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CHAPTER 4

Gist

When friends start to tell you about a movie they’ve seen or a book they’ve read, and it seems like they are going to talk for a while, you may ask them just to give you the gist. The gist is the main part or essence of something. It is the nub, the core. In reading, a gist is a one-sentence summary of the text (Cunningham & Moore, 1986). In order for readers to compose a good gist, they must be sensitive to the various clues in the text that indicate which ideas are most central and important. For example, an idea referred to throughout a text is more central and important than an idea only communicated in one place. Being able to grasp the gist of a text is essential. To comprehend a text, readers need to understand more than each sentence or paragraph. The reader must also understand what those sentences and paragraphs add up to.

The major emphasis in Gist lessons is helping students identify central and key ideas in a particular text. Gist lessons also teach students to read closely until they have exhausted what a short text says explicitly or implicitly about a subject. Beginning in third grade, with Reading for literature and informational text standards one (RL.3.1 and RI.3.1), students must be able to cite textual evidence to explain any words in their Gist statements that you or another student questions: “Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers” (NGA & CCSSO, 2010, pp. 11, 14). Using the gradual release of responsibility model of instruction, Gist lessons combine student trios and teacher-led collaborative conversations to discuss various aspects of the text’s content.

A Sample Gist Lesson

This is the first Gist lesson this class has experienced. Because Gist is challenging for most students, Mr. O. will follow the gradual release of responsibility model of instruction through a series of Gist lessons. For the first few Gist lessons, he will only use the “I do, and you watch” and “I do, and you help” steps.

Purpose Setting

Mr. O. says, “Today, we’re going to work on how to summarize a passage in one sentence. This will be hard work because the passage has 176 words in it, but the one-sentence summary we write can’t have more than fourteen words in it. In a minute, I am going to show you the beginning of the text. We’ll start by summarizing just this first part. Then, I’ll show you both the first and second parts, and we’ll summarize those in one sentence. Finally, I’ll let you see the entire passage, and we’ll try to summarize it all in a sentence with fourteen or fewer words.”

TIP

Gist is an instructional strategy for use in grades 2 and up. Students get gradually better at reading and writing longer sentences as they move up through the grades. A good rule of thumb for the length of the summary sentence is the students’ grade plus ten. This sample lesson is taking place in a fourth-grade classroom, so the maximum number of words in the Gist statement is fourteen.

I Do, and You Watch

Mr. O. displays the first part of the short text he has chosen to use in this lesson and asks the students to read it to themselves. (For example, see The 100 Greatest Track and Field Battles of the Twentieth Century; Hollobaugh, 2012.)

“Bob Beamon was an American track-and-field athlete. His event was the men’s long jump. He was one of two athletes who represented the United States in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He was the overall favorite to win the gold medal.”

When they have finished reading it, he says, “I am going to write a Gist statement for this part of the text, so you can see how it works.”

Mr. O. hides the text and displays fourteen blanks on a projector. (Mr. O. could also use a whiteboard, a chalkboard, or any other means to display the blanks big enough for students to see.) He thinks out loud: “It seems pretty important to give his name.”

He writes Bob Beamon in the first two blanks.

He continues, “I think I should also include that he was in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.”

He writes those words in the next eight blanks and counts how many blanks he has left—four. (See figure 4.1.)

Figure 4.1: Sample Gist statement.

“There are lots of events in the Olympics,” he says. “I think it’s important to say that he was in the long jump. It sounds better to me to put that in before I tell about the Olympics.”

He removes the four blanks at the end, puts a caret (^) between was and in the 1968 Olympics, inserts four blanks above the caret, and writes in the long jump in those blanks. (See figure 4.2.)

Figure 4.2: Sample Gist statement with revisions.

He says, “Uh oh, I don’t have any blanks left, but I haven’t told that he represented the United States. I think that’s very important, don’t you? What can I do about that? You know, I think it’s more significant that he was on our Olympic team than where the Olympics took place that year.”

He removes the three blanks with the words in Mexico City in them. Then, he places a caret between was and in the long jump, inserts three blanks above the caret, and writes for the United States in those blanks. He looks at what he has written. (See figure 4.3.)

Figure 4.3: Sample Gist statement with revisions.

“I don’t like was anymore. I’m going to put a word there that tells what he actually did for the United States. He competed for the United States in the Olympics,” he says.

He removes the word was from the blank and writes in competed instead. Mr. O. leaves his summary sentence displayed and also displays the first part of the text again, saying, “Look at my Gist statement. Do you see how I summarized the most important ideas in the beginning of the passage?” (See figure 4.4.)

Figure 4.4: Sample completed Gist statement.

Mr. O. asks if anyone has a suggestion to make his Gist statement better. One student asks if the Olympics has a women’s long jump event. When Mr. O. says it does, the student says he thinks the summary sentence should say “in the men’s long jump.” He asks if anyone can figure out how to remove a word somewhere so he can add men’s, but no one can. Finally, a student says that since Bob is a man’s name, they don’t need to add men’s. Mr. O. and most students nod in agreement.

TIP

Gist always works better when students work on their Gist statements from memory. Students will read the text more carefully if they know they will be working from memory, and they are more likely to use words like competed in their Gist statements that aren’t in the text. If students begin arguing over what the text says, show them the text so far and let them read it again, but hide it once more while they work on their summary sentence.

I Do, and You Help

Mr. O. says, “Now, I am going to write a Gist statement for the first two parts of the text. But this time, I want you to help me decide what to write and when I need to make changes.”

Mr. O. displays the first two parts of the text and asks the students to read it to themselves. He reminds them to read it carefully, since he will hide the text while they work on the Gist statement.

