Reading To Learn Lesson
By: Magen
Campbell
Rational: The most important goal of reading is comprehension. Once students have become fluently readers, they need to move to the next goal or reading; reading to learn. One strategy that allows one to reach this goal is summarization. Summarization is the process of identifying and recalling main ideas. The purpose of this lesson will be to have to students summarize a given passage by asking themselves questions and learning the effective steps of summarization. Students will use the following rules: cross out information that does not necessarily matter, reduce parts of text into fewer words, and choose a topic sentence.
Materials:
(25) or one for
each student: Summarization Tips Bookmark (Click here for
copies)
(25-50) or one
for each student: Sheets of Line Paper
(25) or one for
each student: Highlighters
(25) or one for
each student: Pencils
(25) or one for
each student: Copy of Honey
Bee Article
(1) Document
Camera
Procedures:
1.
Say:
Today
we are going to learn a new strategy to make us even better
readers! Can anyone think of reason why we read? Allow students
time to think of answers. Yes, we read to hear stories or learn
about new information. Today, we are going to focus on
comprehending what we read. Does anyone know what that means?
Comprehending means to understand what we are reading. In order
for us to really understand what we are reading we need to be
able to summarize what we read.
2.
Does
anyone
know what summarize means? Summarize means to put together all
the important information about what you are reading from an
article, text, or passage. When we summarize information we are
looking for the most important information and deleting
information that is not helpful.
3.
Say:
So
when we summarize information we are going to use some useful
steps that will give us a good strategy to figure out just what
we are reading about. I am going to talk to you today about this
strategy, we are going to practice this together, and then I am
going to let you try it on your own!
4.
When
we
are summarizing the first thing we want to do is delete any
information that is not important. So, when we go about doing
this we are going to look for information that is important and
information that does not mean a lot we will cross out. The
second thing that we want to do is to look over all the thing we
have found to be important. We want to reread them and make sure
we have not missed any other important details. The third thing
we will do is to come up with a topic sentence that covers the
whole text we have just read. You will need to ask students if
they understand. Explain any part of the strategy the may no
understand. Ask them: Do you understand the steps that we must
take? What is the first step? Second? Third?
5.
Say:
Now
that we have learned about the steps we must take to become
super summarizers! We need to be super summarizers! I want you
to remember all the steps we just talked about.( show the steps
by writing them on the board or showing on a smart board or
ELMO.) We are going to follow these steps as we work as a class
to summarize the article Honeybee
Mystery.
6.
The
teacher
needs to introduce the article. Say: The article that is just
passed out to you is called Honeybee Mystery. The
article gives the readers information about what honeybees to
help us have clean food. The article explores the problems that
might be harming these every so important insects? What do bees
do to help us? What could be affecting the bees in this area?
Why is it so hard to get information about bees? We will have to
read this article to find out! Our vocabulary for this article
is pollinate (The transfer of pollen from the place to another)
and bee colonies (A hive or area of bees that work together to
pollinate plants and make honey).
7. Say, "We are going to start by reading the whole
passage. Don't mark on your paper yet. I'm going to show you
exactly what to do after we read." After we read the article
pose the question: "How would I summarize the first paragraph?
As I reread the first paragraph aloud, look at the document on
the board and read silently to yourselves, and watch as I cross
out unimportant information and then underline the important
details."
8.
Read
the
article to the class. Then go back to the first paragraph and
have a student read it out loud. Model how to summarize the
first paragraph using the overhead, ELMO, or Smart board.
All across
the
United States, honeybees are flying away
from their hives and dying. Empty hives
are causing a lot of worry about
some important
food crops.
Bees give us
a lot more
than delicious honey. They are
pollinators—they enable plants to produce the fruits
and nuts we enjoy by carrying pollen from one plant or flower
to the next. The wind pollinates oats, corn, and wheat, but many other
plants (like apple and
cherry
trees and melon vines)
depend on
insects, bats, and birds.
9.
So,
We
read the article. Now we are going to go through it and
highlight the important stuff and then cross out the information
we do not need. Now that we have done this lets try to come up
with a summary for these first two paragraphs. What step do we
need to do next? Right, we need to come up with a topic
sentence. Can anyone think of topic sentence? All across the
United States honeybees are dying and it is causing people to
worry about crops. Now we can put the rest of the important
information into our summary. Does someone want to give it a
shot? Okay, yes People are worrying because honey bees pollinate
a lot of plants These plants depend on insects pollination and
if bees are dying some important crops are not getting what they
need. Say: Very good. We all need to right this summary down.
Write the topic sentence and summary on the board for students
to copy in their journal.
10. Have
students
practice summarizing the rest of the article on their own.
Assessment:
Say:
1. Now
it is your turn to practice the summarization strategies we have
learn today. You are going to use these strategies to summarize
the rest of the Honeybee
Mystery article I am passing out to you. I want you to
remember the steps that will make you successful in
comprehending what you read. First you need to find topic
sentence. What is next? Right, you need to find the important
facts of the passage. Next what do you need to do? Yes, get rid
of the information that is not very useful. Finally, you need to
delete the repeated ideas found within the passage. The teacher
will need to pass out a copy of the article to each student.
Have the students use the highlighter to highlight key
information. Make sure they use the their pencil to cross out
information that is not an asset to the summary. Then students
will then compose a summary of the passage that is four to five
sentences. The teacher can assess each summary by using the
assessment checklist. Make sure the summary includes a topic
sentence and important information from the article. Have
students attach the article they marked on to also assess if
they were using the summarization strategies learned in the
lesson while reading the article.
2. When most
of the class has completed the assignment, I will begin to call
students one at a time to my desk and have them read their
summaries to me. I will go through the assessment
checklist while the students read their summary. When they
are finished, I will go over how they did/what they need to fix.
3.
The teacher can bring the lesson to a close by asking students
questions to informally assess what the have learned. Ask: "What
does it mean to summarize a text?" "What are a four
summarizations tips?" "Why is it important to summarize a text?"
4.
After students complete summaries go over comprehension
questions as a class.
Assessment Checklist:
Students Name:
_______________________________________ Date:
___________________
Yes
No
_____ _____
Picked out the most important information
_____ _____
Deleted unnecessary information
_____ _____
Understood the information from the text/article/passage
_____
_____
Wrote a sentence(s) summarizing the most important parts of text
Comprehension
Questions:
1.
What point did the author make in this
passage? (putting it together)
2.
Where
are bees found and why do you think they are found there?
(writer and me)
3.
Why
are the bee’s so important and how do they help with the food we
eat? (writer and me)
4.
What kinds of questions are these? A:
Putting it together, writer and me, writer and me.
References:
Adams, Kelly. Becoming Skilled Summarizers, Reading to Learn. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/adamsrl.htm
Hall, Meg. Summarizing is Super, Reading to Learn. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/hallmrl.htm
Honey Bee Article. National Geographic Kids. Catherine Clarke Fox. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/animalsnature/honey-bee-mystery/