“Summaries, Summaries, and More Summaries!”
Rationale:
Comprehension
can be thought of as one using their own background knowledge and
experiences
along with the author’s cues to create an understanding of a text. A great way for someone to increase or
strengthen their comprehension skills is for them to learn how to
summarize
what they read. Summarizing is very
important because it helps you comprehend the main point or points in
what you
read. In this lesson students will learn
the five steps of summarization and how to use them by demonstrating
and using
them in a passage they will be given.
They will learn how to summarize a text and be able to apply
those
skills in their everyday reading abilities.
Materials:
* paper
* pencils
* A chart with the 6
summarization
steps listed:
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.
* 12” x
12” squares of poster board
*
markers
* chart
paper
* bookmarks
with the six summarization steps displayed on them for every student
* copies
of the article “Freaky Frogs” from National Geographic for every student
*
overhead projector
* part
of article class reads together:
“Frogs
are found on every continent except
* copy
of a sample checklist with each students name on it:
Sample Checklist:
1.
picked out the important details in general?
Yes
O No O
2. got rid of less important or repeated
ideas?
Yes O No O
3. highlighted
important details using key words?
Yes O No O
4. picked a topic sentence?
Yes O No O
5.
invented a topic sentence if there is none?
Yes O
No O
Procedure:
1. Start
the
lesson off by reviewing over how to read silently.
Ask the students “Who can tell me what it
means to read silently?” Right, you are correct, it is when we read
words using
our eyes, but reading it in our heads and not saying anything out loud
with our
mouths.” Then model how to silent read. I will have a sentence strip at the front of
the classroom with the sentence “I have two small dogs and one big
cat.” I will show the sentence strip to
the class
and first read the sentence out loud to the class.
Then tell students “Now I am going to
practice reading the sentence silently.”
I will face the sentence towards me so I can read it and they
can see me
reading it. While I read the sentence I
will over-dramatize my eye movement from right to left as I read and I
will
move my mouth to the movements of each word as I am reading without
saying
anything. Then I will say to the class
“see how I read silently and my neighbors did not hear me or get
distracted.” After modeling ask the
students “Who can tell
me why silent reading is great?” “Very
good, it helps you remember and comprehend what you read.”
2. Tell the
class that there are also other things that we can do to help us
comprehend
what we are reading and one of those is to summarize.
When we summarize something we retell the
text by stressing only the important parts in order to highlight the
main ideas
in the text. When we summarize a text we
shorten it by creating a short description of what we read and leaving
out the
information that is not very important or repeated. Summarization
helps us to understand a text we read silently and everyone is going to
learn
the steps involved in summarizing.” Tell
the class that today we are going to practice reading silently and
learn how to
make summaries of what we read.
3. Next
hand
out copies to everyone of the passage titled “Freaky Frogs” and the
bookmarks
with the steps on them. Tell the
students that the bookmarks are to help them later if they need it and
now we
are going to practice summarizing by using the article titled “Freaky
Frogs.” Ask “can anyone guess what their
article might be about?” (let students
have time to guess and spark each others interest by guessing) “Does anyone know any frog facts?” (let
students discuss with a partner close by)
4. Put small portion of article that is
listed in
the materials on the board. Say “Now we
are going to read a portion of the article together.
Then we will go back through what we read and
pick out the important parts and model what to do so everyone is on the
right
track. (Read small portion of article to
the class and help the class find the main ideas. Help
students come up with a topic
sentence.) Write down the main ideas and
topic sentence on the board for everyone to see.
Write on the board:
Frogs are found everywhere on Earth except
5. Tell the
class “Now I want all of you to read the rest of the article that we
did not
read. While you are reading I want
everyone to pay close attention to what the text is telling you. After everyone has read the article, we will
practice summarizing it and finding the most important parts of the
article. Also remember that I should not
hear anyone
talking because everyone is reading silently.”
6. Next
say
to the class “Now that you have read the article and you know what
summarizing
means we will learn the six steps of summarizing.”
(Have the chart with the six steps recorded
on a chart at the front of the classroom.)
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.
Say to class “It is important to
delete unimportant information that we may be distracted by. This
will help us to focus on the main points
of the article. Deleting repeated
information is important because it rids the article or reading
selection of
extra information that we already know.
When we substitute easy words for lists of items we are able to shorten
the amount of information we have to remember.
For example, we may want to remember a list such as lollypops, bubble
gum, Jolly Ranchers, peppermints, Reeses, and Heresy Kisses. We
may want to simplify that list by calling
it “candy.” We can place each of these
foods under the topic candy to help us recall them. We can add a
series of events with an action
term to help us recall a passage as well.
Then we can select a topic of the events in our passage and create a
topic sentence that describes the passage we have read.”
7. Tell
the class “Now we are going to talk
about what you read in the article together. 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. (Web ideas are great for visual
instruction and
help!) Remember to look at the summary
checklist on our other chart or your bookmarks everyone has.
Where do I
put the main topic on our web?” (the middle) “Great job!
What
should I put in the middle of the web?” (frogs) “Very nice! Who
can give
me a main point from the article on frogs?” Call upon the
students and
record their comments on the web. Explain
that we should be able to create a paragraph that summarizes the entire
article.
You can use the web to help you create your summary by using some of
the facts
that have been listed. Each section on our web can be used to
create a
sentence to help create a short paragraph."
8. Now I
will have the children work in groups
of two. Pass out the poster board squares, individual checklists,
and
markers to each pair of students. "A wonderful way to help us
learn
to summarize is by creating a web just like the one we did
together. Can anyone
tell me how to begin the web? Great! We place the topic of
the
article in the center of our posters. Then we write facts or
pieces of
information out to the side. Use your
checklist to make sure you have used the six steps for
summarizing. Good luck!
I will be walking around to help if you need me!"
Assessment:
In order to assess every students understanding
of the topic I will walk around the room observing every student.
I will compare their checklists with their webs.
I will also have them individually write a brief summary paragraph
based on their
web from the article. I will make sure they actually eliminated
unimportant or repeated information. When everyone is finished I
will
get them to hand their papers in and have a group discussion about the
summaries and the steps they used. I
will use a checklist to determine which steps they used in the
summarization
process. Also make sure the students went
through the different steps and understood them.
References:
Foster,
Ridney. “Sensational Summarization!”
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/fosterrl.html
Lunceford,
Valerie. “Sensational Summarizers.”
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/guides/luncefordrl.html