Rationale: The major goal of reading is comprehension. To
comprehend meanings of written text, there are certain techniques that
students can use in order to have a better understanding of what they are
reading. One of the best techniques that a student can use is summarizing.
It is important for children to be able to locate the most important information
from written text.
Materials: a copy of The Watson’s Go to Birmingham by: Christopher Paul Curtis for each student, paper, pencils.
Procedures:
1. First, the teacher will discuss with the students the importance
of understanding what they are reading. “In order to understand what you
read, we are going to use a strategy called summarization, which helps
us find the important parts of what we read”.
2. The teacher will now introduce the book The Watson’s Go To Birmingham
to the class and have the students read the first three pages to themselves.
When they have finished reading there will be a question and answer period
about what they had just read. Questions will be in the form of who, what,
when, where, and why. In order to show what is important and what is not,
the teacher should also ask some questions that are not important, such
as, "what is the color of the main character's pet".
3. Now the teacher will reread the passage that was assigned to
the students earlier. The teacher will point out the parts that are most
important and those that are not. He or she will model to the students
how to ask the five "w" questions to themselves in order to find out what
is important in a passage. "Ask yourselves who the story is about, what
is the story about, and try to find out when and where the story is taking
place, and why is the story important?" The teacher should then demonstrate
by asking the questions regarding 'who' with them.
4. Next have the children label their papers with the heading "who,
what, when, where, and why". Have the students finish reading the remainder
of the chapter. The students should be able to fill in the information
correctly.
5. For assessment, the teacher will collect all of the students
papers to ensure that each student was able to summarize the text by locating
the most important information. The teacher will have a checklist that
she makes up to see that the children have found the important points.
Reference: The Reading Genie Website
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie