Summarization
Andrea Shelton
Explain to Me What's Important!
Rationale: The goal of reading is to comprehend
the text. One great strategy that helps a student with
comprehension is
summarization. Summarization is a strategy that has to be taught
and explained
in order to help children comprehend and remember what they just
read.
Teaching children how to summarize includes instruction on how not to
focus on
the minor insignificant details. A
student needs to learn when you summarize you place items and events in
order,
and come up with a way to explain what the main and important message
from the
text is. By providing children with instruction on how to
construct
summaries, they will be ready to apply the knowledge they have learned
and be able
to interpret the meaning of the texts they read.
Materials:
Pencil and paper for each student
Highlighters for each student
Dry erase boards and dry erase markers
Copy of the article, Elephants
Recognize Selves in Mirror, by
John Roach (found on: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061030-asian-elephants.html)
one copy for each student and one for the teacher.
Copy of the article, Tiny
Invaders, by Kristin Weir (found
in the Nov-Dec
2006 issue of National Geographic pgs. 16-23 or on http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0611/articles/mainarticle.html)
one copy for each student and one for the teacher.
2 pieces of poster board (one blank for teacher to draw a web on and
one with 5
summarization rules listed: find the important elements in the
text,
element the details that are redundant and that are not important, use
simple
keywords to highlight important details, arrange the keywords in the
same order
as they appear in the text, turn keywords into a topic sentence)
Procedure:
1. First, review silent reading with the class. "Today, we are
going
to review silent reading. Does anyone
remember what silent reading is? Good Job. Silent reading is when
we read
to ourselves, but not out loud. Can
someone tell me why we read silently? That is right.
We read silently to ourselves because it
helps us to comprehend what we are reading.
There are other things to that we can do to help us understand
what we
are reading. One of these ways is by summarizing our text. Who can tell
me what
it means to summarize? When we summarize something we will restate
only the most important parts. The
version that you summarize will be a lot shorter than what is in the
text
because you leave out the unimportant parts. Next, I will ask the
students ''Why is summarization so important for reading?'' Explain
that it
helps us to understand that what when we read something we will not be
able to
remember the entire text, so if we can remember what the main ideas are
then we
will be able to retell and remember the text so much easier. "Today I'm
going to teach you different tips to help summarize what has been read
and then
we will practice together summarizing together."
2. I
will explain that there are five steps to summarizing a text.
Explain the steps to the students and have them write the rules on a
poster
board for the entire class to see so they can go back and read them if
they
need the rules: "When we summarize, we do it using five
steps.
These five steps help us summarize more easily.
The steps are hanging up on the board for every one to see if
they need
them. First, pick out the important
details. Second, pick out the details that are repeated or are
not
important and get rid of them. Third, use easy keywords to
highlight
important details. Fourth, list those keywords in order as they
appeared
in the passage. Fifth, use the keywords to make one topic
sentence."
3. "We are
going to test our summarization skills we just learned
and worked so hard on!" Pass out to each student the article Elephants Recognize
Selves in Mirror.
Give a book talk: 'This article is about how elephants can see
themselves in a mirror. I wonder what happens when they do see
themselves.
We will have to read to find out.' Tell the students to read the
article
silently to themselves. Give each
student enough time to finish the article.
"Now that everyone is finished reading I am going to model for
you
how to summarize a paragraph using our five steps. I
am going to read a summary of the article. I
need everyone to pay very close attention to the important details."
4.
Next, say to the students, "I am going to
show you how to summarize a paragraph using our five steps we
discussed. Pay attention and listen for
the important
facts as I read. Now I am going to begin to read the first paragraph
aloud."
After summarizing the paragraph, remind the students of the steps you
used to
create the summary. Remind the students about deleting trivial
information by
saying, "did you notice how I only wrote the important information and
left out the unimportant stuff? Next I
will write down the keywords in order on the board.
Then I will take some of the keywords and
make a topic sentence. "Then, I
will read the topic sentence aloud.
5.
"Next, I need everyone to take out their highlighters."
I will tell the students to re-read the rest
of the article silently and to use their highlighters to highlight what
is the most
important parts of the article are. Give
the students enough time to finish and to really think about what the
important
parts are.
6. "Let䴜s discuss what you read in the
article. I am
going to draw a picture on the chart paper or a web. The web
helps us
organize the information from the article and to understand what we
have
learned. Remember, to look at the summary checklist on our other
chart. Does anybody know where the main topic on our web goes? I will put it in the middle because it is the
focus of what we will talk about and everything else goes around it. Who can tell me one of the main points from
the article?" Give students a
chance to answer and come up to the chart paper and write their answers
on the
web. Explain to the children that we should be able to create a
paragraph
that summarizes the entire article and that we can use the web to help
create
that summary by using the facts that we recorded.
7. I am going to hand out the paper to the
students to make their
own individual webs so they can practice what they have learned. I will also have them work in groups of four
so that they can discuss what they read and can come up with a summary
that
everyone can agree on. "I want
everyone to get with their groups that I have already assigned you with. Now I want you to practice making your own
web which will help you summarize. Who can tell me how to begin
the
web? We place the topic of the article
in the center of the of the web. Then we write the facts or
pieces of
information out to the sides and draw a line to it from the main
topic.
Now I want each group to discuss the article and summarize it
together. Look
at what each of you have highlighted and discuss why you highlighted
that part
of the text and that with your group. Remember
to look at the checklist to make sure you have used all five of the
steps for
summarizing."
8. Now I need everyone to take out their
own sheets of paper and
a pencil. Give each student a copy of the article, Tiny Invaders. Give a quick book talk: 'This article is
about all the little
tiny things that we come into contact with. There are bugs and
germs and
much more. I wonder what the bugs or germs could do to our
body?
You will have to read the article to find out. "Read the article
and summarize it by ourselves by using our five steps." When
everyone is done please turn in your summaries."
9.
Assessment: In order to assess the student's
understanding of summarization, I will observe the students as they
work on
their individual webs. I will compare their checklists to their
webs and
will have each of them write a brief summary paragraph based on their
web from
the article. I will gather their individual summaries and will
make sure
they do away with the unimportant and repeated information. I will read each summarization to see if the
child can summarize like we have discussed.
References:
Horton,
Shelley. 1, 2, 3...Summing
It Up! http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invent/hortonrl.html
Murray,
Bruce. The
Clabby,
Caitlin Tell Me All
About It!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/perspectives.html
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