Reading to Learn
Lauren Byrd
Rationale: Summarization is a great technique to help students understand, comprehend and remember what they read. It is important that children remember what they read in all of the subjects that they study. This is a skill that must be introduced in the classroom, and practiced in order to be successful with this skill.
Materials: paper, pencil, and social studies books for all students
Procedures:
1- Now children,
today we are going to talk about a way that we all can learn how to remember
what we read. It is called summarization. It is a very important skill
that will help you all very much when reading a passage.
2- Now lets
all get out our social studies books and turn to the section on Christopher
Columbus. Before we start lets talk about what we already know about Columbus.
Good. Now I am going to read this section, and then I will show you all
how I would summarize it. (Read a section and then summarize it and talk
about how you chose what facts you did to recall ö Explain to remember
to use the big facts and not worry about the small things). Review how
to read silently before you let them read to themselves.
3- Go over the
rules of Summarization and discuss what each one means ö delete trivial
information ö delete repeated information ö superordinate
items and events - find or compose statement
that covers everything the writer is saying about the topic
4- Now children
we are all going to read another section on Columbus and work together
as a class to pick out the important facts, and use the rules in order
to summarize it. (Read another section and summarize together. As they
work together I will write their summarization on the board, so that they
can see each others ideas.)
5- Now we are
going to all divide into groups of about 4 or 5, and we will all read the
different sections in our groups. We will each summarize them and share
them with the class.
6- In order
to assess each student on the own with their summarization skills, have
them each read a passage and write a summary down on a piece of paper to
turn in to you.
References:
á "Strategies that Improve Children's Memory and Comprehension of
Text" Pressley, Michael; Johnson, Carla J.; Symons,
Sonya; McGoldrick, Jacqueline A.; and Kurita,
Janice A. The Elementary School Journal Volume 90, number 1. 1989
by the
www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insights/gullrl.html
- A Short Story by Sharon Gull ö