985). Research has also shown that representing information nonlinguistically (models, pictures, mental images) increases student achievement (Guzzetti, Snyder, Glass, & Gamus, 1993; Haas, 2005; Hattie et al., 1996; Lovelace, 2005; Mayer, 1989; Nesbit & Adesope, 2006; Powell, 1980; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). When information is both linguistic and nonlinguistic, students process information more thoroughly and deeply.

      There are eleven strategies within this element.

      1. Informal outlines

      2. Summaries

      3. Pictorial notes and pictographs

      4. Combination notes, pictures, and summaries

      5. Graphic organizers

      6. Free-flowing webs

      7. Academic notebooks

      8. Dramatic enactments

      9. Mnemonic devices

      10. Rhyming pegwords

      11. Link strategies

      The following sections will explore each strategy to provide you with guidelines to effectively implement this element. Read through each before creating a plan for your classroom. Teachers may use the strategies individually or in combination. Remember, these are not merely activities to be checked off; they are methods of creating a practice that combines your art with the science of recording and representing content. Reflect on your use of each strategy by filling out the “Strategy Reflection Log” on page 331.

       Informal Outlines

      In an informal outline, students use indentation to indicate the relative importance of ideas. They write big ideas at the left side of the paper, and indent and list details under the big idea to which they pertain. Students can also use numbering, bullets, or Roman numerals to organize information and display its relative importance. Figure 3.7 can help guide students in writing informal outlines.

      Source: Marzano Research, 2016.

Figure 3.7: Informal outline template.

      Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

       Summaries

      The teacher asks students to summarize content. Summarizing requires that students record the critical content from a text or lesson. Summarization techniques often require multiple complex cognitive processes and should be directly taught and modeled for students. Figure 3.8 is a scale that describes different phases of summarization mastery that teachers can use to measure students’ ability to summarize content.

       Figure 3.8: Proficiency scale for summarization.

      Consider using the following summarization activities in your classroom.

      • Use summary frames to structure students’ early attempts at summarization. A summary frame is a series of questions that focus on important elements of the content. Students answer the questions and then use their responses to generate a summary. For example, in a summary frame for a short story, the teacher might create a series of questions that ask students to list the setting, characters, main conflict, and resolution of the story.

      • Show students how supplementary information, such as headings, images, and graphs, in visual presentations of content and texts can help them decipher what the main idea and key details are.

      • Practice basic summarizing techniques by asking students to describe the plot of a familiar movie or story in one or two sentences. Remind students that it is not necessary to retell the whole plot; they should simply try to tell listeners the most important information in their own words. For extra support, ask students to list the who, what, where, when, and why of the plot before giving their summary.

      • Ask students to use a simple graphic organizer to find the main idea and key details from a short presentation or text. Using an organizer can help students understand what kind of information is important to highlight in a summary. For extra support, provide students with the main idea before the start of the lesson and have them fill in the key details.

      • When students begin summarizing content, ask them to think about what they would tell someone who had missed class to help them understand the important ideas from a lesson. Have them practice what they would say with a partner. To encourage students to condense their summaries to only the most critical details, have partners time each other to see if they can summarize ideas in thirty seconds or less.

       Pictorial Notes and Pictographs

      The teacher asks students to use pictorial notes and pictographs to illustrate new content. Pictorial notes may serve as an accompaniment to written notes or, in some cases, as the primary note-taking form. Figure 3.9 is an example of pictorial notes.