Super Summarizers
Reading to Learn
Rationale:
The goal of this lesson is to teach children a way to comprehend what they are
reading. In order to do this students must be able to grasp the main idea of the
story. A strategy to help improve and strengthen comprehension is summarization.
The students will be taught how to summarize the information they read in a
book. Also, they need to learn how to use a series of events to create a topic
sentence. After learning how to use these skills students will be on their way
to becoming better readers.
Materials:
-paper
-pencil
-markers
-chart paper
-12’ by 12” squares of
poster board
- Article on “Gorilla
Rescue”
-Checklist for each student
with the following:
1. Delete unimportant information
2. Delete repeated information.
3. Substitute easy words for lists of items.
4. Add a series of events with an easy action term.
5. Select a topic.
6. Invent a topic sentence if there is not one already.
Procedures:
1. Start the lesson by
discussing what summarizing is and why it is an important part of the reading
process. “Can anyone tell me what the word summarize means?” “When we say the
word summarize we are saying to take out the main points of a passage and put
them together to create a summary. “ “A summary is a description of the main
parts in a story. So now that we know what a summary is can anyone give me an
example of a summary?” “Today we are going to learn more about summarizing. Have
any of you ever summarized before? “
2. “Part of summarizing a
story is reading alone, and asking yourself questions quietly about what you are
reading as you read.” Let me show you an example of what I am talking about.
Read a short story aloud, and say “Now, while I am reading I am going to ask
myself. What is this story about? What are some main facts?. Then, give an
example summary of the short story to the students. Now I want you to read
silently the article “Gorilla Rescue” and practice summarizing and find the main
points of our article. Have an engaging book talk about story they are about to
read. Remember we are reading to ourselves, so I shouldn’t hear you talking.”
3. “Now that you have read
the article and you know what summarizing means we will learn the six important
steps of summarizing.” (Read on chart paper and give examples of each from the
story).
1. Delete unimportant information
2. Delete repeated information.
3. Substitute easy words for lists of items.
4. Add a series of events with an easy action term.
5. Select a topic.
6. Invent a topic sentence if there is not one already.
4. “Let’s talk about what
we read in the article together.” I
am going to draw us a web on the chart to help us organize our main points and
what we know from our reading. Remember to use the summary checklist we just
went over. Where am I going to put the main topic on our web? (in the middle)
Great! What should I put in the middle of the web? (Gorilla Rescue) Very good!
Okay, who can give me a main point from the article? (Record their comments on
the web) We can use this web to help us create our summary by using some of the
facts that we have just listed. Each fact can be a sentence in our summary.
5. Now I want you to create
your own web working with a partner just like we did. Pass out the poster board
squares to each group, along with the individual checklist and a marker to each
group. “I will be walking around if you need help.”
6. Assessment: To assess
the students understanding of summarizing I will monitor them as they work
together on their webs. I will also ask the students questions about the story
they read to make sure that they comprehend the text. They will each turn in a
brief summary paragraph on their web they created from the article, and I will
check to make sure that they only mentioned the important facts in the story,
and that they have a topic sentence. I will ask “Why did the Gorilla need to be
rescued?”
References:
National Geographic.
"Gorilla Rescue". Retrieved on April 7, 2011.
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/animalsnature/gorillarescue/
Trefethern, Caroline.
“Summarize!.”http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/voyages/trefethenrl.html