Teaching synthesizing? Here are some great books for teaching synthesis that can help you model and practice it with your kids or students.
Synthesizing is one of those comprehension strategies that may seem a little abstract. Simply put, synthesis just means your thinking changes as you read and add more information from the text. You may think one thing based off the cover or first few pages/chapters; but as you read on, you realize that what you originally thought might not be correct and you need to change your thinking a bit. And these books for teaching synthesizing are perfect for helping kids see how their thinking changes as they read.
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While these books are great for teaching synthesizing, some have already been mentioned in our other book lists for modeling comprehension strategies with kids. That’s because we seldom use one comprehension strategy in a vacuum. They compliment each other. Be sure to check out all the book list suggestions for reading comprehension strategies as well as our Reading Comprehension Strategies Series, which SHOWS you an comprehension strategy lesson in action!
Books for Teaching Synthesizing
The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasury has some amazing poetry for making mental images. I like how many of the poems feature figurative language that causes kids have to synthesize as they figure out what he poem is about in the first place!
The Caterpillar and Polliwog by Jack Kent seems like such a simple book, but I have been shocked over the years of using this book at how many kids don’t know what a polliwog is! As they read the book, it’s fun to watch kids’ thinking evolve and eventually realize that polliwog is another name for a tadpole.
Emma Kate by Patricia Polacco- Emma Kate has a best {imaginary} friend. Never mind that her friend is an elephant. Kids will wonder is the elephant real or imaginary. And, in the end, kids will learn that indeed the elephant is real. But there’s a twist. The elephant isn’t the imaginary friend. Emma Kate is! Such a great book for synthesizing!
Fables, like the ones found in Fables by Arnold Lobel, are a great way to stretch kids thinking beyond just the story to formulating a moral. You can find a fantastic synthesizing lesson at The Measured Mom using this book, too! Often times, I like to pick three fables {because they’re short reads}, two that share a similar moral and one that does not to see if kids can find the “oddball”. This is a great challenge for your advanced readers and requires the strategy of synthesizing to put it all together.
Chris Van Allsburg wins the author of synthesizing award, in my book {pun intended}. Just a Dream is written to show what could happen if we don’t take care of the Earth, but his illustrations and words are brilliantly orchestrated to make kids really think.
His books often have a twist, a magical theme, a strange character, or a dream-like notion and kids have to change and add to their thinking while reading, even sometimes taking two or three reads through to figure things out. Brilliant! The Polar Express, Two Bad Ants {one of my favorites}, The Stranger, and The Wretched Stone are also AMAZING for teaching synthesis. By the way, his books are amazing for many other comprehension strategies as well!!
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles is a moving book set in 1960, the year that black children were allowed to go to “white” schools. Ruby, a 6-year-old little girl, has been chosen as one of the kids to go, but she must face an angry mob and does so with such grace. What a fantastic book to get kids engaged in what it may have been like for Ruby Bridges, making for some great text-to-text and text-to-world connections as well as a great book for teaching synthesizing.
We do not own nor have I read all the way through The Story of Jumping Mouse, but almost all of the comprehension books I have, including Reading With Meaning {geared towards K-2} include it in their section on synthesizing. In my opinion, it would work better for older students, such as middle school, as the illustrations are geared towards older kids and so is the deeper meaning behind the story.
My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza has got to be one of my favorite books for teaching inferring as well as synthesizing. Immediately, you think from the cover that it’s definitely the fox’s lucky day, but that little pig is sly. Even from the cover, you may notice that he doesn’t look at all scared. What a FUN book to read over and over and over again!
Charlie Anderson by Barbara Abercrombie will not only get kids synthesizing and thinking throughout the book as the follow the journey of this cat who disappears during the day, it’s also a good fit for asking questions. The underlying message of Charlie Anderson doesn’t sit well with me {that it’s a “lucky” thing to live in a divorced family}, but kids who have gone through a divorce with their parents and now have two homes may relate well with it.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is such a fun book that we often read to preschoolers and younger elementary during an apple unit, but it has a deeper meaning of friendship and selflessness that we often gloss over. Older kids can be challenged to think about the deeper themes as they read or listen to it being read aloud.
Enemy Pie by Derek Muson is such a fantastic book for many comprehension strategies, such as synthesizing. It’s been one of my favorites for a long time and I LOVE reading it to kids who have never heard the story. When a bully (Jeremy Ross) moves into the neighborhood, the young boy’s summer is ruined. That is until the young boy’s father says he can help get rid of the bully (enemy) by making him some enemy pie. The boy and readers wonder: What is “enemy pie” and how does it work? Will it get rid of enemies? What does it taste like? I always plan specific stopping places to discuss what kids are thinking in this book, because it can change throughout.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is one of those nail-biters that you just can’t put down, at least I couldn’t. It’s similar to a mystery {I suggested several mystery series in my questioning book list} that really gets kids thinking. What will Brian do? How will be survive? Will he ever be found? Oh, love this book. But I will say, that I’ve never read it to a child younger than 5th grade because it does have some flashbacks that I would say are more for older readers related to his mom’s boyfriend and his mom and dad’s divorce.
More Comprehension Resources & Book Lists:
- More Books for Modeling Comprehension Strategies
- Reading Comprehension Series {10 weeks of reading comprehension lessons}
- Comprehension Strategies Reading Equals Thinking
- 5 Simple Ways to Improve Reading Comprehension
Enjoy!
~Becky
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