Synthesis First Draft Review
Lesson Materials: For the student-facing pedagogical materials needed to teach today’s class, please open the following page: Synthesis First Draft Review Lesson Materials
Lesson objectives: Review summaries and analyses; 2. Gain an understanding of strengths and weaknesses of the organization, content, and rhetorical aspects of the assignment; 3. Implement suggested changes as needed
Connection to Course Goals: This lesson helps students critically analyze texts by assisting them with strategies of identifying patterns of ideas and analyzing them. This lesson also reminds students that writing is a process, and the focus of the lesson is content and organization and rhetorical aspects at this stage of the process. This lesson also provides students to build the foundation for engaging with sources, making sure that they identify key ideas from their readings.
Sequence of activities: 1. Annotating and Identifying Key Ideas for Analysis; 2. Peer Review; Revision
Activities
1. Annotating and Identifying Key Ideas for Analysis
- Think (20 min): Have student copy and paste a few paragraphs from a source used for their assignment, use an annotation tool, or use a printed reading of a source to prepare to identify key ideas. Then, have them bold or make notes or underline key phrases that stand out to them as helpful or relevant to understanding and solving their problem. Students will then categorize the bold phrases into main themes/categories of information (ex. problem, solution, controversy, etc). Then have students review their summary and see if any additional content should be added to supplement them based on the above activity. Have students review their analyses and add any new insights.
- Share (20 min): Read student summaries and analyses with a class and review them together for content quality. Make sure students understand the difference between analysis and summary. Help students recognize that the categories of information they created are the building blocks for organizing their entries logically and for synthesizing.
2. Peer Review (50 minutes): Following the protocol for peer review, students will give one another comments on their writing and identify moments in first drafts that require further attention.
3. Revision Implementation (50 minutes): The time remaining should be dedicated to the implementation of suggested revisions.