What’s the Point
Reading to Learn
Jennifer Redd
Rationale:
The overall purpose of reading is to gain
comprehension. Summarization is a successful strategy that allows
students to
be able to understand and comprehend the text. There are a few
guidelines that
are essential part of gaining comprehension. It begins when you get rid
of
unnecessary or repeated information, find the most important items or
events,
and write a statement covering everything the author is trying to say.
Students
can begin by applying these steps and practice using the following
article.
Materials:
White
board and markers
Paper,
highlighter, and pencil for each student
Multiple photocopies
of article A
Rare Kiwi Hatches in
Captivity by Catherine
Clarke Fox (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2006/04/zookiwi.html)
Checklist-
Is there any unimportant or repeated information found within their
summerization?
Are any list simplified?
Has the student located or created a meaningful topic sentence?
Procedures
- Ask the children, “Does
anyone know what summarization is?” Have a class discussion on
summarization. “Summarization is picking out the important facts
out of something that you are reading. When you summarize, you
don’t worry with all the details. Today, we’re going to learn how
to summarize so that you all can be better readers. We’re going
to read silently at our desks. Can anyone tell me how we’re
supposed to read silently at our desks? Well, we read to
ourselves, and we don’t talk to anyone around us.
- “There are three steps to
summarizing a story.” Read them a short paragraph of a story and
model how to summarize it. Point to the poster with the
summarization techniques on it. “Before we begin to read, let’s
go over the three important things to remember when you read. The
first step is to pick out important ideas from the story. The
second step is to throw away the details that are not important.
The third step is to organize the important ideas and make one main
idea of the story.”
- Pass out the article to
each student. Have them read silently through the first few
paragraphs of the article before focusing on the summarization
techniques. Go over the summarization techniques again, and then
have the students reread the paragraphs. Tell them, “When you
read the article the second time, cross out all the information that
isn’t important to the story with a pencil. Circle the sentences that
you think are important and then finally, take all the circled
sentences and combine them into a sentence or two that sums up the
whole story.” Tell them to use the three summarization
techniques. Tell them to write down the facts that they think are
important. Model you three facts that you think are important
after they read theirs aloud. This will help them when they do
this later.
- Ask the students to silently read the
article and use their checklist to summarize the information and write
it on a sheet of paper. “Once you are finished with your summarization,
you may quietly look nearby for another person who is finished and
share your completed summaries with one another.” Walk around and
glance at the topic sentences being written and provide help if needed.
- Once everyone is complete the students
can volunteer to come and share with the class what they found to be
the main ideas of the article. Help them to walk through their thought
process using the steps as a checklist.
Assessment:
I
will collect the students work and use a check list for determining if
the
student has a good grasp on summarizing while reading expository text.
References:
Pressley, M., Johnson, C. J., Symons, S., McGoldrick, J.
A.,
& Kurity, J. A. (1998). Strategies that
improve children’s memory and comprehension
of text. The
Elementary School Journal, 90, 3-32
Fox,
Catherine Clarke. A Rare Kiwi
Hatches in Captivity.
National Geographic for Kids. April
05, 2006
Lyle, Amanda.
Madagascar-Simply Summarized.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/lylerl.html
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