Finding the Good Stuff In
What We Read
Rational: Comprehension
is very important in learning to read. If students cannot comprehend
what they
are reading, then they will not understand the message. When good
readers read
they use summarizations to help them comprehend the text they read.
When
summarizing a reading selection it is important to first delete any
information
that is not needed. Students need to learn how to tell the important
information from the trivial information. Modeling this procedure and
allowing
students to practice will help then learn how to delete the trivial
information. After deleting all trivial information students can use
the
important information, to answer questions about the text. Students
will learn
to ask questions about what is going on or being discussed in the text.
This
lesson gives students practice at building their comprehension
strategies, by
teaching then to delete unneeded information and locate the important
information needed to comprehend the material.
Materials:
Multiple
copies of Incredible
Caterpillars. Ranger
Rick, July
1992, p.24-30;
·
Graph Sheets for
finding the important information.
·
Pencils
·
Board to write on
·
Poster of
Summarization Rules covered in the lesson (optional)
·
Expository Texts
for assessment (Use Science or Social Studies)
I.
Procedures: Introducing the lesson
A.)
Introduce
the lesson my telling the students
why it is important to comprehend what we read.
“Today we are going to be working on our comprehension
strategies.
When we read it is important to now what we are reading. We need to
know how to
find the important information in what we read. When we pull out only
the
important information from the text, we say that we are meeting the
first step
in summarizing the information.”
B.) Tell
them that one of
the quickest ways to comprehend what you are reading is by getting rid
of all
the extra information. We don’t need some of the information. Good
readers know
when to pay close attention and when not to. "There is a way to put
all
of the important information together and leave the unnecessary stuff
out, so
we can better understand what we are reading. It is called
summarization
and we will learn how to use it today."
II.
Model the process
A.)
Have
the
students individually read the first three pages of the text. "To begin, I want you to read the
first paragraph, silently to yourself. Remember that when we read
silently it
is to ourselves, and others should not hear us.”
B.)
Then have
the
students tell some of the things they learn about what this article is
going to
be about. Then ask then to point out how they found this out. “What
do you
think this article is going to be about? What are some of the clues
that told
you this? When we read we want to
look for the important information and delete any unimportant
information.”
C.)
Then
have the
students find things in the text that did not help them know what the
article
was going to be about. Write these things on the board. Make a graph
comparing
the important information to the not so important information. (A model graph can be found at the end of
this lesson.)
III.
Explain the Summarization Rules
A.)
Tell the students that there are three
main rules for summarizing a reading. These rules can be put on a
poster
for students to refer back to when reading. "There are three
important
rules to remember when summarizing a passage:
1.
Get rid
of
unnecessary and repetitive information.
2.
Organize
and
put items and events in order by their importance to the selection.
Find
answers to the important questions of What is it about?, Why is it
important?,
Who did it?, and When, were and how did or does it occur?.
3.
Find the main
idea. This maybe a sentence in the text or you can rewrite your own
that covers
everything the writer is saying about the topic.”
B.)
Write
the rules for Summarization on the
board or create a poster to hang up in the classroom to remind students
of
these three important strategies.
C.)
Refer
to the rules of summarization as you
model the process of finding important information in the text. Read a
paragraph
or two of the text to the class and have them tell you what is so
important in
that passage. “What make these
caterpillars so incredible?” List their reasons on the board
referring back
to the text as needed.
IV.
Practicing the Rules
A.)
Have
the students
read the rest of the article. As they read remind them to look for what
is
important and what is not so important in the text. “Now I want you
to read
the rest of the article on your own. Remember as you read to locate
what is
important to the text. You can find this by first deciding what is not
important. Remember to ask yourself, Who or what is it about?, Where is
it
taking place and when?, and What is going on?. The answers to
these
questions are the important information. We want to pay close attention
to the
important information as we read.”
B.)
Give
the
students the graph sheets to records the things they find to be
important and unimportant.
Have them write the unimportant information in the first column and the
important information in the second column. “On this sheet I want to
write
down the information you find. Write the unimportant information in the
first
column and then the important information in the second column.”
C.)
When
students
finish reading and recording the information that they found, have them
split
into groups of three are four and compare their findings. Working with
their
peers students who are still struggling maybe able to see things in the
text
that they did not see before. Tell the students that they need to be
able to
tell why they chose the information they did. They need to defend the
important
ideas that they recorded on their sheet.
D.)
After
allowing the students to work together in groups to compare what they
learned
from reading, bring them back to one big group. Have a class discussion
about
what was important in the passage that the students just read. Allow
the group
to send one of their members up to present their ideas about the text.
V.
Assessment
A.)
Have the students read an expository
text
from their science or social studies book. Remind then to use the new
summarization rules as they read. “Now I want you to read the next
section
of you science textbook silently to yourself. As you read remember to
use the summarizations
rules to comprehend what is going on.”
B.)
After
the students have read the
chosen section have them write a paragraph summarizing the main ideas
of the
chapter. Their paragraphs should include the main ideas of the assigned
reading, what is it about, all important facts, where it is taking
place, and
when it is happening.
C.)
Have
the children write a rough draft of
their paragraph first, then revise it, and write a final copy. This
process can
be done with any expository text to help students remember more about
what they
have just read. They can draw pictures to go along with their
summarizations,
as well. These can be used to assess their comprehension of the text
and also
give them a good opportunity to practice their grammar.
References:
Pressley, M., Johnson, C.J., Symons, S.,
McGoldrick, J.A., & Kurity, J.A. (1989).
Strategies that improve
children's memory
and comprehension of text. The Elementary School
Journal,
90, 3-32.
Autmn B. Sims. “What’s
The Main Idea.” The
Cindy Crenshaw. “Comprehension! The Key That
Opens Our Minds.” The