Rationale
Through this lesson, children will learn how to summarize the text they
are reading. This lesson will teach students how to summarize what they
are reading and ultimately learn how to find meaning of what they have
read. Once students can learn to summarize the text, they will
understand the text and will find meaning out of what they read.
Materials
Highlighter for
each student
Paper for each student
Pencil for each student
Dry erase board and marker
Copies of
the article "Little
Gorilla
Rescue" from Ranger Rick Magazine (August 2003, Vol. 37, No. 8,
pgs. 4-8) for each student
Summarization Checklist (see bottom of
page)
Procedures
1. Begin the
lesson with a review of silent reading. "Today, we are going to
start with reviewing silent reading. Can anyone tell me what
silent reading is? Yes, silent reading is when we read with our
eyes and not out loud. We keep our mouths silent and read to
ourselves in our minds. Does anyone remember why it is a good
idea to read silently? Right, we do this because it helps us to
understand and remember what we are reading.”
2. “There
are also other things we can do to help us understand or comprehend
what we are reading. Now, we are going to learn a new idea that
helps us understand our text even more. We are going to do this
by summarizing our text. Does anyone know what is means to
summarize a story? It means to give a shorter version of a story
or event, telling only the most important parts. We retell it,
stressing only the most important parts in order to emphasize the main
idea. When you are summarizing a text, you must create a shorter
version of what you read. This means you take out any information
that is not important or that is repeated in the text. Today we
are going to learn how to summarize what we read using just a few easy
steps and then we will practice summarizing a text together."
3. “There
are five simple steps to summarization.” Write the steps on the
board while explaining them out loud to the class.
Step 1: Pick out important details that are necessary and
important to the story.
Step 2:
Highlight the important details.
Step 3:
Pick out the less important or repeated ideas from the story.
Step 4: Eliminate
the less important details by crossing them out.
Step 5: Rewrite the story using the important details and
leaving out the less important details. Try to put the important
details into your own
words.
4. Pass out the article, highlighters, and
pencils to each child. “Now
I am going to pass out a new article, Little Gorilla Rescue.
This story is about a little gorilla. Raise your hand if you know
what a gorilla is." (Allow time for discussion) "Would you like
to have a gorilla?" (Allow time for discussion) "Well,
let's read this article and see why this little gorilla needs to be
rescued. I want everyone to practice reading the article silently
to yourself." Make sure you allow enough time for each student
to read through the article.
5. “Now that
I have written the five steps on the board, let's review them aloud and
the practice using them.” Pointing to board, tell the students,
"I am going to show you how to summarize a paragraph using the five
easy steps to summarization. As I read the first paragraph, I
want you to be thinking about the important facts that I read.”
Read the first paragraph out loud to the class.
6. “Now, we are going to practice using the
five steps as we summarize the article.” I will read each
sentence out loud to the class, asking after each sentence if the
sentence is important or not important. We will highlight
the important details and cross out the less important details.
After doing this after each sentence in the first paragraph, I will
reread the paragraph just reading what we have highlighted. I
will then put the highlighted portion into my own words and read it
outloud to the class. After summarizing the first paragraph,
remind the students of the steps you used to create the summary.
“Did you see how I used the five steps to create my summary? I
pulled the useful or important information, leaving behind the less
important ideas from the story."
7. "Now I
want you to summarize the rest of the article. Remember to use
the five steps that are listed on the board. Begin by using your
highlighter to highlight the parts that you think are important.
Then use your pencil to cross out the less important details"
Provide a sufficient amount of time for each student to finish.
8. "I want you to
write a summary of the article that we have just read. Remember
to use the "five steps to summarization". Make sure to only write
the parts that you think are important and don't forget to put it in
your own words." Walk around the room and give advice on the
students' summaries.
Assessment
Have the children read the rest of the article and provide a summary
for it. Handout out a checklist (see bottom of page) that lists
all of the necessary parts of the summary and make sure each child
includes it in his or her summary. Make sure that redundant and
trivial information was left out of the summary and that only the main
points and ideas were included. The students will turn in the
summarization to the teacher. The teacher will read each one
making sure that every student knows how to summarize a story by using
the checklist below.
Summarization
Checklist
Redundant information was taken
out:
O Yes
O No
Trivial information was taken
out:
O Yes O No
There are only main points in the
summarization: O Yes O No
References
Bradley, Alison. “Sum it Up” http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/bradleyrl.html
"Little Gorilla Rescue"
from Ranger Rick Magazine (August 2003, Vol. 37, No. 8, pgs.
4-8)
Watts, Emily. “Super
Summarizer” http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insp/wattsrl.html
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