Be Cool and Use the Tools of Summarization
Rationale:
As students work on becoming skilled readers, they must learn how to comprehend.
A strategy to help in improving comprehension is summarizing. Students
must have instruction on how to successfully summarize a text so that they will
be able to understand what they are reading. Student must learn to
identify what is important and not important in the text and how to then form
short and thorough sentences that explain the main idea. As students practice
and learn to shorten the amount of information given and pick out the most
important information they will be on their way to developing comprehensive
reading skills.
Materials:
·
Copies of “Mummy Mystery” from National Geographic Kids (Nation Geographic
Explorer)
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/1103/articles/mainarticle.html
for each student
·
paper
·
pencils
·
Summarization Checklist: 1. Delete
unimportant information 2. Delete
repeated information 3. Substitute
easy words for lists of item 4. Add
a series of events with an easy action term
5. Select a topic
6. Invent a topic sentence if there
is already not one.
·
Blackboard and markers
Procedure:
1. In order to begin the lesson, I
will start a discussion on summarizing in order to find out what students may
already know about summarizing. To make sure that everyone understands, I
will say, "Summarizing is when we pick out the main ideas from a paragraph so
that we have a shorter amount of information to understand and remember."
Today we are going to work on becoming excellent summarizers so that when we
read a text, we will be able to better comprehend it. Go through the six steps
of good summarization slowly and carefully so that students know what they are.
(1. Delete unimportant information
2. Delete repeated information
3. Substitute easy words for lists
of item 4. Add a series of events
with an easy action term 5. Select a
topic 6. Invent a topic sentence if
there is already not one.)
2. After introducing the process of summarizing tell the students that in order
to become a good summarizer it is essential to ask questions about the article
as you read. Say: As a class we are going
to practice summarizing today with the article “Mummy Mystery” and I am going to
ask some questions about the article as I am reading. Today I am going to ask
the questions out-loud, but if I were just reading this article I would only ask
them in my head. First I would ask ‘What do I think the article is about just
from reading the title?’ (Have the students make several predictions about
what they think the article will be about and explain that good readers and
summarizers always ask questions and make prediction when reading.)
3. Have the students read the article silently. Say:
Now I want you to read the article all
the way through silently. Make sure and read it carefully and slowly so that you
can summarize it later.
4. Give the student 10-12 minutes to read through the article. If some students
finish sooner than others, have them go back and read it again. After all
students have finished draw a graphic organizer web on the board. Say:
Now that we have all read the article
together let’s talk about some of the main ideas of this article. In this
process we want to be as specific as possible so that we can write a good
summary, but we also want to keep it as short as possible.
We
should be able to create a paragraph that summarizes the entire article.
Each section on our web can be used to create a sentence to help create a short
paragraph."
Have the students give you facts and information about the article. Divide it up
into categories or simply make a list of the information to draw from in writing
the summary.
5. After making the web, use some of the information from the web to come up
with the topic sentence as a class. Give your input as an expert summarizer, but
let student make many of the decision in what the sentence should say. Say:
Now class I want you to look at all this
information we have listed up here on the board. Does our article have a topic
sentence already written or do we need to write one? Remember a topic sentence
is ONE sentence that tells us what the whole article or text is going to be
about. (Remind students that most topic sentences are in the opening lines
of an article, but not all, and some do not even have great topic sentences, so
it may be easier to make one for yourself in summarizing the article.) Have the
students respond with what they think is the topic sentence. (For this article I
would use: “Hanging out with mummies may
seem scary, but I do it all the time.” But if student come up with a better
one I would use it.) Together as a class write the first sentence of the
paragraph, have the student come up with it on their own using teamwork, but
give your professional input as well.
6. After you have found the topic sentence and written the first sentence of the
summary paragraph pass out a checklist to each student with the six points of
summarization. Say: Now that you have
read the article and we have written the first sentence of the summary I want
you to finish writing the summary paragraph. Remember a paragraph is only around
5-10 sentences so keep it short and use simple words and the MOST IMPORTANT
information. Use the web on the board and the checklist on your desk to be sure
you have included all of the points in you paragraph. I will be walking around
if you have any questions.
7. Assessment: Have the students partner read their paragraphs to another
student. Tell them to look at the checklist as their partner reads and make sure
that they (their partner) have all of the point in their paragraph. Then collect
the paragraphs and read them checking is students understood and used the six
steps of summarization.
References:
Gluckman, Amanda. Long Story Short.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/projects/gluckmanrl.html
National Geographic Explorer:
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/1103/articles/mainarticle.html
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