Sum it Up!!
Reading
To Learn Design
Rationale: The goal of
reading instruction is to provide children with the skills necessary
for
comprehension. Summarization is a key strategy that fluent readers use
in order
to understand a text. In this lesson, students will learn how to
summarize what they are reading and ultimately gain a better
understanding of
the text. They will delete unnecessary information and create a topic
sentence
by referring to a checklist. The students learn this by creating their
own
summaries while following these rules and creating their own concept
maps.
Materials:
-Chalkboard
and chalk
-Article for
each student: Flying Horses—The Amazing
Lipizzaners of Austria (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2005/10/horses.html)
-Article
for each student: The Ayes-Ayes of
Madagascar (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0510/index.html)
-A
concept map for each student that contains a box
in the middle labeled “Subject” and below it a box labeled “Topic
Sentence”.
Then, there should be a bigger box labeled “Details”.
-Highlighter
and pencil for each student
Procedures:
1.Who can raise your hand and tell me why we learn to read?
Good! You
are exactly right, we read to gain information. The
reason that we learn to read is so that we can comprehend, or
understand, the information given in whatever we are reading. Today we are going to talk about
summarizing, which is an important strategy to learn in order to be a
mature
reader. When we summarize, we decide which information in the story or
writing
is important for understanding. Today we are going to practice
summarizing by finding a text’s
main idea
and the details that support that idea.
2.It is also very important for each of
us to read SILENTLY so that we do not disturb our neighbors while they
are
trying to read. I want you to listen to two different ways that I read
and you
tell me which one would not disturb others.
(Model silent and out
loud reading
and ask students how they are different.)
3. There are a few simple rules that are
important for us to follow in order to summarize. (Have these written on board already). Read and
explain
each to the class.
-Get rid of
any unnecessary or repeated information.
-Find the most
important items or events.
-Write a statement that sums up
everything the writer wants you to know about that subject. You do this
by
reading the entire text and determining the most important main idea of
the
piece.
4. Read Flying
Horses—The Amazing Lipizzaners of Austria (from National
Geographic for
Kids) as a class. Now I am going to read this text and follow our
three
rules of summarizing to help me comprehend this text. First, I will try
to get
rid of any unimportant information. For example, it is not really
important to
know the color of the stallions at ten years old. Next, I will take out
important events or items. For example, the horses with the most
potential get
separated from the rest of the herd and go to training. Then the
horse’s
muscles are strengthened and exercised. Then their abilities to leap
and kick
are refined. Then the horses are flown around the world to perform.
Last, I
will try to make a statement that covers everything I read. For this
article, I
might say that the main idea is: The Lipizzaner stallions train for
years so
that they can travel the world, dazzling people with their incredible
“ballet”
tricks.
5.
Give each student a copy of The Ayes-Ayes of
Madagascar. Okay boys and girls, this is an article about animals from
a
country near Africa called Madagascar. Now, I want you to work with a
new
article and use our three rules to find the important information that
should
be highlighted. Remember the three rules are on the board for you to
use as a
guide. Remember to read SILENTLY so we do not disturb our neighbors.
6.
After this part has been completed, give each student a
concept map to work with. Boys and girls, each one of you will
receive a
concept map to help you organize the information. You will need to
write the
subject and your original topic sentence in the middle. Then you will
use what
you have highlighted to write the details that support that topic
sentence in
the “arms” of the map. Model filling out a concept map with the
first
article you read as a class.
7.
Once students have completed their concept maps, have
them work in pairs to write a summary paragraph of the article. They
should use
each of their concept maps to do this. Now I want you to work with
your
partner to write a summary paragraph about the article you read. Make
sure to
use the information on each of your concept maps to do this. Raise your
hand if
you have any questions or need some extra help.
8. To assess students’
paragraphs, have a checklist with the three rules on it and check “yes”
next to
the rule if they followed it and “no” next to a rule if they did not.
References:
Roberts,
Kelly. Summin’ It All Up. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/constr/robertsrl.html
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