GIST

Section 6.1, (Instructional Strategy 4)
 * GIST**

GIST stands for Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text and is designed to improve student ability to synthesize and comprehend content area texts. However, the technique as it is presented here also serves as a very succinct explanation and practice of the art of note taking.
 * Rationale:**


 * Instructions:**
 * 1) Take a 3 to 5 paragraph section from a content area text.
 * 2) Distribute the paragraphs one at a time to student groups.
 * 3) For each paragraph, have students write a 25 word or less summary and then work together with their group to agree on a shared summary paragraph.
 * 4) Have each group share their summary and discuss the merits of the summaries as a whole class until a class summary can be agreed upon.
 * 5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all paragraphs have been summarize in this way.
 * 6) Finally, work as a class to combine all of the individual paragraph summaries into a summary of the passage as a whole.
 * 7) Explain to students that, with practice, this technique can be utilized on their own.

Though the strategy is designed for content area texts, it carefully instructs students in one of the key skills of their academic and professional careers, the ability to take notes. The students are learning to take efficient notes that provide them with the information they need to glean from a text or visual presentation. Until this skill is internalized, students frequently have extreme difficulty with PowerPoint presentations as well as any kind of extended lecture experience. For these reasons, the time spent on this strategy will be invaluable to students not only in their Language Arts classroom but throughout their academic careers.
 * Application to Language Arts:**