“Bob Beamon was an American athlete in track and field. His event was the men’s long jump. He was one of two athletes who represented the United States in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He was the overall favorite to win the gold medal. He barely made it to the finals because he scratched twice before making a jump that was good enough. The other finalists were men who had won the two previous Olympic gold medals and a third man who had won the bronze medal twice. In the finals on October 18, Beamon made a great jump to win the gold medal.”

Mr. O. hides the text and displays fourteen blanks. He asks, “Who can start our Gist statement?”

After a pause, a student suggests, “Let’s start with his name again.”

Mr. O. writes Bob Beamon in the first two blanks. He says, “Let’s talk about what you think are the most important things to make sure we include in our summary sentence.”

After a discussion, the students agree that they still should tell that he was in the 1968 Olympics and his event was the long jump. He adds those words to the statement. (See figure 4.5.)

Figure 4.5: Sample Gist statement.

“We have to tell that he won!” exclaims a student.

So, Mr. O. erases was in, writes won, and adds a blank at the end. Another student says it wasn’t just that he won, but that he won a gold medal. Finally, Mr. O. asks if he should include what country Beamon represented. Students agree he should. When they can’t figure out how to say that in the two blanks they have left, he suggests adding American Bob Beamon at the beginning and rearranging the clauses at the end. The students relax, clearly impressed with the Gist statement they have helped compose. (See figure 4.6.)

Figure 4.6: Sample Gist statement with revisions.

Mr. O. says, “Very good. You did it and with a blank left over! Now, let’s write one more Gist statement. This time, we’ll summarize the whole text.”

“Bob Beamon was an American athlete in track and field. His event was the men’s long jump. He was one of two athletes who represented the United States in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He was the overall favorite to win the gold medal. He barely made it to the finals because he scratched twice before making a jump that was good enough. The other finalists were men who had won the two previous Olympic gold medals and a third man who had won the bronze medal twice. In the finals on October 18, Beamon made a great jump to win the gold medal. He made his running approach and then jumped into the sand pit. He seemed to fly. When he landed and fell forward, he was past the camera that had been set up. The judges had to measure his jump with a tape measure. He had jumped 29 feet 2½ inches and broken the world record by almost two feet! Everyone was amazed, including him. His world record stood for twenty-three years.”

By this time, many of the students are wearing down. Mr. O. helps them more with this Gist statement than the previous one to speed up the process. Before long, they’ve completed the lesson. (See figure 4.7.)

Figure 4.7: Sample completed Gist statement.

TIP

The task in a Gist lesson is especially challenging, and the “I do, and you help” phase of the gradual release of responsibility model is particularly valuable. Consequently, this sample lesson has no “You do it together, and I help” section. With Gist, for a number of lessons, many students will likely disengage by the end of “I do, and you help.” Their cognitive workload is high! When your students successfully and efficiently help you compose good Gist statements, reveal the whole text from the beginning and complete the “I do, and you help” phase. Eventually, they should compose Gist statements in small groups for a text displayed as a whole. At that point, it will probably be best to have the “You do it together, and I help” phase comprise the entire Gist lesson because of how long it is likely to take and how taxing it is likely to be for many students.

The Class Debriefs

Mr. O. praises the students highly for their hard work in helping him and asks them what they think about the final Gist statement. Several students express pride in how well they think the Gist statement captures the entire text’s meaning in so few words. Mr. O. smiles broadly, and says, “Before long, each of you will be better at reading a text and deciding what will be most important to include in a Gist if you are asked to tell or write one!”

Planning and Teaching a Gist Lesson

Select a short text from which you want your students to identify central and key ideas. The text you choose may stand alone or be an excerpt from a longer text. Divide it into three parts. Use the following four steps when teaching a Gist lesson.

1.Tell students the purpose of the lesson. Explain that you are going to gradually reveal a short text to them, one part at a time, until they can see it all. Each time you show them more of it, they will create a one-sentence summary of the passage so far.

2.For the first few Gist lessons, start with “I do, and you watch” to model your thinking as you write a one-sentence summary for the first part of the text. For the next several Gist lessons, start with “I do, and you help.”

3.When using Gist to teach students how to comprehend the main idea of a text, the most important phase of the gradual release of responsibility model is “I do, and you help.” “I do, and you help” should be the entire format of Gist lessons until you feel your students no longer benefit from working on the passage in parts. In other words, during the last Gist lessons you teach using the “I do, and you help” phase, you show your students the entire short text at the beginning of the lesson, and they help you compose a Gist statement for the complete passage. You no longer reveal the text in stages.

4.Once your students as a whole group have success with summarizing a short text in one sentence (twelve or more words, depending on their grade), put them in trios to do that same task (“You do it together, and I help”). Display or distribute two or three short texts and have the trios compose a Gist statement of the same length for each one. End that day’s lesson by having trios share their Gist statements for each text and discuss differences.

Gist Lessons Across the Year

When you are confident that almost every student will be successful composing a Gist statement, fade instruction to the “You do, and I watch” phase. Eventually, you’ll want to be able to give one or more grade-appropriate texts to your class that are short, dense, and challenging and have every student independently write a good one-sentence summary.

How Gist Lessons Teach the Standards

Gist teaches Reading anchor standard two (CCRA.R.2), because its major emphasis is helping students learn to be sensitive to which ideas seem most central and key in a particular text. It also teaches Reading anchor standard one (CCRA.R.1), because it focuses on teaching students to read closely until they have exhausted everything important a short text says explicitly or implicitly about a subject. Beginning in third grade, students must also be able to cite textual evidence and explain any words in their Gist statements that you or another student questions. Because it is taught with the gradual release of responsibility model, Gist also teaches Speaking and Listening anchor standard one (CCRA.SL.1). Students engage in whole-group and small-group conversations with their teacher and peers to discuss what ideas are most central and important in a text.

CCSS in a Themes, Morals, and Lessons Learned Lesson