SUMARIZING INSTRUCTIONS: 1. State the author's most important idea. This is commonly referred to as the Main Idea and can be found in the author's thesis statement. 2. Use your own words. Imagine you are telling a friend about a great movie you saw or a great book that you read. Speak in your own language, but be sure to use standard English, not slang 3. Go over each point the author uses to prove his thesis statement. Watch for sentences that back up his or her most important idea. These points form an outline that you can condense down into your summary. 4. Pay attention to detail. Does the author provide enough detail to support his thesis statement and supporting points? Tell what those details are while summarizing the reading assignment. 5. Present your ideas in order. You would not talk about the author's supporting points without first talking about what those points are referring to.

Rules of Consolidation (Reading Selection) Repeated exposure to information at timed intervals provides the most powerful way to fix memory into the brain. Okay, nothing earth shattering there…sounds like common sense. But, there is some neat science behind it that helps understand why this occurs. As information is introduced into our brains, electrical representations of the information are built up slowly over many repetitions, and continuous repetitive cycles layer on similar information and adds to your knowledge base. And the more elaborate the re-exposure of the information is, in spaced intervals, the greater the increase in memory for the information. 1. Introductory paragraph which states the most important idea.

The First Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later. It is a simple fact, the more exposure a learner has to new information they want to learn the greater the likelihood that the new information will move from short-term memory (working memory) to long-term memory. From the Research “The typical human brain can hold about 4 pieces of information for less than 30 seconds. If something does not happen in that short stretch of time, the information becomes lost. If you want to extend the 30 seconds to, say, a few minutes, or even an hour or two, you will need to consistently re-expose yourself to the information. This type of repetition is sometimes called maintenance rehearsal. We know that “maintenance rehearsal” is mostly good for keeping things in working memory – that is for short periods of time” (Medina, 2008). If the reader wants to hold on to the new information long enough for the brain to store and manipulate that information the reader needs to do something to give the working memory time to do its job. Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information if you want to retrieve it later is the first “rule of consolidation.” Highlighting the information in the textbook in order to come back to learn it later is just simply a mistaken strategy for learning. It is an example of trying to hold the information outside the brain – the trick is to re-expose yourself to the information in order for your own brain to store and manipulate the information if you want to learn most effectively. 1. Most important idea restated. 3. Backs up author’s most important idea. 5. First item in order 4. Pay attention to detail. 2. Remember, you will want to be saying this in your own words in your summary.

The Second Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately if you want the retrieval to be of higher quality. “More elaborately” means thinking, talking or writing about what was just read. Any mental activity in which the reader slows down and mentally tries to connect what they are reading to what they already know is elaboration. This means for the reader that he or she must slow down and have a conversation (reading, writing or talking) about what they are reading and wanting to learn in order for that information to be of a high quality. “High quality” means the information will be useable in the future for thinking reasoning or apply to new situations From the Research “We know that there is a better way to push information into long-term memory. That way is called “elaborative rehearsal” and it’s the type of repetition shown to be most effective for the most robust retrieval. A great deal of research shows that “thinking or talking” about an event immediately after it has occurred enhances memory for the event.” (Medina, 2008). The same is true for the information you are reading in a textbook. 5. Second item in order 2. Remember, you will want to be saying this in your own words in your summary. 3. Backs up author’s most important idea. 4. Pay attention to detail.

The Third Rule: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be. Forgetting occurs very rapidly if something is not done to strengthen new dendrites (learning). Research show us that a learner (reader) must not only re-expose themselves to new information they want to learn, but hat they also must think or talk about that information if they want to remember the information. Research further shows that there are specific times for re-exposing ourselves to the information and elaborating on the information. We will go over the most important ones now: Fixed Time Intervals for Re-exposing and Elaborating As the reader identifies what is important while reading, stop re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate on the it (have an internal dialogue, what do you already know about what you are reading, write about it (take notes in your own words), explain it to yourself out loud. Note: This time interval is specifically for holding and expanding the time new information has in working memory, which gives you and your brain more time to manipulate the information before it can be forgotten. When you have read a new topic or paragraph, explain to yourself what you have just read; this is re-exposure to the information. Note: This time interval and the remaining time intervals take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen newly grown dendrites. When you finish studying, take a few minutes to re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate. Within 90 minutes to 2 hours, re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate. Review again the next day as soon as you can. From the Research “When a reader reads nonstop, new information is subject to being confused with other information. “The probability of confusion is increased when content is delivered in unstoppable, unrepeated waves. This causes newly encoded information to reshape (interference) and wear away previously existing traces. Such interference does not occur if the information is delivered in deliberately spaced repetition cycles. (This is where the reader can take control of learning.) Repeated exposure to information in specifically timed intervals provides the most powerful way to fix memory into the brain. When the electrical representations of information to be learned are built up slowly over many repetitions, the neural networks recruited for storage gradually remodel the overall representation and do not interfere with neural networks previously recruited to store similarly learned information. This idea suggests that continuous repetition cycles create experiences capable of adding to the knowledge base, rather then interfering with existing knowledge base” (Medina, 2008). 5. Third item in order 4. Pay attention to details. 2. Remember, you will want to be saying this in your own words in your summary. 3. Backs up author’s most important idea.

Summary on Rules of Consolidation To move new information or concepts being learned from working-memory to long- term memory, re-expose yourself to the information using elaborations and time intervals. The first rule is to simply go over the information again. Research shows that new information is forgotten if it is not exposed to repeated exposure. The second rule is to go over the information using some form of elaboration such as writing to learn, summarizing, reciting to yourself. An example of tricking oneself into thinking one has moved new information to long-term memory is highlighting or underlining new information. The information is stored outside the brain. To use highlighting be sure to do some kind of elaboration with the information. The third rule is to re-expose oneself to the information more elaborately at specific time intervals. The suggested time intervals are when one new important information, new information under new text clues such as new headings, terms, or paragraphs, When one has finished reading, within 90 minutes to 2 hours after reading, and the next day as soon as possible. This results in laying down and strengthening new neural networks that aid retrieval.