Keys
to Summarization
Reading
to learn
Rationale:
The final goal of learning to read is comprehension. In order for a child to become a successful
reader, they must be able to summarize what they read. When
summarizing,
children should be able to identify the important parts of texts they
have
read. In this lesson children will learn to identify the
important parts
of the texts that they have read. By
deleting
trivial information, deleting redundant information, substituting easy
terms
for a list of items, and creating a topic sentence, students will be
able to
remember factual information better.
Materials:
Paper
and pencils for
each student
Dry
erase board
Dry
erase markers
Colored
pencils
Poster
to post on board
with three key summarization techniques:
Pick out important ideas; Eliminate less important details;
Organize the
important ideas into one main idea.
Article
for each child –
Wind at Work. Geiger, Beth. http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0809/articles/mainarticle.html
One
article for yourself
- Out for Blood. Costigan, Shirleyann.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0810/articles/mainarticle.html
Procedure:
1.
First see if
the class knows what summarization is, "Does anyone know what
summarization is?" Have a class discuss on summarization.
"Summarization is picking out the important facts out of something that
you are reading. When you summarize, you do not add all the
details, but
focus on the main ideas. Today, we're going to learn how to
summarize. This will help make us better readers. Now we
are going
to read to ourselves silently at our desks.
2.
"There are
three steps to summarizing a story." Read the students a short
paragraph of a story and model how to summarize it. For example
the
article Out for Blood. http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0810/articles/mainarticle.html "First
I will read the story all the way
through (read the story aloud). Then, to summarize I will go back
through
and pick out all of the important ideas that the story has to have to
make
sense (underline a few key points of the story). After I have
picked out
all of the important ideas I can cross out the ones that are not
important like
this (demonstrate crossing out irrelevant sentences). Now I can
read
through the parts of the story I already decided were important (reread
underlined sentences) and create one single idea (write a summative
sentence)." As you model each of the steps, point to the poster
with
the summarization techniques on it. After modeling how to
summarize do
one more quick review of the steps on the poster. "Before we
begin
reading, 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.
Then we get
rid of the details that are not important. Last, we organize the
important ideas and make one main idea of the story."
3.
Pass out and
introduce the article Wind at Work to each student. Go
over the
summarization techniques again, and then have the students read the
first
paragraph of the article. Then
have the students reread the paragraph and tell them, "When you read
the
story the second time, cross out all the information that is not
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 summarizes the whole article." Tell them to use the
three summarization techniques. Tell them to write down the facts
that
they think are important. Model the three facts that you think
they
should have picked out of the paragraph. This will help them when
they
summarize again later.
4.
The students
should have a basic understanding of how to summarize a story now that
they
have had practice. Pass out a piece of paper to each
student. Tell
them to make three columns. In the first column, they should put
"Deleted Information." In the second column, they should put
"Important Facts." In the third column, they should put
"Most Important Ideas." Explain to them to fill in information
from the story into the three columns. Model for the students
using the
first paragraph again. Explain that they can use the cross
out, circle
method but the things they cross out and circle should then be placed
in the
right columns. "Please finish reading your article silently. You
should have three columns on your paper, write the sentences in the
column that
they fit under as you read the article, if it helps continue to cross
out
unimportant information and circle important stuff. Remember to write
down all
of your information as you go."
5.
Continue to
practice summarization strategies so that students can successfully
master the
skill of summarizing.
Assessment:
By
checking the
student’s sheet with their summarization columns, you can assess their
skills
by seeing whether they have used the cross out, circle method and
placed the
information is the correct columns. You may also ask them
comprehension
questions about the article they have read to see if they are
recognizing the
important information that is necessary to summarize what they have
read.
References:
Duncan,
Megan. Dive Into
Summarizing.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/duncanrl.html
National
Geographic
Article. Wind at Work.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0809/articles/mainarticle.html
National
Geographic
Article. Out for Blood.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0810/articles/mainarticle.html