Super Duper Summarizer!!!
Meredith Mosley
Rationale:
The
goal of reading is comprehension. One strategy that aids
comprehension is
summarization. Summarization must be
taught and
explained through rules in order to help children understand and
remember what
they have read. Teaching children
how to summarize includes instruction on how to delete trivial details
and
redundancies, place items and events in order, and create a statement
that
contains the message the writer is trying to convey. By providing
children with instruction on how to construct summaries, they will be
equipped
with the knowledge of how to better interpret the meaning of the texts
they
read.
Materials:
paper and pencil for each child
2
pieces of butcher paper (one blank for teacher to draw a
web on and one with 5 summarization rules listed: pick out the
important
details, pick out the details that are repeated or are not important
and get
rid of them, use easy keywords to highlight important details, list
those
keywords in order as they appeared in the passage, trim the list of
keywords to
make one topic sentence)
Procedure:
1. First,
review silent reading with the class.
“Today, we are going to review silent reading. Does anyone remember
what this
is? Silent reading is when we read with
our eyes, to ourselves, but not aloud. Does anyone remember why we read
silently? We do this because it helps us
to understand what we are reading. There are also other things we can
do to
help us understand what we are reading. One of these ways is by
summarizing our
text. Who can tell me what it means to summarize?
When we summarize something we retell it, but we leave out the
unimportant
information and stress the important parts and main idea. When
summarizing a
text, your version should be shorter than what you read.” Next ask the
students, “Why is summarization important for
reading?” and explain that it helps us understand what is read. “Today
I'm
going to teach you some tips to help you summarize what you read and
then we
will practice together.”
2.
Explain that there are five steps to summarize.
Explain the
steps to the children and have them either written on the board or on a
large
enough piece of butcher paper for the entire class to see: "When
we
summarize, we do it using five steps. These five steps help us
summarize
more easily. I have those five steps written out for you to see.
First, pick out the important details. Second, pick out the
details
that are repeated or are not important and get rid of them.
Third, use
easy keywords to highlight important details. Fourth, list those
keywords
in order as they appeared in the passage. Fifth, trim the list of
keywords to make one topic sentence.
3. “We are going to
test our summarization skills we just learned today!
Next, pass out the
article Mr. Pilling’s Pond to each student. Tell the students
to read
the article silently. Allow enough time for each student to finish the
article
and do not move on until all are done. Tell the students, “I am going
to model
for you how to summarize a paragraph using five way steps.” Read a
summary of
the article. Ask the children to pay close attention to the important
details.
4. Next, say to the students,
“I am going to
show you how to summarize a paragraph using the five steps we went
over. Listen
for the important facts as I read.” Read the first paragraph aloud to
the
students. After summarizing the paragraph, remind the students the
steps you
used to create the summary. Remind the students about deleting trivial
information by saying, "did you notice how I only wrote the important
information and left out the unimportant stuff? Good!” “Next, I will
write down
keywords from the story in order on the board. Then I will make the
list of key
words smaller and turn it into one topic sentence.” Then, I will read
the topic
sentence aloud to the children.
5. Next, instruct the students
to take out a
highlighter. Tell the students, “Reread the rest of the article
silently. Use
your highlighter to highlight what you think are the important parts of
the
article.” Provide a sufficient amount of time for each student to
finish.
6. “Now, let’s talk
about what you read in the
article. I am going to draw a picture on the chart paper.
This
drawing is called a web. Webs help us organize our information
and
understand what we know. Remember, to look at the summary
checklist on
our other chart. Where do I put the main topic on our web? (in
the
middle) What should I put in the middle of our web – what is the
main
topic of what we just read? Who can give me a main point from the
article?” Give students a chance to answer and record their
answers on
the web. Explain to the children that we should be able to create
a
paragraph that summarizes the entire article and that we can use the
web to
help create that summary by using the facts that we recorded.
7. Now I will pass
out the paper for children to make their own individual webs and will
have them
work in pairs. “A great way to help us summarize what we have
read is by
creating a web. Who can tell me how to begin the web?
That’s
right. We place the topic of the article in the center of the
paper
(web). Then we write the facts or pieces of information out to
the sides
and draw a line to it from the main topic. Now I want each group
to look
at article and summarize it. You do not
have to use everything you highlighted, and you may add things that you
did not
highlight if you feel they are important for the summary. Remember to use the checklist to make sure you
have used all five steps for summarizing. If you have any
questions,
raise your hand and I will be around to help you.”
8. Assessment:
In order to assess the children’s understanding of summarization, I
will
observe the children as they work on their web. I will compare
their
checklists to their webs and will have each of them write a brief
summary paragraph
based on their web from the article. As I check their work, I
will make
sure they eliminated unimportant, repeated information that was checked
off on
their lists. Once
they have finished their webs, say to students, “Now, I want you to
take out another
piece of paper and your pencils.” Give each student a copy of the
article,
Ghost Tigers of the Rain Forest. “Read
this
article and summarize it as best as you can individually. Use the five
steps we
have been practicing and refer to the board if you need help.” Students
should
summarize the story on their own. Then have students turn in their
summarizations to me. I will read each summarization to see if the
child can
summarize properly. Use the checklist in the materials list.
Clark, Patricia Nikolina.
(2004). Mr.
Pilling’s Pond.
2004, pp. 20 – 23.
(1989) Strategies
that Improve Children's Memory and
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