Super Summarizers
I. Rationale: Decoding is
the building block to learning to read, just as summarization is the
building
block to comprehension. The heart of reading is to understand
what has
been read. In this lesson, students will learn event mapping as a
tool
for summarizing events in an expository text.
Then they will practice summarization in order to build a
stronger
foundation for reading comprehension.
II. Materials:
·
multiple
copies of Time for Kids
April 23, 2004 Issue
·
five
large sheets of butcher paper, markers
III. Procedures:
1.
Assign
reading Time for Kids as homework
the previous night. When the reading is done, the students will be
instructed to
take out their magazine.
2.
First,
review silent reading with the class. Today, we are going
to start with going back over silent reading. Who
remembers what this is? (Answers) Right
silent reading is when we read with our eyes and not a loud. Why do we
read
silently? (Answers) Good, we do this
because it helps us to understand what we are reading.
3.
Introduce
the idea of summarization. There
are also other things we can do to help us understand or comprehend
what we are
reading. One way is by summarizing our text. Who can tell me what it
means to summarize?
(Answers) Right, when we summarize
something we retell it, stressing only the most important parts in
order to
emphasize the main idea. When you are
summarizing a text, you must create a shorter version of what you read.
This
means you take out any information that is not important or that is
repeated in
the text. Ask, why is
summarization important for reading? (Answers) Exactly,
summarizing helps us to better understand what we have read.
4.
Model the
use of summary by reading the Article Warning: Animals at
Risk in the magazine
and writing down some of the main events on the board as you go along. When you are done, summarize the page for
them. This is how we summarize
what is going on. We take the text and
make notes as we go
along and finally come up with a shorter version of it that packs in
all the
important events.
5.
When they
are finished, begin by
modeling mapping for the article you modeled earlier. We
are going to make a map to help us
write our summaries. (I will hang a piece of the butcher
paper on
the chalkboard. I will write on it with a marker.)
First, draw
a big circle in the middle of the paper. Inside the circle write
“Warning:
Animals at Risk”. Begin by writing a few ideas and facts of the
article
you read and for each one explain why that is an important part of the
article. Then ask the students to help
you finish. What are some of
the words and ideas that you wrote down?
Each time I write one of your words or
ideas, I will draw a line from our big circle and draw a little
circle to
write your ideas in, tell me why you chose those words or ideas.
6.
Now, have
the students read the cover story Water Troubles
silently. As you read, write down some
words or
ideas that you think explain about what is going on in the article.
7.
In
groups, have them now complete a map
for Water Troubles. Now that
everyone is finished, every group will come up and present their story
map and
summary of their chapter.
8.
When
finished have them individually
write a summary of the article. The summary only needs to be
three to five sentences long.
IV.
Assessment: Use their presentations, maps, and summaries to
assess the students’ understanding of summarization.
Checklist:
·
The map
followed a progression of some
sort to clearly map out ideas.
·
The map
included the main points of the
article
·
The
presentation of the map was done including all members of the
group
·
The group
was confident in their understanding of their article
·
The group
demonstrated clearly and effectively
·
The
summary was the proper length (approx. one paragraph)
·
The
summary followed correct grammar and spelling
·
The
summary concisely stated the information from the map and the
main points of the article.
·
The
summary was original and not just lines from the article.
·
The work
was done on time
V.
References:
TIME
for
Kids:
Swindall,
Tamra. “Learning to Summarize”. www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/inroads/swindallrl.html.
Oglesby,
Kara. “Fun with Summarizing”.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/oglesbyrl.html