Sum It Up!
Reading
to Learn
Kristin
Saltsman
Rationale:
Comprehension is extremely
important in reading. In order to gain comprehension of reading materials,
children must use summarization skills. In this lesson students will be reading
an article from the National Geographic Kids website. After reading the article,
students will use their comprehension skills to summarize the article through
designing a story web and writing a short summary concerning the article
previously read.
Materials:
Brief paragraph written on
board for the students to review reading silently:
(Yesterday was a very long day for me. I woke up early so I could eat
breakfast.
Then I went to school all day. We learned a lot of fun things. The
only bad thing was we were
given homework. When I got home I ate a snack,
and then I started on my homework. After finishing my homework, I watch
television
for a few minutes. I wish I could have watched it longer, but I had
to get ready for
bed. After such a busy day at school, I was really tired. I went
right to sleep!)
One copy of “Honey Bee
Mystery” by Catherine Clarke Fox published by National Geographic Kids, Numerous
copies of various articles from the National Geographic Kids website, paper (for
each student), pencils (one for each student), white board, and summarization
checklist (one per student).
Procedure:
1. Start lesson by
reviewing silent reading. “Last week we talked about silent reading. How do we
read silently? Great answers! When you read silently your neighbors cannot hear
what you are reading. Let’s practice quickly by looking at the paragraph on the
board. Read the paragraph silently, but remember that your neighbors are not
going to hear you reading.
(Yesterday was a very long day for me. I woke up early so I could eat
breakfast. Then I went to school all day. We learned a lot of fun things. The
only bad thing was we were given homework. When I got home I ate a snack, and
then I started on my homework. After finishing my homework, I watch
television
for a few minutes. I wish I could have watched it longer, but I had to get ready
for bed. After such a busy day at school, I was really tired. I went right to
sleep!)
2. Great job everyone! That
was amazing silent reading! Today we are going to summarize passages. Does
anyone have an idea what summarize means? Good job! We summarize to help us to
understand a story. One way that we can summarize is to write and talk about it
with your friends. Let’s talk about some steps to successfully summarize a
passage:
(Write steps on board)
a.
Delete
unimportant information
b.
Deleted repeated
information
c.
Substitute easy
terms for a list of items
d.
Add a series of
events with an easy action term
e.
Select a topic
f.
Invent a topic
sentence if there is not one
3. Summarize the paragraph
written on the board using the steps also written on the board. “Let’s summarize
the paragraph we read silently. Who can tell me the first step to summarizing?
Awesome! Delete all the unimportant information. Why do we want to take out the
unimportant information? Great! The story does not need it for us to understand.
Let’s take out the information we do not need.” Mark through or erase the
sentences the students say need are unimportant.” Next we need to take delete
repeated information. This means that we need to take out something if it is
mentioned more than once. Do you see anything mentioned more than once? Great!
Now, are there any different words we could use to replace with easy words?” Let
students give their ideas and write them on the board. “Now, is there one word
we could use to describe what the paragraph is about?” Let students give their
ideas and write these on the board as well. “What do you think a topic is?”
Great answers! A topic is what a passage or story is about. What do you think
the topic is in this paragraph? Right! The paragraph is about someone’s long
day. If you ever read a story or passage and cannot find a topic, you can use
the steps to help you figure out what the topic is about.”
Make a story web for
everyone to see. “Now we are going to make a story web about our paragraph.
First, let’s draw a circle in the middle and write our topic in it. Let’s write
‘Long Day’, since the paragraph was about someone’s long day. Now, let’s write
the words we used to describe the paragraph and connect them to our topic. What
are some words we could use?” Write students responses in the web.
4. “Today you are going to
silently read ‘Honey Bee Mystery’ by Catherine Clarke Fox. When you are reading
the passage, remember the steps we just discussed. Take notes on the passage if
you need to. When everyone has finished I will teach you how to summarize the
article. Make sure to delete unimportant information, and look for main ideas
and topics.” Allow enough time for students to silently read article and take
notes if needed.
5. “Now I want everyone to
get their pencil and a piece of paper. Let’s write a summary about ‘Honey Bee
Mystery’. First we need to make a story web so we can get all of our information
together. First write the topic in the center of the page. Next, I want you to
draw five lines that connect to your topic. You can look at our example on the
board. Now, think of five parts that you thought were important in the passage.”
Allow enough time for students to complete their story web.
“When we write a summary,
we are going to write it in the form of a paragraph. When you write the summary
you need about four or five sentences. I want you to write a summary of the
passage in paragraph form. Use your story web to help you with the important
information you need. When you write your summary, begin with your topic. Then,
describe your topic in your paragraph. When everyone has finished, discuss your
summary with a neighbor.” Allow students to experiment with the activity and
observe each child. Scaffold students if they need assistance.
6. Assessment:
Have students choose an article from the various articles provided from
the National Geographic Kids website. After choosing the article, have the
students to read the article silently, draw a story web, and write a brief
summary. Use a rubric to score summaries. The rubric should be based on the
following:
Completeness, neatness,
understanding of the topic, has a story web, has a summary, and kept on task
during the activity.
Resources:
Angela Carroll Long,
Swoosh-Remember That
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/insp/longrl.html
“Honey Bee Mystery”,
Catherine Clarke Fox
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/animalsnature/honey-bee-mystery/
National Geographic Kids
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/animalsnature/