Shorten the Length
Rational: The goal of reading is the ability to comprehend the text. Many strategies exist that provide the students the means to become independent readers. One strategy that helps children is the ability to summarize text. Students will learn how to summarize by deleting trivial information, deleting redundant information, substituting subordinate terms for a list of items, and creating a topic sentence.
Materials:
Dry
erase board with markers, paper, pencils, copies for each student of
“Snow
Babies” and “Lightning”, and summarization rubric:
1.
Delete
unimportant
information: yes or no
2.
Delete
repeated
information: yes or no
3.
Substitute
easy terms for
lists of items: yes or no
4.
Add a
series of events with
an easy action term: yes or no
5.
Select
a topic: yes or no
Procedures:
1)
Start
the lesson by
reviewing with the students how to read silently. "First I would
like to review how we read silently. Let
me show how to do this.” The teacher
should model how she reads silently by having her eyes move along the
page and
even silently pronouncing words while also demonstrating the change of
pace in reading more fluently. “I will
read the first paragraph to myself and then I will pass out the article
and
have you read silently. Remember I want
to see everyone’s eyes moving along the page.” Before you pass the article out
introduce the article, “Snow
Babies.” “What do think this article is
going to be talking about, snow babies?
Well, this article is about polar babies and the warmth they
need from
their mother 24/7."
2)
“Everyone
is doing such a
great job reading silently! Now I want
you to tell me what is means to summarize.”
Direct the children in the right the direction with the answers
they
give. “When you summarize a story you
try to get the main idea across. You
want to write down a few sentences that tell the story.
Well, there are six steps that will help you
when you summarize a story.” Write on
the board the six steps for summarization.
1.
Delete
unimportant
information
2.
Delete
repeated information
3.
Substitute
easy terms for
lists of items
4.
Add a
series of events with
an easy action term
5.
Select
a topic
6.
Invent
a topic sentence if
there is none
3)
Put
the class in
groups. “One thing that will help you
summarize is to draw a map. You put the
main idea in the middle square and then the supporting details around
it. This reminds me a wheel with the
hubcap in
the middle and spokes coming out of it.”
Demonstrate this on the board as you are telling them what to do. “Now, I want you to use the six steps we
talked about earlier and make a map of our article.” Put the map on the
board. “What would the middle circle
be? The main idea. Good!
Okay, what is the main idea of the story? Polar
bears(snow babies). Great!
Now, we will draw spokes coming from the circle that describe
something
about the polar bear. What are some
important ideas about the polar bears?
As newborns polar bears are the same as a loaf of bread, have no
teeth,
fur is not thick, eyes are closed, need mother’s warmth 24/7. These are great ideas! Remember
to always come up with ideas that
support the main idea, which here is polar bears, and continue to draw
lines
from the main idea. Give the students
some time to think on their own of some more details.
Tell them after they finish the web that if
they make these ideas into complete sentences then that will be their
summary. “Remember you should always
have a topic sentence. This topic lets
the reader know the what the main idea of the story.
The other ideas support the topic.” Make
sure students have a summary of the
text.
4)
Hand
out the article,
Lightning. Tell the students to make a
summarization map from the article and then write a summarization
paragraph
using their map. Check each student’s
summary
and map to see if they are using the six steps correctly.
Use the six steps as guidelines as to whether
they completed the assignment:
1.
Delete
unimportant
information: yes or no
2.
Delete
repeated
information: yes or no
3.
Substitute
easy terms for
lists of items: yes or no
4.
Add a
series of events with
an easy action term: yes or no
5.
Select
a topic: yes or no
6.
Invent
a topic sentence if
there is none: yes or no
References:
Pressley,
M. Johnson, CJ Symons, McGoldrick, JA. (1989) Strategies
that
Improve Children’s Memory and Comprehension of Text. “The
Elementary
School Journal.” 90, 3-32.
Musgrave,
Ruth. “Snow Babies.” National
Geographic New Online.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/ws_archive_main.html
Skelton,
Renee. “Lightning.” National
Geographic New Online. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/ws_archive_main.html
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