Read and Get Smart

              By Lindsey Waits
           e-mail: waitslj@auburn.edu


 

Rationale:  In order to read and learn children need to comprehend the text.  All children should have practice of reading a passage and then summarizing it.

Material:  Non-fiction book (reading book with non-fiction story), pen, paper, Open Court Reading, 1997.

Procedure:
1. Tell the children that we are going to learn a new trick to reading that will help us learn in a fun way.  I will model this by reading them a short factual write up on the authors of the story.  After I am finished reading them the material, I will give them an opportunity to ask me questions about what I read.  We will write a few little notes on the board and discuss how we knew those things were important.
2. Today we are going to talk about Martin Luther King, Jr.  What do you guys know about him?
3. Have the children get out their reading book and read pages 136-41 about Martin Luther King, Jr.  Have the children take their time reading the story and encourage them to remember as much as they can so we can share about it.
4. When all of the children are finished with the first half of the story, ask them what is happening.  Have a small discussion about what they have read up to this point and then have them continue reading p. 141-151.
5. When the children are finished reading the story, I am going to have each of them write five facts down on their piece of paper.  They will write the facts about things that they did not already know.
6. Then as a class, I will lead them in outlining Martin Luther King, Jr.âs life.  We will talk about what happened first and so on.
7. Have the children turn to page 152 in the same book.  On this page there is a summary of the author and illustratorâs lives.  We are going to talk about the difference between the stories that we read about Martin Luther King, Jr. and then the summary we read about the illustrator.  How are they different?  Who do you know more about?  Was one easier to understand?
8. As a class, we are going to discuss the importance of understanding what we read.

Assessment:  I am going to have the children write a summary using the facts or the outline that they worked on.

Reference:
Open Court Reading Book 2.  SRA, A Division of the McGraw-Hill Co. 1997. p. 136-152.
Childrenâs Memory and Comprehension of Text. ãThe Elementary School Journal.ä 90, 3-32.
www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insights/brewerrl.html; Reading to Learn Summarize This! By Blair Brewer
 

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