Overview

A graphic organiser that collects the key information from each of the five other strategies into one page. Students transfer key ideas from their prior Making Connections, Visualising, Questioning, Inferring and Summarising work into the relevant sections of the Hub. At the centre, they write a short statement that encapsulates the most important message or meaning of the text. This makes the interconnectedness of the strategies explicit.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Distribute the Strategy Hub handout.
2. Students review all their prior work from the unit.
3. For each strategy section (Making Connections, Visualising, Questioning, Inferring, Summarising), students write the single most important insight or finding from their work.
4. In the central "Synthesising" section, students write a short statement (2–3 sentences) that brings all five insights together into a unified understanding of the text.
5. Students share their central statements and discuss: Do different students synthesise the text differently?

Tips

• The power of this activity is in the centre — push students beyond a simple summary to genuine synthesis.
• This is an excellent pre-writing activity for analytical essays.
• Display completed Hubs so students can see how others have synthesised the same text.

More Synthesising Activities