Break It Down!
Reading to learn- Summarizing
By:
Jenna Sumlin
Rationale
Comprehension
is
very important for students to learn when they are learning how to read. Summarizing is an effective strategy for
students to use in order to comprehend a text.
Throughout this lesson students will learn how to summarize
while they
are reading. Summarizing skills will be
taught by teaching students to do the following: delete
unimportant information, delete
repeated information, substitute easy terms for lists of items,
substitute a
series of events with one easy action term, and select/ invent a topic
sentence. Once students are able to
follow these steps and summarize, they will ultimately comprehend the
text.
Materials
Procedure
1)
Begin the lesson by reviewing how
to read
silently. Say, “Can anyone tell me what
it means to read silently? Very good, it
is when we read the words with our eyes without saying anything with
our
mouths. Now, here’s a harder
question. Why is it good for us to read
silently? That’s right; it helps us be
able to remember what we read. Today we
are going to practice reading silently and learn how to summarize what
we read.
2)
Discuss what it means to summarize
a story
and the steps it takes to create a summary.
Say, “Can anyone tell me what it means to summarize a story? (Allow time for students responses) When we summarize a story it means we give a
shorter version of the story where we tell only the most important
parts. There are five steps for us to
follow when we
are summarizing a story. I will explain
the steps and then you can practice summarizing on your own.” (Teach the students the 5 basic steps and
write them on the board so they can refer back to them.
These are the five steps: Get rid
of
unimportant information, delete
repeated information, substitute easy terms for lists of items,
substitute a
series of events with one action term that can be easily remembered,
and select
or create a topic sentence.
3)
Say, “Now each of you is going to
get a copy
of the book The Custodian from the Black Lagoon.
I want each of you to read the first four
pages silently. When you are done with
these four pages close your book and turn it over so I know you are
through.”
4)
“We are going to finish the book
in a few
minutes, but right now I am going to show you how to use these five
steps in
order to create a summary of what we just read.” (Put
the book on the overhead projector
opened to the first page) “I am going to read the first page out loud
and as I
read I am going to highlight the most important information. Then, I am going to come up with a summary
incorporating the rest of the steps.”
(Model creating a summary of the first page and discuss in
detail how
you came up with your summary. Say, "The story begins by
introducing the custodian and saying that he is very creepy.")
5)
Give each student a highlighter. Say, “Now you are going to summarize pages
1-4. I want you to highlight the
important information like I did and be sure to use all five steps to
create
your summary. When you get done, write
your summary of pages 1-4 on a piece of paper.”
(While the students are working walk around and guide them. When they are finished discuss what they came
up with and how they came up with it).
Assessment
Have
the students read the story silently all the way through.
Get them to write a summary when they are
finished. Have them turn in their
summary. Use a checklist to decide
whether or not they used the five steps in the summarizing process.
Sample
Checklist:
-
Removed unimportant/ repeated
information Yes O No
O
-
Topic sentence given
Yes
O
No O
-
Only used main points
Yes
O No O
-
Created easy terms to classify
items Yes O
No O
References
Pressley,
M., C.J. Johnson, S. Symons, J.A. McGoldrick, and J.A. Kurity (1989) Strategies
that Improve Children’s Memory and Comprehension od Text. The Elementary School Journal, 90, 3-32.
Thaler,
Mike. The Custodian from the Black
Lagoon.
Alison
Bradley- “Sum it Up! http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/bradleyrl.html