Read and Summarize!
Reading to Learn
Devon Henderson
Rationale: Comprehension and recall skills are very essential elements
of a reading program. A skilled reader is never able to recall all of the
details of a text, but through the use of summarization strategies the
trivial text can be eliminated and the most important information is remembered.
The ability to summarize is an especially effective strategy in comprehending
texts. This lesson will assist students to summarize and comprehend what
they read.
Materials: Holt Science Book; paper; pencils, white/chalk board
Procedure:
1. Today class we are going to learn how to summarize the things
that we read. Summarizing is a kind of strategy that will help you
to understand the things that you read like storybooks, magazines, and
textbooks. When you summarize you are able to explain in no more
than a few sentences what the whole book or article is about.
2. Explain that when you summarize you want to pick out the facts that
are important to the text and find the main idea of what you have read.
Go over the summarization rules:
1. Find parts of the story that would not affect it if left out
2. Get rid of information used more than once
3. Find the important events in the story and use keywords to help
you remember them
4. List events in order of which they took place
5. Sum up the story in one topic sentence.
3. Please get out your science and science books and silently read
the short passage from pages 10-15. Do your best to pay attention
to the facts that are most important to the passage while you are reading.
4. I would start by looking for the most important ideas while I was
reading the passage. Use a sample passage, read it to them, and summarize
it out loud for them to hear. Then , by using the text as a guide, I would
go back and write down all of the important ideas that I found.
5. A very good strategy for helping you to summarize is using
a Venn Diagram that compares and contrasts two things. Draw a Venn
Diagram on the board and model how, for example, snakes and alligators
would fit in this diagram, with the characteristics that they share overlapping
in the middle of the two circles and the uncommon characteristics out to
the sides in its own circle. Then ask them to draw their own Venn Diagram
after they have read the passage. Then, have them write down a summary
of what they have read..
Assessment:
Collect both the Venn Diagrams and the summaries and check to see that
they have used both the Venn Diagram and the passage to write their summary.
References:
Pressley, M., Johnson, C.J., Symons, S., McGoldrick, J.A., & Kurity,
J.A. (1989). Strategies that improve childrens memory and comprehension
of text. The Elementary School Journal, 90, 3-32.
Holt Science. Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1989.
www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insights/brewerrl.html
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