So What’s the
Point?
Rationale: The final goal of
learning to read is to have the ability to read and understand the
text. Once students are fluent readers, they need to learn to summarize
the text, taking out all “unnecessary” information. This lesson will
give students the tools they need to choose information that is more or
less important to the overall comprehension of the text. Eventually,
this will help students to be able to summarize the text and will help
improve their reading comprehension.
Materials:
1. copies of
article “The Truth Behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's
Chest” by Deborah Underwood for each student and teacher copy
a.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2006/09/piratestwo.html
2. highlighter
for each student
3. black
marker for each student
4. pencils
5. paper
6. Poster with
summarization rules on it:
a. Find main
points and highlight important information
b. Cross out
redundant information
c. Write down
main points that author is trying to make
7. Poster with
paragraph on it: from
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2005/10/moon.html
a. NASA wants
to make a new spaceship for the missions using parts from the Apollo
program, which first took people to the moon in 1969, and the space
shuttle. NASA says the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will be
"affordable, reliable, versatile, and safe."
Procedure:
1. Today we
are going to learn a very important part of reading! Has anyone ever
read a paragraph and is overwhelmed by all of the information? That can
be frustrating, so today we are going to learn how to become excellent
summarizers! Does anyone know what summarizing means? (give students an
opportunity to answer) Good! Summarizing means taking all of the
important information away from the unimportant information in the
text. When you do this, you are able to better understand the paragraph.
2. Show
paragraph and model how to summarize. Tell the students “First, I am
going to read this paragraph aloud and then reread it to myself (model
for them by reading first sentence aloud then reading it silently).
Next, I am going to read the rest of the paragraph and I want you to
read it silently to yourself. Let’s all try this together”.
3. Now, we
will talk about what is important in this paragraph. What is extra
information in this paragraph? Now we will cross out extra information.
I would cross out everything except NASA, new spaceship, CEV, and space
shuttle. Those are the most important words in this paragraph. So I
would mark out all of the extra information with my black marker. Let’s
go on and find the other important ideas in this paragraph.
4. Now that we
have crossed out all of the extra information, let’s follow rule #2 and
highlight all of the important information. I would highlight NASA, new
spaceship, CEV, and space shuttle. Now let’s move onto rule #3 and
write down all of the information that we think is important.
Congratulations! You have just summarized a paragraph! Let’s try it
again!
5. We are
going to look at an article about Pirates. Has anyone seen the movie
Pirates of the Caribbean? This article compares real-life
pirates to Pirates of the
Caribbean. We will have to read more to find how just how real the
Hollywood version of pirates is. I am going to pass out an article,
paper, pen, highlighter, and a black marker. Now I want each of you to
follow along with the article as I read the article aloud. We will go
through the first paragraph together for guided practice. Then I want
you to go back and highlight and cross out all important and
non-important information. It is easier when you go paragraph by
paragraph so pace yourself! When you have finished crossing out and
highlighting, I want you to write down the important facts on the sheet
of paper I gave you.
6. When they
are finished, I will have them share their summaries with their
neighbors, comparing their “important information” with each other.
Assessment: I will walk around
and observe their summaries as they are reading it aloud to their
partner. I will also have them turn in their summaries so that I can
better assess their level of understanding.
Resources:
Abbott, Patrick. “NASA Planning
Travels to Moon and Mars”. National Geographic Kids Magazine. 14
October 2005.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2005/10/moon.html
Bell, Elizabeth. “Ready, Set,
Sum!”
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/persp/bellrl.html
Underwood, Deborah. “The Truth
Behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”.National Geographic
Kids Magazine. 08 September 2006
Return
to Odysseys Index
