Strategy Name

GIST

Strategy # ___10____

Brief Description:
GIST is a method used to help students write organized, concise summaries of text.
Students are instructed to do the following:
1. Read the first sentence of a passage.
2. Summarize the sentence using 15 words or less.
3. Read the second sentence.
4. Summarize the first and second sentence using 15 words or less.
5. Read the third and fourth sentences.
6. Summarize the first through fourth sentences using 15 words or less.
7. Read the remainder of the paragraph.
8. Summarize the entire paragraph using 15 words or less.
Each step should be completed individually, but the class can then work together to
write the best summary of each part before moving on. Students learn how to
include only the essential information in their summary.
How you plan to use this strategy in your Practicum, Internship, Student
Teaching, or in your own classroom:
Chemistry text can be very overwhelming. A lot of information is provided using a
lot of unknown terms. Students get in the habit of wanting to copy every piece of
information provided to them. Rather than write a one-sentence summary, many
students will copy down entire paragraphs of information. They are under the
impression that every word is essential. GIST breaks them of this habit.
I can see myself using this strategy at the beginning of the year. I would model the
process with my students before assigning students to read from the textbook.
Rather than telling students to outline the chapters (as I remember doing in high
school), I would have students write the GIST of each section. Depending on the
length of the section, the length of the resulting summaries will vary, but they will
remain relatively short.
Students will use this skill in the future when using references for reports.
Quotations in reports should be limited, so students need as much practice as
possible summarizing text in their own words.