Sum
It All Up
Reading
to Learn
Rationale: The main goal of reading is
comprehension. In order to comprehend,
the reader must be able to separate the important information from
trivial
details. This means pulling out the
main ideas. Students will do this by
reading chapters and summarizing these chapters into three or four main
points.
Materials: paper,
pencils and a copy of Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia
MacLachlan for each student.
Procedure:
1.)
Begin
by
explaining to the children that it is very important that when we read,
we
understand what is read, and we can remember some of what we have
read.
This is especially important when we get into reading chapter books,
where it
might take us days or weeks to finish the book. One way to do
this is by
summarizing. Summarizing is when we take what we have read and
pick out
some of the most important points. This way we will know the main
idea of
the text we are reading.
2.)
Next,
the
teacher will read out loud chapter one of Sarah Plain and Tall allowing
the children to follow along or visualize the story. After this
is done,
then the class as a whole will come up with a summary. “Class, we
are now
going to write a summary of this chapter. In order to do this we
need to
pick out the main points of this chapter and the details. We are
going to
use the main points of the chapter to write a summary. By
summarizing we
are writing a short version of the chapter by throwing out the
details.
Let's make a list of the main points of the chapter. As the
children call
out parts of the story, the teacher will write them on the board
underneath the
title that either says "main points", or "details".
As the teacher writes them on the board, discuss with the children why
they are
main points or details.
3.)
Assessment-
The children will read chapter two silently and make a list of the main
points
and some details. Then they will write a summary individually to be
turned into
the teacher.
References:
Strategies That
Improve Children’s Memory and Comprehension of Text by Michael Pressley
It’s Super to
Summarize by Kelli Preston http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/chall/prestonrl.html
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