Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Summarizing and Evaluating Text: Process Text Guides

by

Jos A. Montelongo, Ph.D.

California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
joseamontelongo@yahoo.com
(805) 540-1317

Anita C. Hernndez, Ph.D.

New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88001
achernan@calpoly.edu
(805) 756-5537

Paper presented at
CATESOL Annual Conference
Santa Clara, California
April 22-25, 2010

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Summarizing and Evaluating Text: Process Text Guides
Abstract
This paper describes the composition and use of process text guides to teach and
reinforce important expository reading and writing skills. The process text guides
presented here are comprised of a summarization strand and a higher-order thinking
strand. The summarization strand prompts readers to find the main ideas in paragraphs
and use them to create a summary. The higher-order thinking strand uses the same text
with prompts about higher order thinking strategies (e.g., analogies, context clues,
conclusions) embedded throughout the text to simulate the processes of successful
readers.

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Summarizing and Evaluating Text: Process Text Guides
Many teachers rely on decontextualized workbook activities to teach and
reinforce the various reading and writing skills such as locating the main ideas, drawing
conclusions, understanding analogies, and summarizing text. Since the activities do not
occur as they read authentic text, students do not learn when to deploy the skills the
activities are intended to teach. This has resulted in students who are able to satisfactorily
complete stand-alone drills on worksheets, but who are unable to read, write, and
summarize expository or informational text. Latino English Language Learners, to a
greater extent than other students, require authentic contexts to develop their reading,
writing, and summarization abilities.
Process text guides are teacher-developed resources for helping students
comprehend, summarize, and evaluate particular ideas and concepts arising in text as they
read (McKenna, Davis, and Franks, 2003; Montelongo, 2008; Wood, Lapp, and Flood,
1992). Process text guides prompt student readers with questions about the paragraph(s)
they have just read. The questions are meant to simulate the reading processes
successful readers use as they read informational or expository text. Specifically,
process text guides can be used to support the development of summarization and higherorder thinking skills. The guides are meant to reinforce reading skills such as questioning
the text, finding main ideas, using context clues, drawing conclusions, understanding
cause and effect, and summarizing. Process text guides permit teachers to control the
attention given by students to text content via guiding questions or meaning-making
activities during reading. Process text guides give teachers the power to insert activities
and ancillary materials such as graphic organizers or tables in places where student

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

learning may be most enhanced. The text guides also prompt students to deploy
appropriate reading strategies as they read the text. As a result, students dont have to
wait until they have finished reading to know what was expected of them.
Evidence for the effectiveness of the text guides is exemplified by a study
mentioned by McKenna, Davis, and Franks (2003). In that study, third-grade teachers
developed four text guides based on selections from a science text. Students worked
through the guides at different times in the year. The teachers carefully coached the
students on completing the guides. Following this training, the students were asked to
read a science passage containing information unrelated to any they had studied before.
The group that had been taught using process text guides comprehended more than the
control group that did not have the guides.
In this manuscript, we present a process text guide that includes two strands of
activities, each with its own types of questions and activities. The summarization strand
attempts to develop students summarization skills by prompting the students to locate
the main idea in each paragraph. The higher-order thinking strand is comprised of
activities designed to prompt students to engage in higher-order thinking through
embedded exercises requiring drawing conclusions, making inferences, and questioning
text. Finally, students evaluate the text in terms of what they learned and what they want
to learn more about the topic. A summary of the two strands is presented in Table 1.

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Table 1. Exercises included in summarization and higher-order thinking strands.
Summarization Strand

Higher-Order Thinking Strand

Find the Main Ideas

Draw Conclusions

Note Important Details

Use Context Clues

Categorize Related ideas

Question Text

Paraphrase

Invent Analogies

Summarize

Critique Authors Propositions

Summarization Strand
Reading experts have identified the ability to summarize text as an essential
element of a reading curriculum (Duke and Pearson, 2002). Process text guides are ideal
for helping Latino English Language Learners summarize expository text because they
include structured steps and activities that help students write summaries of the assigned
informational text.
Kintsch and van Dijk (1978) proposed a seminal psychological model of
informational representation that may be generalized to the teaching of summarization.
The steps outlined by Kintsch and van Dijk can be incorporated into the process text
guides for summarizing expository text. First, students read the entire text in order to gain
an overview of the content. Next, they deconstruct each one of the texts paragraphs, one

