Rationale: Summarizing
is a skill that can help children improve their reading
comprehension.
Since comprehension is the most important aspect of successful reading,
learning to summarize could be extremely beneficial to children’s
learning. They should be able to
identify and pick out the most important parts of text whenever they
read. Using this strategy often helps students better comprehend
reading
material. This activity will introduce children to the strategy
of summarization and will give them a chance to practice it using an
interesting article.
Materials:
- Paper and pencils for each student
- Dry erase board and
markers/chalkboard and chalk
- Poster with three summarization
techniques (Pick out important ideas, eliminate less important details,
and organize the important ideas into one or two main ideas)
- Article for each child (Tiny
Invaders – Germs are Lurking Everywhere! NationalGeographic.com/Kids
Procedure:
- Ask students:
“Has anyone heard of the word summary before?”
Explain to them: “Summarizing is when you pick out the most important
parts from something that you read. When you summarize, you focus
on the main ideas and leave out the unimportant details. Today,
we’re going to go over how to summarize, which can help you all become
better readers. We will begin by having you read silently at your
desks. Remember, that reading silently means that you do not read
out loud. Instead, read to yourself so
that no one else can tell what you are reading.”
- Explain to
students: “There are three important steps to follow when you
summarize.” Put the poster up with the
summarization techniques listed on it and go over each one.
“Before we begin to read, let’s talk about these three steps. The
first step is to pick out the most important ideas from the story, the
second step is to throw away the details that are unimportant, and the
third step is to organize those ideas to be left with one main idea
from the story. Let me show you how I
summarize.” Read the first section (bypass the introduction) out loud
from the article Tiny Invaders – Germs are Lurking
Everywhere! and model how to summarize it. Write
out the procedure and discuss the reasoning behind your choices. "Some ideas that I think are important are that germs
are everywhere even though you can't see them, they are spreading
faster because people can travel anywhere, sick people bring germs with
them, and they can also live in food, clothes, and other things.
Now, if I eliminate the unimportant details, I am left with germs are
everywhere and that they are spreading faster because sick people bring
them with them. Lastly, the main idea from this section is that
germs are everywhere and they spread fast." Have the students
think about what is important and what is not in the text.
Pick out excerpts and ask them “Is this important for us to
know? Why/why not?” Give an article
talk to get students interested in reading the rest of the
article. Explain that if they read the rest of the article, "It
will explain what can make you sick and how to stay healthy."
- Pass the
article out to each student. Before focusing on summarizing, have
them read silently through it. After they are finished, go over
each of the three summarization techniques once more.
Then, have the students reread the article. Tell them, “This time, when you reread the
article, cross out the information that is not important and make a
circle around what is important. Once you
are finished, look at the circled sentences and combine them into a
sentence or two that sums up the whole article.” Remind
students to use the three summarization techniques that you modeled
earlier.
- Now, the
students should have a basic understanding of how to summarize
text. Pass out a piece of paper to each student and tell them to
create three columns on it. The first column should be labeled
“Deleted Information,” the second column should be labeled
“Important Information,” and the third column should be labeled
“Most Important Idea(s).” Instruct them to “Take another look at
the information in the article and write the parts under the column
where they belong.” Remind students to read silently so that they
do not disturb other people. As a class,
take the first paragraph and determine which column the pieces of
information would go under. If a student has difficulty putting
the information into the correct columns, allow them to continue using
the cross out and circle method.
- Use other texts to practice the summarization
strategies so that students can successfully acquire the skill of
summarizing.
- Assessment:
Assess student’s summarization skills by observing their work. Focus on whether they could use the cross out
and circle method and column method effectively.
References:
Let’s Summarize! – Jane Moncrief
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/invent/moncriefrl.html
Tiny Invaders – Germs
are Lurking Everywhere! By Kirsten
Weir at http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0611/articles/mainarticle.html
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