Reading Fun Facts!

Reading to Learn

Ashlyn Pouncey

Rationale: The main goal of reading is comprehension; summarization is critical to appreciate what one has read. This lesson can help summarization by modeling helpful summarizing strategies and having graphic organizers for a reminder of the strategies for the students. Students will be able to read an article and create their own correct topic sentence by using rules of summarization.

Materials:

Copies of "Emperor Penguins" from National Geographic Kids, one per student 

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/emperor-penguin/

A display with summarization rules on it, and bookmarks (one per student) with summarization rules: 
          

 -Get rid of unimportant information
          

-Get rid of repeated information
           

-Organize items and events under one umbrella term         

-Select a topic          

-Write a topic statement that covers everything that is important from the passage of the text.                            

A display of this brief koala passage:

          "Koalas are marsupials, related to kangaroos. Most marsupials have pouches where the tiny newborns develop. A koala mother usually gives birth to one joey at time. A newborn koala is only the size of a jellybean. Called a joey, the baby is blind, naked, and earless. As soon as it's born, this tiny creature makes its way from the birth canal to its mother's pouch." 
    http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Koala

Paper

Pencils

Pens for each student

Highlighters for each student

Dry erase board and marker



Summarization Checklist:

Procedures:

1. Introduce the new comprehension strategy. "Today we're going to learn another way to help us understand and remember what we read – summarization. Can anyone tell me what summarization is? It is being able to get rid of unimportant information and remember the important facts about a passage. Summarization helps our comprehension because we know what information helps us and we know what information does not."

2. Review vocabulary with students, focus on the word marsupial. Explain the word: Marsupials have pouches where the tiny newborns develop. A kangaroo is an example of a marsupial because they carry their babies in their pouch until they are old enough to survive on their own. A cat is not a marsupial because they do not have pouches that carry their young. Ask the question, “Is a horse a marsupial? Why or why not?” to clarify. As an activity students will complete the following sentence: Some animals are called _____ because they have pouches where the tiny ______ develop.

3. Continue with students... "To comprehend what we read, we have to summarize, and we have some quick rules for good summarization." Read the rules from the poster to them. "I want you to read our poster about koalas silently and when you are all done I will summarize the poster topic first."

4. Let’s look at the koala poster. It says, "Koalas are marsupials, related to kangaroos. Most marsupials have pouches where the tiny newborns develop. A koala mother usually gives birth to one joey at time. A newborn koala is only the size of a jellybean. Called a joey, the baby is blind, naked, and earless. As soon as it’s born, this tiny creature makes its way from the birth canal to its mother’s pouch." The first thing I do on our rule list is Get Rid of Unimportant Information. I’ll take this pen I have and cross out "related to kangaroos," first. Since we’re learning about koalas, a phrase about kangaroos doesn’t help us too much. I will also cross out ‘A newborn koala is only the size of a jellybean,’ because it is an interesting fact, but not essential to complete understanding of the passage. Next, I will cross out ‘the baby is blind, naked, and earless,' because those are little details that make our article interesting, but not vital to our understanding of the entire passage. The next rule is to get rid of repeated information – there isn’t any in our passage, so we can move on. The next thing we do is organizing items under one umbrella term, which is a general idea of what our passage is about. I'll highlight 'koalas are marsupials,’ 'marsupials have pouches,' and 'this tiny creature makes its way from the birth canal to its mother’s pouch.’ Our umbrella term is *Koalas as marsupials.* The next step is to decide on a topic for the passage, and our topic is koalas. The final thing we do is complete a topic sentence about our passage. This helps us finally short and sweetly describes our passage in one sentence. Let me think. My topic sentence is, 'Like most marsupials, koalas have pouches or pockets to protect their babies.’

5. I have a copy of "Emperor Penguins" from National Geographic that I want you to read. I have bookmarks for you, too, with your summarization rules so that you can have them right with you at your desk. Provide a brief "book talk" for the article. What do you know about penguins? Where do they live? What about them makes them so different from their animal neighbors? I wonder if all animals stand the freezing cold of Antarctica during the winter? I want you to find out by reading this Emperor Penguins ProfArticle. Remember to get rid of information that doesn’t help us by crossing it out with pencils and to highlight information that is important to your understanding of the passage. When you're finished, you will turn in your sentence and article to me."

Assessment:  "I will have the students turn in their topic sentence and their article so that I can see what they felt was important, any reasoning, and to assess their understanding of summarizing. Each student will be assessed with the summarizing chart under materials to see how they grasp important information, trivial information, and sum everything up in one sentence. Topic sentences may vary, but a good topic sentence might say, 'Penguins, unlike other animals, spend their whole lives in Antarctica breeding, raising young, and eating by relying on a number of clever adaptations.’

 References:

Cadrette, Mallory. What's the Point?   

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/cadretterl.html    

National Geographic. Emperor Penguins

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/emperor-penguin/

 National Geographic Kids. Creature Feature: Koalas.

 http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Koala

Adventures

Return to the Awakenings index.