Rationale: Comprehension is the goal of reading. As teachers we strive
to help children become better readers and writers. We must also teach
them to comprehend what they read. In this lesson, students will learn
how to summarize. Summarizing benefits comprehension because it
eliminates all unwanted information and highlights the most beneficial
information. In order to teach students to summarize, they need to
practice as a class first.
Materials:
- Copies for each student of the article, "How the First Earth Day
Came About," by Senator Gaylord Nelson, provided by www.Envirolink.org. http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html
- Copy a list of things to remember about summarizing. I chose
these three points:
- Read the paragraph to get an overview.
- Reread the paragraph to identify key points.
- List key points briefly in your own words.
Procedures:
- Introduce the lesson to the students by describing what we will
be
doing today. We will be making a
summary of an article. To make a
summary we must first identify the main ideas that are important to the
author of a text. How do we know that an idea is important to an
author? We look for repeated references the author included in his or
her article. Then we make connections among the main ideas within the
article. Why are we learning how to summarize today? Because if you can
learn to apply the strategies we use today to other content areas it
will help increase your comprehension, or what you remember, about a
book, article, etc. We will use a checklist to help us determine if we
found the author's main ideas and that the summary makes sense.
- Distribute to the students a copy of the article and a copy of
things to remember when writing a summary.
- I will read the first paragraph and model for the students how to
summarize. I will read the first
paragraph out loud as you follow along. Now I'm going to reread the
first paragraph again silently. Please read it again silently as well.
I'm going to write my key points on the board. What stood out in my
mind is that Earth Day developed from an idea the author had that the
President should go on a national conservation tour of the United
States. So that is one key point. The author had this idea in 1962
while President Kennedy was in office. One thing I notice that I am
missing as I glance back through is that I did not state why the author
felt there should be a national conservation tour. The author felt that
our environment was simply overlooked by politics. Now let me write
these on the board in short key points:
-The author Gaylord Nelson decided
in 1962 that our environment needed more attention.
-He got President Kennedy to go on a national
conservation tour.
-This national conservation tour evidentially
started Earth Day.
- Read over my notes. Do you get the
main ideas of the first paragraph from these points? Do you see how
much it can help you remember information because it is put into a
simpler form than the article?
- Please read and reread the entire
article and keep the list of "The key points in making a summary"
close-by. Once you have finished your key points write them into a
paragraph form to make a summary.
- Give students about fifteen to twenty minutes, depending, to work
on the article and their summaries. Let them exchange papers with their
neighbor and get feedback from them.
- To assess the students, let them assess themselves. Pass out to
each student a copy of "The Self-Assessment Rubric." Have them fill
them out and turn it in with their summaries.
References:
Roberts, Becky. "Sum It All
Up!" http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/robertsrl.html
www.Envirolink.org; "How the First
Earth Day Came About," By Senator Gaylord Nelson, http://earthday.envirolink.org/history.html
"The Self-Assessment Rubric"
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson277/rubric.pdf
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