What am I Reading?

Reading to Learn
Lara Wiggins 

Rationale:

It is important that we, as teachers, give our students strategies and methods to help them remember the information they read. The most effective comprehension strategy is summarization. This lesson will help students summarize details and focus their attention on important facts.

Materials: a copy of Sarah Plain and Tall by Sarah MacLachlan.

Procedure:

1). TODAY WE ARE GOING TO LEARN HOW TO SUMMARIZE THINGS THAT YOU READ. SUMMARIZATION HELPS YOU REMEMBER AND COMPREHEND WHAT YOU READ. IT ALSO HELPS YOU TO PICK OUT THE IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM WHAT WE READ.

2). The teacher will now introduce the book, Sarah Plain and Tall, to the class and have the students read the first five pages to themselves. When the students are done reading there will be a question and answer session. The teacher will give the children some important example questions, about what the children just read, starting with who, what, where, when or why. Then, the students will come up with some questions that they think are important and their other classmates will answer those questions. Also, the teacher should give the students examples of unimportant questioning. An example might be, “what color bow was the girl wearing in her hair?”

3). Next, the teacher will read aloud the five page passage that was assigned to the students to read silently. The teacher will give the students examples of important main ideas through out the passage. WHEN TRYING TO DECIDE WHAT IS IMPORTANT AFTER WE READ, SOMETIMES IT IS HELPFUL TO USE THE FIVE “W” QUESTIONS, WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, AND WHY. EXAMPLES MIGHT BE ASKING YOURSELF, WHO IS THIS STORY ABOUT, WHAT IS IT ABOUT, WHERE IS THIS STORY TAKING PLACE, WHEN IS THE STORY TAKING PLACE AND WHY IS THE STORY IMPORTANT.

4). Now hand out paper and a pencil to each student. Have them create five questions, using the five “w”s. Then, ask the students to finish reading the remaining pages of the first chapter. Then, when they are finished come back to their paper and answer their questions.

5). When the students are finished reading, as a class, we will identify the most important points in the first chapter. Each child will look at their own paper to see if their questions and answer included some of the main ideas.

6). For assessment, the teacher will collect all of the papers and read the student’s questions and answers to make sure they understood the lesson.

Reference:

http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie 
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