LET’S
SUM IT
UP!
RATIONALE: Learning
to read is just as important as
reading to learn. Once students have
become fluent readers, it is important that they be able to comprehend
the
texts they are reading from. Summarizing
texts students have read is a wonderful way to for them to practice
their
comprehension strategies. In this lesson
the students will read a chapter out of Tuck Everlasting and
summarize
it as a group and individually. They
will also learn the six steps of summarization.
MATERIALS:
1.
Delete unimportant information
2.
Delete repeated information
3.
Substitute easy terms for lists of items
4.
Add a series of events with an easy action term
5.
Select a topic
6.
Invent a topic sentence if there is none
PROCEDURE:
1. Prior
to this lesson, the students should
have been given some time to read the first chapter in Tuck
Everlasting. Teachers can take this
time at the beginning
of the lesson to review with students how to read silently. “I know all of you can read out loud, but
let’s remember how we read to ourselves, silently.”
Model this for a moment to the students. Then
invite the students to read silently
themselves. “Take a little while to
re-read the first chapter in Tuck Everlasting so the material
is fresh
in your minds. Remember, we’re all
reading silently so no one should be talking.”
Give the students 10 or 15 minutes to read.
2. Introduce
the 6 steps for a summary: “Alright, now
that we’re all done reading,
can anyone tell me what a summary is? A
summary has to do with picking out the most important points in a text
we
read. There are six important steps to
writing a summary (write these on the board).
First, we want to delete unimportant information.
Next, we want to delete anything that is
repeated in the story. After that we
want to substitute easy terms for a list of items.
Then add a series of events with an easy
action word. Last, we want to select our
topic. If there is no topic sentence
then we’ll invent one.”
3. Provide
students with paper. “Now that we’ve gone
over the 6 steps in making
a summary, let’s see if we can pull some important information from the
chapter
we read. To see this, we can use a
web. (draw a circle on the board) What do you think might go in the middle
circle? That’s right, our most important
idea or main idea. In this case, the
first chapter talks a lot about…what?
The wood near the Foster’s house.
So that would be our main idea (write that in the circle). Next we need to find some information that we
read about the wood. What
could we say about it? How about that it
is quiet and
mysterious? (write this down in the
circle that comes off the web) For you
to finish your web, you’ll need to add some more circles that tell us
something
about the wood (give the students time to do this).
Once you’ve finished your web, that can be
used to write a few short sentences about the chapter we’ve read.”
4. Assessment:
Place students into small groups and hand out butcher paper and
markers
to each group. “Now that you’ve finished
your webs, I am going to put you into groups and you can work together
to
decide which important points will go on your group web.”
Give the students a little time to work. Walk
around the room and monitor students as
they are working to make sure they have the right idea.
Take each web and hang it on the wall. Then
discuss, as a class, if each group was
able to identify some important points from the text.
Ask students to make one more web, drawing
key points or ideas from the group webs they and their classmates made. “Now that you’ve finished with this web, turn
your paper over and write a small paragraph using the most important
points you
have chosen.” Hand out the 6 step
checklists to the students. “Then, using
the checklist I’ve just given you, I want you and a partner to look at
each
other’s webs and paragraphs to see if you were able to complete each
step.”
REFERENCES:
Babbitt, Natalie.
Tuck Everlasting.
Pressley, Michael."Strategies That
Improve Children's Memory and Comprehension of Text" The Elementary
SchoolJournal. Volume 90, number 1. Pages 3-32. 1989.
York, Lyndsay.
“Summing It All Up”.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/yorkrl.html