Reading
"Carving
Out a
Story!"
Reading
Teaching
Summarizing to Help Students Comprehend
Rationale: Comprehension is
one of the
most important things to teach to children while they are learning how
to
read. A good way to help children comprehend text is to
summarize.
To be able to read and recall information from text, children need
instruction
in summarization. By deleting trivial information, deleting
redundant
information, substituting sup ordinate terms for a list of items, and
creating
a topic sentence, students will be able to remember factual information
better.
Materials:
Sentence strips with six different steps for summarizing written on them
1. Deleted unimportant information:
yes
or no
2. Deleted repeated information:
yes or no
3. Substituted easy terms for lists of items:
yes
or no
4. Added a series of events with an easy action term: yes or no
5. Selected a topic:
yes
or no
6. Invented a topic sentence if there was none:
yes or no
Copies
of "From Top to Bottom, Carving a Totem Pole" by Diane
Hoyt-Goldsmith Copies of "What
Frank Watched" by Rosie Benson
Dry
Erase Markers; Chart Paper
Dry Erase Board
Procedures:
1. Start by reviewing how to
read silently and introduce the first story. "Have
you ever tried to do something new, like building something, and made
mistakes
when you were learning? Today we are
going to read a story about learning to do something new. First,
before
we start reading, I would like to review how to read silently.
Watch me
as I read silently." I will read the first page of the story to
myself. "Now I am going to pass out the story and I would like
for
each of you to read the title and the story to yourself. I should
not
hear anyone making a sound. I want to see your eyes following
along as
you read."
2. "You all did a great job of
reading silently! Now we are going to
learn how to summarize the story. Who can tell me what a summary
is? Well, a summary can be written by picking out the main points
in a
story or passage. There are six different steps to keep in mind
when you
are summarizing." Have each of
these six steps written on sentence strips and post them on the board
as they
are described and discussed.
1. Delete unimportant information
2. Delete repeated information
3. Substitute easy terms for lists of items
4. Add a series of events with an easy action term
5. Select a topic
6. Invent a topic sentence if there is none
3. Explain to the
children how to use mapping as a strategy. "A great way to summarize a
piece of literature is to use a skill called mapping. When we map
a story
or passage we put the main idea or topic in a middle circle and the
supporting
details around the outside like antennae."
On the board, model making a map for summarizing. Have the
students
contribute ideas for beginning to fill in the story map by asking
questions.
"The middle circle will be what? The topic, very good. What
is
the topic of our article? Carving a Totem Pole.
So this will be our center circle. Now we will add ideas
to the
antennae coming out from our circle, which will describe some important
ideas about
George and his father carving the totem pole. What is something
described
in the story about them carving a totem pole? Yes, they needed to
decide what
to carve on the totem pole, so that can be put on one of the
spokes."
In order to keep adding on to the map we will need to continue to come
up with
some more important information from the story telling about what
George and
his father did. Can you tell me another important idea that we can put
on the
antenna? "At this point the teacher will guide the students to add only
important ideas such as gathering the materials they will need, finding
the
cedar log to carve and then actually carving the pole. When the class
is
satisfied that they have just the important facts the teacher will
write all of
the important details in complete sentences, forming a summative
paragraph
about the story.
4. The next step will be to
divide the class into small groups, give them small
dry erase boards and have them repeat the same process that was modeled
in the
above steps. Give the children the story
"What Frank Watched" to read. Instruct students to make a
summarization map of the passage on their dry erase boards and write a
summarization paragraph, using their map. Allow the group's time to
read
silently and then construct the story maps.
Assessment:
Circulate
while the
students are working, Check each map and summary making sure that the
students
are using all six steps of summarization. Use a checklist
including the
items:
1.
Deleted
unimportant information:
yes
or no
2. Deleted repeated information:
yes or no
3. Substituted easy terms for lists of items:
yes
or no
4. Added a series of events with an easy action term: yes or no
5. Selected a topic:
yes
or no
6. Invented a topic sentence if there was none:
yes or no
References:
Melissa
Hensley, Summing Our Way to The End. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/guides/hensleyrl.html
Gina
Thomas, Stormy Sumarizing. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/guides/thomasrl.html
Strategies
That
Improve Children's Memory and Comprehension of Text by Michael
Pressley