1..2..3.. You've got a Summary

1…2…3... You’ve got a Summary

Reading to Learn

Rationale:
Comprehension in the goal of reading. The reader must be able to comprehend what they are reading or reading would not be important. To be able to comprehend the reader must be able to understand the text and what it is telling the reader. During this lesson, I will help the students with their summarization skills by helping them to pick out the important information in the text. This will lead to comprehension!

Materials:
Dry Erase Board / Markers
Poster Board with a Paragraph “How to make a P. B. and J”
Individuals Copies of “How to make a P. B. and J”
Highlighters per individual student
Markers
The Cherry Tree by M. L. Weems

Procedure:

I will start the lesson by saying, “Today we are going to learn some fun skills that will help us learn. These new skills will teach us how to read something know how to come up with a summary of the book that we have read. A summary is going to tell the important parts of the book that we are going to read. This will help us in understanding exactly what the story was about.”

I am now going to put the title of a paragraph on the board and will describe what I want the students to do. “First off, I am going to read the title to myself (that means silently) How to make a P. B. and J. I will now pull out the paragraph that has been written on a poster board. Now that we have all read the title, I am going to finish reading the paragraph aloud, while you follow along with me!” (Make sure that every student is able to see the poster board with the paragraph on it.)

Now that everyone has had a chance to see the poster board, I will pass out copies of the paragraph to the students and ask them to get out their highlighters. “What do you think that the most important part of this paragraph is? Very Good. How to make a P. B. and J. Now, let’s learn our first and second rules of summarization. If it’s not important throw it out the door and cross it out. So, before we highlight that whole sentence let’s highlight the important parts and cross out the stuff that isn’t very important. In the first sentence we should highlight Make and P.B. and J. Let’s all highlight that part on our papers and cross out the rest that’s not important.” I will highlight and cross out on the poster board. We will also continue until all of the important information has been highlighted. (Make sure the modeling is sufficient.) For example: In the first sentence, "Using a knife, spread a generous layer of peanut butter on one slice of bread." We will model the important parts of this and cross out the things that are not needed.

“Now that we have highlighted all of the important parts of the paragraph, we are ready to make a summary. To make a summary we are going to use the highlighted portions.”

“Remember the first and second rules I taught you about summarization? Throw anything that isnot important out the door and keep all of the important parts. Well, the third rule is to write about what the author is trying to tell you in the story. We have completed all three of these while we were highlighting on the poster board. Now all we have to do is put it together!” Finish by putting all of the pieces together.

“Now we are ready to move on to a new story. This story is about George Washington, who eventually became the first President of the United States. But, before he did all of that, he did something that got him into a little bit of trouble. In order to find out what he did we are going to read this article about George Washington. To help, I am going to do the first paragraph with you. We are going to use our highlighters to mark down the important information, and our markers to mark out what is not so important.”

“Now that we have finished the first paragraph, I would like you to finish the rest of this article on your own. But, I would like you to still continue to highlight the important parts and cross out the information that is not needed. After you finish doing this to the whole article, I would like you to summarize the article. This will be everything you highlighted put together. Once you finish, work with your partner and decide if what you summarized were the important facts and about the same. Remember to do your best.” I will monitor each student’s individual work.

Assessment:

In order to assess the students, I will have them turn in their completed work when they have finished. If it looks like the students need more help, we will go over more of the article in class. If it is just a few, I will pull them aside and help them individually. Also, I will ask the students comprehension questions regarding the article that they read. This will allow me to know if the understood what they read!

Reference:

Kelly Roberts “Summin’ It All Up” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/robertsrl.html
The Cherry Tree by M. L. Weems http://www.inspirationalstories.com/1/106.html
How to Make a P.B. and Jelly Sandwich by (Staff) http://www.ehow.com/how_1323_make-peanut-butter.html

Return to Odysseys Index