Transforming our Thinking: Synthesize

This week in whole group reading we have been learning about the comprehension strategy "Synthesize".
To help us practice, we read a few "children's books." After reading the story, we had some new thoughts in our head that we didn't have before. The books changed us. We used the ideas we gathered throughout the story, put them together, and synthesized a new thought!

Here are some of our new thoughts...

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The tree is still wanting to give, but he has nothing left to give. No matter how much the boy took, the tree was there giving more! That's unconditional love! Similarly we take a lot from our parents who always give and give. We need to give back. We should do something for them. Say "thank you"!

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

While reading this story, we determined importance, made connections, and created images. After the story was finished, we saw that Miss Rumphius made a difference in the world by making it a more beautiful place. What can we do to make a difference?

Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna
Our first thought in this story was that this was going to be a baseball book and tell about how great the coach is.
Then after reading a few pages, we began to think that the coach was not as wonderful as we first thought. We didn't think the main message was about baseball.
After reading the last page, our thinking transformed and we synthesized that this book was really trying to teach a lesson. The author is trying to tell us not to spread rumors because you may not know the truth.

This then lead to a class discussion on the old adage "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover".

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Ask your fourth grader which of these three books helped him/her the most when practicing synthesizing! Let me know in the comment section which one was your favorite!