What an Adventure!
Rationale: The goal of young reading is being able to comprehend and
grasp what has been read. The mail goal is to understand what it means
to comprehend. This lesson will help teach children how to
understand and comprehend a story through summarization.
Materials: Paper, pencils, a copy of the book Where the Wild Things Are
by Maurice Sendak for each student , a copy of Spider and the Fly(or
whatever book the children enjoy) some sort of board that all of the
children can see.
Procedures:
1.( Introduce the lesson by explaining to the young reader that
understanding what is being read is very and how important it is.)
While we read books, we should be able to comprehend enough information
so we can give a summary. A summary is when you absorb a lot of
information, but you combine that information into a short paragraph.
In most cases the summary will contain the main points of the story
read.
2. I will give you guys an example. I am going to read the Spider and
the Fly. After reading this book I will give you a summary, but I will
need your help in picking out what you guys remembered. A big part of a
summary is that it is in order of how the story goes.
3. Did you guys enjoy this story? We will start with the first few
pages. And think real hard about the main characters and what they do
in the story. What does one character do to another? Good job, boys and
girls!
2. I want to see how each of you can write a summary and if you
are able to grasp another story individually. To do this, I want each
of you to take a copy of the book Where the Wild Things Are. As you
read this book be thinking of what the main point of the story is going
to be.
3. (I am first going to introduce the book to grab their attention.)
Boys and girls Where the Wild Things Are is about a little boy who acts
up and does not mind. He wishes to go far, far away he travels days,
weeks, and years. He arrives at a mysterious island and sees really big
monsters, but you will have to read and find out what they do with him.
3. Since we are finished, I will start you guys out with how to
pick out the main points. I will start with the first few pages and I
want you to help me pick out what you remember out of those pages that
sound important to the story. Remember when you summarize a book you
should be able to read your summary to another person to have them
understand what the book was about. I would like for you to take out
your paper and pencils and write down what you think is the main point
of the book. When you finish that, then I want you to write down any
other ideas you think are important from the book.
4. I will be collecting these so think very carefully about what
you think is important. Remember, we only want the main point and a few
other important ideas.
5. (For assessment, the teacher will read each child's summary to
see if they have comprehended the main points. There will be a sample
answer or some sort of checklist of the main points to compare to the
students answers)
Reference: Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are.
Diterlizzi, Tony. The Spider and the Fly.
Breakthroughs: Amy Cowhick, Wild Things!- 2001
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/breakthroughs/cowhickrl.html
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