By: Margaret Ann Hinshaw
Super! You can Summarize!
Rationale: Comprehension
can be seen as the process of using one's own prior experiences and the
writer's cues to construct a set of meanings that are useful to the
individual
reader (Eldredge, 11). A good way for children to gain comprehension
skills is
for them to summarize what they read. Summarization is important
because it
lets teacher's know if their students understand the main idea behind
what they
are reading. In the following lesson, children will learn how to use
summarization skills on their own and will be able to apply them to
their
everyday reading skills.
Materials:
1)
A
copy for each student of the National Geographic
Article, “Exotic Pets Run Wild in
2)
Worksheet
for each student with the following
categories: Title, Main Idea, Details, Conclusion
3)
Pocket
Chart displayed on the board with following
categories: Title, Main Idea, Details, Conclusion
4)
Lined
paper for each student to write up their
summary of the article in their own words.
Procedure:
1)“Today we are going to
discuss what it means to summarize what we read.” “Has anyone ever
heard the
word summarize before?” “Very Good! To summarize what we read, means to
take
the main idea of what we read.” “It means to tell what is the most
important
idea behind what we read.” “This is what we will be doing today.”
2) “I will pass out an
article that I want you to read silently to yourself.” “It is important
that we
read silently to ourselves because it helps us to better comprehend
what we are
reading.” “Then I will pass out a worksheet for you to fill out using
the
information you gathered from the story.”
3) “Now that everyone has
had a chance to finish their reading, I'd like to go over the
worksheet.”
“There is a place for you to write the title of the article, which is?”
“Correct, Exotic Pets Run Wild in
4) “We will now place our
answers in the pocket chart as a whole group.” Who can tell me what the
main
idea of the story was?” “Very good! The main idea was that exotic
animals are
getting lose in
5)
Assessment:
“What I would like for you all to do
individually is to rewrite the article in your own words using the
information
we came up with.” “Your paragraph should explain what the main idea of
the
article is and tell the important details we need to know to be able to
understand
the article.”
References: http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insp/creecyrl.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2004/04/exoticpets.html
Eldredge, J. Lloyd. Teaching
Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. Prentice Hall, 1995. (Pg. 11)
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