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What is re-composing?

Have you ever listened to a lecture and made your notes in bullet form like this?

  • The Earth is five times the size of the Moon.
  • The Moon's gravity is one-fifth that of Earth.
  • The moon has no atmosphere, so its sky is black.

Or have you summarized a page in an encyclopedia as a chart, or a diagram?

When we read information in one form and summarize the information in another form, we are re-composing.

   

Recomposing is a useful strategy for

  • summarizing information
  • planning an essay
  • developing comprehension

Recomposing also avoids copying. This is because children cannot give the information back to you in the same form in which they first read it. They need to reprocess the information, find the key facts, and present those facts differently from the original.

Here's how it works. This example is for very young readers/writers, but the principle works for any age group.

The Earth and the Moon  (Grades K-2)

  

To inquire about a PowerPoint® version of this book to share with your class click here

This book asks children to compare what we can see on the Earth with what is on the Moon. As they read the book they build up a number of facts about how the Moon is different from the Earth.

Each spread has the same pictures, but a different text. Children can answer the questions by comparing the two pictures.

There are mountains on the Earth.

Are there mountains on the Moon?

There are animals on the Earth.

Are there animals on the Moon?

There are plants on the Earth.

Are there plants on the Moon?

There are rocks on the Earth.

Are there rocks on the Moon?

There are rivers on the Earth.

Are there rivers on the Moon?

There are clouds on the Earth.

Are there clouds on the Moon?

There are footprints on the Earth.

Are there footprints on the Moon?

 

Now, what happens when you put the book down? How much can the children recall? Do they have any concept of why these facts are true?

Most of what we read we forget. This is true of adults as well as children. One way to overcome these problems is to record as we read the facts, not as a loose collection of 'notes' but in the organizing structure of a table:

 

Draw this up on a large sheet of paper pinned to an easel so that everyone can see you when you add a check or cross in each box.

You are demonstrating to the children that when we read information we often make notes. We read with a pen in hand. But these notes are not always written as words or sentences. Notes can be made as diagrams, maps, time lines, flow charts, and so on. Here we are making notes in the form of a table (or 'chart').

Once the book is completed, so is the chart, which now looks like this:

Spend time with the children helping them interpret the table, by asking questions such as,

  • "Find the living things and the non-living things."
  • "How many living things are on the Moon?" (None)
  • "Look at the things with crosses. They are not on the Moon. Can you think of a reason they are not on the Moon?" (Not an easy question to answer. They all have, need, or are made of water.)

By arranging the information in the book in this table format, we have actually added to the information: the new information is in the pattern of the facts.

We see at a glance that the Earth has all these things, but the Moon does not. We see that the missing things on the Moon have something in common. We can explain and understand the information by doing this. Re-composing the information as a table helps us to comprehend it, remember it, and explain it.

Other visual texts also help with comprehension. Try for yourself by summarizing:

  1. a news item as a flow chart or time line
  2. an information report as a tree diagram
  3. a logical argument as a flow chart
  4. a recipe or craft activity as a storyboard

Here are two more examples:

You can use a time line (above) to summarize a retelling of events.

You can use a tree diagram (below) to summarize an information report.

To ask a consultant to show you this book

in USA click here (Pearson Learning)

in Canada click here (Scholastic Canada)

in Australia click here (Pearson Education Australia)