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

by one, until all of the main ideas have been selected. Then, the students group the related
main ideas. Within each group of related main ideas, the students synthesize a
superordinate main idea from these main ideas, or generate their own if none is explicitly
stated. The remaining main ideas act as the supporting details for the paragraph. Finally,
students re-write the main ideas in their own words as their summary. The ability of the
students to re-write a summary in their own voices can be further used to assess their
comprehension of the text.
The summarization strand of an abridged process text guide is presented in Figure
1. To complete the text guides, students first read the text in its entirety. Since the
comprehension of text necessarily precludes the questioning of text and evaluation,
students complete the summarization strand prior to the higher-order thinking strand. To
complete the summarization strand, the students locate the main idea from every one of
the texts paragraphs. Students then compile all of the main ideas and group the main
ideas according to the various subtopics, finally composing a paragraph for each of the
subtopics. As a result of this process, students create a summary of the informational text.
To complete the summarization strand on states of matter included in Figure 1,
students read each paragraph and choose the main idea. After they have done this for all
of the twelve paragraphs (only 3 paragraphs are shown) in the unit, the students write
down all the main ideas and use these to write a summary. In the process students can
form a mental representation of the text. They discover the relationships among the
various propositions and concepts and form a mental representation of the information.
This mental representation will provide students with a means for recalling the
information and perhaps, as a springboard for generating new ideas.

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Figure 1. First page of the summarization strand of a fifth-grade textbook.
Changing States of Matter
[1]
Matter may exist as a solid, a liquid, or a gas. Most matter exists in one or more of
these states. Water, for instance, exists in three statessolid, liquid, and gas. It is a solid
piece of ice when frozen, a liquid when it melts, and a gas when it evaporates. Which
state it is in depends on the conditions at the time, such as temperature and pressure.
The main idea of this paragraph is:_______
a.
Most matter exists in one or more of these states: solid, liquid, or gas.
b.
Water, for instance, exists in three statessolid, liquid, and gas.
c.
It is a solid piece of ice when frozen, a liquid when it melts, and a gas when it
evaporates.
[2]
The three states of matter differ with respect to shape and volume. A solid has a
definite shape and a definite volume. A liquid has a definite volume, but no definite
shape. For example, when you pour orange juice, a liquid, from a jug into a glass, the
shape of the juice changes to fit the container. The volume of juice, however, doesnt
change. A gas does not have a definite shape or volume. If you put air into a tire, for
instance, it takes the same shape as the tire. Even when the tire seems full, you can still
put more air into it.
The main idea of this paragraph is:_______
a.
The three states of matter differ with respect to shape and volume.
b.
A solid has a definite shape and a definite volume.
c.
For example, when you pour orange juice, a liquid, from a jug into a glass, the
shape of the juice changes to fit the container.
[3]
You can understand the differences between the states of matter if you think of
matter as particles in motion. In a solid the particles are very close together. Particles are
not packed together as tightly in a liquid. So, they may move more freely than they do in
a solid. The particles in a gas are packed together the least. Since the particles are freer to
move around in gases than solids or liquids, gas particles move the fastest.
The main idea of this paragraph is:_______
a.
The states of matter differ in the movement of their particles.
b.
In a solid the particles are very close together.
c.
Since the particles are freer to move around in gases than solids or liquids, gas
particles move the fastest.

