Magnet+Summaries

“Magnet Summaries” are very much like “Concept Circles” in that they force students to synthesize multiple bits of information into one encompassing meaning, but “Magnet Summaries” are particularly helpful for studying because their format lends them so well to making notecards and in-class review games. Like magnets attract, important words in a passage can attract details and meanings to them. Prepared with an index card, students can find their own “Magnet Word” in a passage, or the teacher can provide one. Then, detail words and phrases from the passage should surround the word. By students generating complex sentences about the “Magnet Word” that include some of the supporting words, they will be making their own meanings from what they have read, and be summarizing it into general and more memorable terms. I would primarily use “Magnet Summaries” for reading nonfiction since the strategy is so well-equipped to deal with unfamiliar material. Therefore, whenever we are studying a literary period or movement in my English classes, I would pop out this strategy.
 * Magnet Summaries ** (A Note Taking / Study Strategy)

In an American Literature class studying F. Scott Fitzgerald’s __The Great Gatsby__, I would use “Magnet Summaries” to help kids study for an assessment on modernism. I would help the kids make cards to study by filling out a giant “Magnet Summary” on the board, which they could then copy onto their own cards. This is an example of the kind of words I would use, and the sort of description I would want students to generate on the back sides of their cards. Beuhl, D. (2008). //Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning// (3rd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.