Get to the
Point!
By: Kristin Neely
Materials: Non-fiction
book (such as a science or history book-ex. National Geographic
Society's
Science book), copies of text for each child, highlighter for each
child,
markers, paper, pencil
Procedure:
1. I
will begin the
lesson by explaining to children what it means to summarize a text.
"When
you are summarizing a text, you will create a shorter version of what
you read.
This means you take out any information that is not very important or
that is
repeated in the text. For example, if I read a passage such as “I went to the beach. I saw a raft. The raft
was yellow.” I could summarize the passage by saying “I saw a yellow
raft at
the beach.” Do you see how I used the important information from the
passage
and made a shorter sentence? Today we are going to be summarizing just
like I
just did."
2. I
will have
students get out their textbook and silently read the assigned passage
(this
will depend on which lesson you are on). "I want everyone to read p.
32-35
silently. This is about fossils. After you have finished, be thinking
about
some of the important points in the story."
3. After
the children
have finished reading the assigned pages, I will pass out copies of the
text
they have just read. "We are now going to summarize what we just
finished
reading. On the copy of the text I just gave you please highlight all
the main
ideas or pieces of information you feel are important." We will then
discuss each of these facts as a class. "Next, I want you to take your
marker and mark through all of the information you don't feel is
important.
This is the information that the author included in the text but that
does not
need to be put in our summary."
4. "Now
that we
have finished highlighting and marking, I want you to write what is
left on a
blank piece of paper. Make sure you leave out all the information you
marked
out."
5. After
all
students are finished, allow some students to read their summaries to
the
class. Encourage children to listen and see if their summary is similar
to the
one being read.
Assessment: In order to
assess
summarization skills I will pass out another passage for the children
to read silently.
They will then summarize the passage on their own. I will then check
over them
to make sure they included the main ideas of the story and left out
information
that is irrelevant. This will demonstrate an understanding of
summarization.
Reference: