Become a
Summarizer!
Reading to Learn
Rationale:
Comprehension is a very important skill to be learned. It is a major
component of fluent reading. There are many different activities that can help
children to learn how to focus on the main idea of a passage. One key skill to
learn is summarization. This can help students pick out certain parts of a text
that are more important than others; all in helping them understand the text
more clearly. This lesson will teach students the many different techniques of
how to summarize a text, teaching them better comprehension skills to help them
become more fluent in reading.
Materials:
Article for each
student, “Snowy Owls” by Catherine D. Hughes
Article for each
student, “American Bullfrogs” by Catherine D. Hughes
Highlighter,
pencil and paper for each student
Poster with the
three summarization techniques:
1. Pick out main ideas and information
2. Delete trivial information
3. Relate the main and supporting information
Rubric and
worksheet for assessment
Procedure:
1. Initially, the
topic of summarization must be explicitly introduced and taught to the students.
Have a discussion about what students already know about summarization and
exactly what it all is. “Summarization is a process of taking the most important
information from the article you read. There are many ways to make sure you
understand all of the content along with the summarization process. It is a
great way to take an entire story and make it into a couple specific and clear
sentences to make it much easier to read and understand!” Next the teacher
should explain that in class they are going to read two different, very
interesting articles about animals! “Let’s begin!”
2. The first
thing that should be done is to show and explain to the class the three
different steps that need to be taken when summarizing something. Explain all
three steps explicitly: pick out the main ideas and information, delete trivial
information and lastly, relate the main and supporting information. Now, the
teacher will explain how wit the first article, titled “Snowy Owls,” they will
do this process as a class together to really learn the concept! (Pass out the
highlighters, paper and article to each child). The teacher will then provide a
book talk to the students before reading it aloud and beginning the activity.
“So today, our article is called, Snowy Owls. It is a story all about owls! Did
you know that these owls are the same color as snow! It is how they got their
name! Males are whiter than females! There are so many interesting and neat
facts to learn in this article, so let’s start reading so we can learn more!”
Teacher reads the text aloud. Next, the teacher helps the students brainstorm
about the main information in the article to figure out the best points to put
in the summary. “So the article discusses some of the main qualities about the
snow owl, such as its eating habits, how their hearing is most effective, they
are most active in their hunting during dusk and dawn and finally that these
types of owls mate for life.” Then the teacher should explain to them how to
apply these main facts to the three summarization techniques.
3. Now the
students can try to use what modeling the teach has provided to then use the
three summarization techniques on their own.
4. Lastly,
provide the students with their own article, “American Bullfrogs,” so that they
can practice this skill on their own. Again, discuss what are main point ideas
and how to delete that trivial information. Also make sure to have a book talk
about the text before the children will read it. The students will be reminded
to work quietly at their desks and that they can references the poster with the
summarization techniques of necessary.
Assessment:
Checking the student’s work the assessment worksheet provided. Also, you
can ask them different comprehension questions to see if they really understood
the entire article. Provide them with different prompts to make sure the
students wrote about the main ideas and comprehended the article accurately.
References:
Eleanor McDavid:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/mcdavidrl.html
BeLinda Thorton:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/thorntonrl.html
Lizzie Fain:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/fainrl.html