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Higher-Order Thinking Strand
Once the students have written a summary and formed a mental representation of
the informational text, they can begin to evaluate the entire text by posing and answering
higher-order thinking questions that require going beyond the literal comprehension of
ideas as expressed in a text. In doing so, Latino English Language Learners can acquire
the skills and strategies capable readers use as they read expository text in an authentic
way requiring deeper thinking and application of ideas expressed in a text. Process text
guides serve this purpose. Prompts are strategically embedded in places where successful
readers would use those skills to evaluate as the meaning of a text as it unfolds. This
technique is illustrated by the sample higher-order thinking strand shown in Figure 2.
The sample contains the same paragraphs as those in Figure 1.
In the sample, there are prompts for using context clues, for using a table to
compare and contrast the different states of matter, and a prompt for students to draw the
movement of particles in a solid. Other prompts for creating analogies, drawing
conclusions, questioning the text, etc. could have also been included in a more complete
process text guide. The versatility of process text guides lies in the fact that teachers can
create activities that prompt students to use the strategies successful readers use.
Teachers can also include questions dealing with vocabulary and language for
their Latino English Language learners. Toward this end, they may include questions
about particular vocabulary words or entire sentences in the text. They may also use
context clues activities to assess their students ability to deal with difficult text.
Moreover, teachers are also afforded the opportunity to allow for alternative assessments
such as the drawing of pictures for theirs Latino ELLs and other students.

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Figure 2. First page of the higher-order thinking strand of a fifth-grade textbook.
Changing States of Matter
[1]
Matter may exist as a solid, a liquid, or a gas. Most matter exists in one or more of
these states. Water, for instance, exists in three statessolid, liquid, and gas. It is a solid
piece of ice when frozen, a liquid when it melts, and a gas when it evaporates. Which
state it is in depends on the conditions at the time, such as temperature and pressure.
[2]
The three states of matter differ with respect to shape and volume. A solid has a
definite shape and a definite volume. A liquid has a definite volume, but no definite
shape. For example, when you pour orange juice, a liquid, from a jug into a glass, the
shape of the juice changes to fit the container. The volume of juice, however, doesnt
change. A gas does not have a definite shape or volume. If you put air into a tire, for
instance, it takes the same shape as the tire. Even when the tire seems full, you can still
put more air into it.
What is the meaning of the word, definite. _________________________________
[3]
You can understand the differences between the states of matter if you think of
matter as particles in motion. In a solid the particles are very close together. Particles are
not packed together as tightly in a liquid. So, they may move more freely than they do in
a solid. The particles in a gas are packed together the least. Since the particles are freer to
move around in gases than solids or liquids, gas particles move the fastest.
Directions: Fill in the table describing three states of matter.
Solid
Shape

Liquid

Gas

definite

Volume

definite
free to move around

Movement of
Particles

[4]
A solid feels firm when it is touched. This is because the particles that make up a
solid are packed up tightly together. They cant be squeezed any closer together because
there is very little space between the particles. This gives a solid a definite volume and
shape. It keeps particles in a solid from moving very much. They are so tightly packed
that each particle stays in the same place and just vibrates.
Draw a picture of particles in a solid.

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

Conclusion
Process text guides help Latino English Language Learners and all learners
acquire reading, writing, and summarizing abilities. By embedding activities in authentic
text, teachers can help students develop into successful readers. Unlike those scenarios
found in classrooms where teachers have students complete stand-alone worksheets,
process text guides provide a scaffold for students to summarize expository texts. Process
text guides also prompt students to emulate the processes successful readers as they
read informational text. With enough practice opportunities to work through process
text[,] guides can build the automaticity successful readers use to become life-long
learners.

Montelongo and Hernndez Process Text Guides

References
Duke, N.K. & Pearson, P.D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading
comprehension. In A.E. Farstrup and S.J. Samuels (eds.) What research has to say
about reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 205242.
Kintsch, W. and van Dijk, T. (1978). Toward of a model of text comprehension and
production. Psychological Review, 85, 363394.
McKenna, M.C., Davis, L. W., and Franks, S. (2003). Using reading guides with
struggling readers in grades 3 and above. In R. L. McCormack & J. R. Paratore
(eds.) After early intervention, then what? Teaching struggling readers in grades
3 and beyond. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Montelongo, J. A. (2008). Text Guides: Scaffolding Summarization and Fortifying
Reading Skills. International Journal of Learning, 15, 289-296.
Wood, K.D., Lapp, D., & Flood, J. (1992). Guiding readers through text: A review of
study guides. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

10