Straight to the Point!!!

 

Ashley James

Reading to Learn Lesson Design

 Rationale 

Once Children have learned to read, they must go a step further and read to learn.  This means that students must comprehend the words they are reading and make sense of it all.  Summarization is a very useful strategy that will help students comprehend text.  In this lesson, students will use five guidelines to help them effectively summarize an expository text.  

Materials

Article: ‘All Stressed Out’ (1 per student)

Article: ‘Why the Earth Quakes’ (1 per student)

Article: ‘Look out! The Dragon Just Fed the Frog’ (1 per student)

Bookmarks with 5 summarization steps (1 per student)

STEP 1: PICK OUT THE LESS IMPORTANT OR REPEATED IDEAS FROM THE STORY AND ELIMINATE.

STEP 2: PICK OUT IMPORTANT DETAILS THAT ARE NECESSARY TO THE STORY.    

STEP 3: HIGHLIGHT THE IMPORTANT DETAILS USING KEYWORDS.  

STEP 4:  LIST KEYWORDS IN THE ORDER THEY APPEARED IN THE PASSAGE.  

STEP 5: TRIM THE LIST OF KEY WORDS DOWN TO ONE TOPIC SENTENCE

Document camera (so students can see usage of five steps on your article)

Highlighters (1 per student)

Checklist (1 per student)

 Procedures

First, review silent reading with the class and tell why summarization is important. "WE ARE GOING TO REVIEW SILENT READING. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER WHAT THIS IS?  RIGHT, SILENT READING IS WHEN WE READ WITH OUR EYES, TO OURSELVES, BUT NOT ALOUD. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER WHY WE READ SILENTLY? GOOD, WE DO THIS BECAUSE IT HELPS US TO UNDERSTAND OR COMPREHEND WHAT WE ARE READING. THERE ARE OTHER THINGS WE CAN DO TO HELP US COMPREHEND WHAT WE ARE READING. ONE IS SUMMARIZING OUR TEXT. WHO CAN TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SUMMARIZE?’  CORRECT, SUMMARIZING IS WHEN WE PICK OUT ONLY THE REALLY IMPORTANT PARTS OF A STORY OR ARTICLE AND RETELL THEM IN OUR OWN WORDS.  TODAY I'M GOING TO TEACH YOU SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU SUMMARIZE WHAT YOU READ AND THEN WE ARE GOING TO PRACTICE TOGETHER.”

 Pass out the ‘summarizing tips’ bookmarks to the students.  Tell the students “WE ARE GOING TO USE FIVE STEPS TO HELP US SUMMARIZE.   STEP 1: PICK OUT THE LESS IMPORTANT OR REPEATED IDEAS FROM THE STORY AND ELIMINATE.  STEP 2: PICK OUT IMPORTANT DETAILS THAT ARE NECESSARY TO THE STORY. STEP 3: HIGHLIGHT THE IMPORTANT DETAILS USING KEYWORDS.   STEP 4:  LIST KEYWORDS IN THE ORDER THEY APPEARED IN THE PASSAGE.  STEP 5: TRIM THE LIST OF KEY WORDS DOWN TO ONE TOPIC SENTENCE.”

 Pass out a copy of the article “All Stressed out” to each of the students.  Ask the students to silently read the article.  Once they have read the article, say “NOW I’M GOING TO SHOW YOU HOW TO USE THE FIVE STEPS TO SUMMERIZE THIS ARTICLE.  FIRST, I’M GOING TO PICK OUT THE UNIMPOTANT DETAILS LIKE, THE AUTHOR WAS WRITING DOWN QUESTIONS TO ASK SOME BASEBALL PLAYERS.  THIS DOESN’T SOUND IMPORTANT BECAUSE THE STORY IS ABOUT AN EARTHQUAKE.    I’M GOING TO USE MY PENCIL AND CROSS THIS OUT. Continue to pick out the unimportant details and cross them out.    NEXT, I’M GOING TO PICK OUT IMORTANT DETAILS FROM THE STORY LIKE THE AUTHOR WAS IN SAN FRANCISCO.  THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT TELL WHERE THE STORY TOOK PLACE; I’M GOING TO USE MY PENCIL AND UNDERLINE THIS DETAIL.  Continue to pick out the important details and underline them.  NOW, I’M GOING TO USE MY HIGHLIGHTER AND HIGHLIGHT THE IMPORTANT DETAILS USING KEYWORDS SUCH AS ‘BUILDING SHAKING.’ Continue to highlight the keywords.  NEXT, I’M GOING TO LIST THE HIGHLIGHTED WORDS AND USE THE WORDS TO MAKE A SENTENCE LIKE ‘IN SAN FRANCISCO, THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE THAT MADE THE BUILDINGS SHAKE AND KILLED 67 PEOPLE.  NOW, I HAVE SUMMARIZED THAT WHOLE ARTICLE.”

Let the students practice summarizing.  Pass out one copy to each student of the article “Why the Earth Quakes.”  Read the article aloud while the students follow along. As a class, go through all five steps to summarize the article.

Pass out one copy to each student of the article “Look out! The Dragon Just Fed the Frog.”  Give a book talk.  “HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW WE RECORD EARTHQUAKES?  THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT THE WORLD’S FIRST INSTRUMENT USED TO RECORD EARTHQUAKES.”  Inform the students that they are to use the five summarization steps and summarize the article.

For assessment, the students will turn in their individual summarizations and articles (which will show the evidence of usage of steps 1 – 4).  The teacher should use the following check list to assess the students’ performance.

References

Jennifer Lilly, State the Facts

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/lillyrl.html

Christina Smith, Face to Face Summary

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/smithchrisrl.html

Christian, Spencer. “All Stressed out.”  Spencer Christian’s World of Wonders.  Wiley.  New York, New York. 1997.

Christian, Spencer. “Look out! The Dragon Just Fed the Frog’.”  Spencer Christian’s World of Wonders.  Wiley.  New York, New York. 1997.

Christian, Spencer. “Why the Earth Quakes.”  Spencer Christian’s World of Wonders.  Wiley.  New York, New York. 1997.


 

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