Sum It All Up
Reading to Learn
Rationale:
Comprehending the information and events from a story or book is an important
ability for children to obtain. Children have to be explicitly taught how to
analyze and summarize the important details of a text. At the end of this
lesson, students will be able to pull the important information from a passage
after reading the text.
Materials:
“Steps to Summarizing” Poster
Dry Erase Marker
Document Camera
Copy of Who Did Patrick’s Homework
for each student
Pencil for each student
Copy of Quiz for each student
Procedures:
1.
“Today we are going to learn what it means to summarize a passage. To summarize
means to give a brief statement that presents the main points of the passage
that you just read. You should not include details in a summary, but you should
include the reason why the author wrote the passage. First, we are going to
learn and practice summarizing.”
2.
“To begin, everyone look at the board as we take a look at the Steps to
Summarizing Poster. There are three steps I want everyone to do when
summarizing. First, delete anything that you think is not important to the
story. Second, pick out items and events that you believe are important. Third,
compose a statement that cover everything the author is saying about the
important topics. These steps are very important and are the things I will be
looking for as you summarize your passage.”
3.
“Now, I will show you what I mean by using these steps in summarization. For
this example, I am going to use the passage we read in class yesterday. Does
everyone remember reading this story? Great! Now, I am going to summarize what
we read. I am going to be sure to use the summarizing steps and we will be able
to recall what the story was about. (Display a copy of the story on the document
camera so the students can see the story as we are summarizing.) First I am
going to mark out all of the information I do not find important. (Mark out
sentences on the copy of the passage so the students can see what you are doing
on the board.) Next, I am going to underline the important facts of the story.
Now that I know what the important information is, I need to determine why the
author wrote the passage. Lastly, I will compose a statement of the purpose and
all the important details that I have underlined.” (Get the students to help
pick out the important ideas and help come up with summarization sentences.)
4.
“Now, that you have seen me summarize, I want each of you to try and do it. I am
passing out a copy of Who Did Patrick’s
Homework? By Carol Moore. This story is about a little boy names Patrick who
did not like to do his homework. Yet, somehow he got all A’s in his classes. You
will have to read to find out how Patrick pulled this off.”
5.
“Each of you has three minutes to read
the passage. Remember to underline the important information, but no details.”
(Let students know when the time is up.) “Now that everyone is finished reading
the article, I want you to get into groups or two and help each other summarize
the text you just read. The Steps to Summarizing Poster is on the board for you
to reference. Make sure you and your partner go through each step will
summarizing.”
Assessment:
To ensure that each student was able to pick out the important information, I
will pass out a quiz with five questions referencing the important pieces of the
passage.
References:
Crump, Amy.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/crumprl.html
Moore, Carol. Who Did Patrick’s Homework?
http://www.magickeys.com/books/patrick/index.html