Generative Learning - Summary Double Page Spread

Double Page Spreads are a popular way of showing learning. As the name suggests, learning is shown across two pages in an exercise book, giving children a larger - yet also contained - area to work within. A quick search in Google will reveal many examples from a plethora of subjects. This balance of free-form yet constrained format is perfect for Summary writing.

For Generative Learning a Double Page Spread is a great format for distilling and reconstituting learning. In the lesson exemplar below, I asked my class to summarise our learning from a whole unit of Maths. These would then be used for future revision and Retrieval Practice in lessons to come. As with other activities I have trialed, the gap between what is Generative Learning and what is Retrieval Practice can be narrow. At my school we have defined Generative Learning as new learning that takes place within a lesson (and most learning will require some form of looking back), whereas Retrieval Practice is focused specifically on covering prior learning and delving into long-term memory. Further discussion of the Generative Learning/Retrieval Practice cycle will be explored in a future article.

Planning to use a Double Page Spread for Generative Learning

Form over function or function over form? In a double page spread there needs to be a bit of both. Image and artifacts add depth to the written text. As we know from other activities, there is a difference between giving a class freedom and letting them have free-reign.

Think about the content you wish children to summaries in their Double Page Spread. Will it be mostly text with supporting pictures? Or will pictures be the main focus with supporting text? Will they need to dab in Fact Boxes alongside the main text? The list of what children could do can be endless so it is worth having a mental (or PowerPoint slide) check list of content you wish to see and maybe do not wish to see in the final article. As the teacher in this lesson you are taking on the role of Copy Editor advising your writers what the finished product needs to look like.

Materials are another consideration. If your exercise books turn to pulp with felt pens, ensure that children are told not to use them. It may also be worth putting time aside in Early Morning Work for children to finish off the colouring in and other artistic flares than give them pride in their work but do not add to the learning.

Using Double Page Spreads in a lesson

Prior planning is the basis of all productive undertakings and children will need some guidance on how to choose content and begin laying out their own Double Page Spreads. The sequence I took in this trial lesson was:

1. Introduce the task and explain what I hoped the end product would be. That way children can plan with the end result in mind being cognizant that they will not be able to include all the learning from the unit - only learning that is important for them.

2. Allow 5-10 mins to review all learning from the unit. I allotted 2-mins per prior lesson. Make a list on the flipchart or board. If it has been a long unit or you have specific learning you want children to include, make a list ahead of time.

3. Allow 10-mins for children to reflect on what content they wish to include in their summary. You may wish to give a limit on the content, I suggested 4-6 areas for this piece.

4. Allow 5-mins to plan how much space each part of the summary will take up on the Double Page Spread. This generates learning as children have to consider their own recall as well as how important a concept is to the whole body of knowledge compared to another concept. In our case, we had lots of disparate shape knowledge but some was vital to the understanding of all area.

5. Get creating! I gave a free-ish reign to my students, allowing to innovate on my original suggestions. Some devised ingnious ways to get around the limited space such as fold out fact boxes or constructing small nets of shapes to glue to the page rather than drawing them out.

Reflection

Double Page Spreads for Summarising can be an effective tool if properly planned for. As a more seasoned colleague of mine observed, “we’ve gone back to making posters!”. Well, sort-of-not-really. Function leads form, with the artistic elements adding to the learning.

Planning to include too much content to fit on a double page is what enforces the summarising of learning. In the synthesizing of large bodies of learning into a small space children develop a deeper understanding as well as using visual spacial skills to find different ways of representing the content they have seen.

A summarising activity I will be repeating again.

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Summarising (0.5)

Retell, abbreviate, tweet. Taking a larger body of text or information and condensing it down. The act of thinking and reducing generates thinking, engagement and focus on word choice. The process of reorganising fosters engagements and generation of links. Examples of this approach include: Read a paragraph; summarise as a sentence.; summarise all learning from a lesson in 5 take-away sentences (also, reduces marking!); writing longer summarise, less often in a lesson.