Do
you get it?
Reading to Learn
By: Sarah Anne Wilkes
Rational:
For students to understand a story they have to have comprehension. If someone reads without comprehension it would be pointless. One way for students to have a better comprehension is by summarizing the story. A summary of the story should take away unimportant text and repeated information. This lesson teaches children how to pick out the important information of a text.
Materials:
1.Poster with the Four Rules for Summarization:
1. pick out important details
2.eliminate repeated or unimportant information
3. highlight important key words
4. find or develop a topic sentence
2.Bookmark with the Four Rules for Summarization
1. pick out important details
2. eliminate repeated or unimportant information
3. highlight important key words
4. find or develop a topic sentence
3. The article from National Geographic Kids: Harriet Tubman: Civil War Spy; http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Harriettubman
4. The article from National Geographic Kids: PlayPumps: A New Invention Turns Work Into Play: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Playpumps
Procedures:
1. "Today we are going to learn what comprehension is, do you know what it is?". Allow the children to answer. "That is right, comprehension means to understand". A good way for us to understand what we have read is by summarizing.
2. Explain to the students what summarization means. "To help you with summarization we are going to have 4 rules". (display on poster and also on a bookmark)
1. pick out important details
2. eliminate repeated or unimportant information
3. highlight important key words
4. find or develop a topic sentence
"I have the rules displayed on a poster and you also will be given a bookmark; look at these rules to help you remember how to summarize."
3. Model summarizing by this excerpt from National Geographic Kids. Place article on overhead, and highlight the important information.
"Harriet Tubman is
well known
for risking her life as a "conductor" in the Underground Railroad,
which led escaped slaves to freedom in the North. But did you know that
the
former slave also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War
and was
the first woman in American history to lead a military expedition?
During a time when women were usually restricted to traditional roles
like
cooking and nursing, she did her share of those jobs. But she also
worked
side-by-side with men, says writer Tom Allen, who tells her exciting
story in
the National Geographic book, Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent."
"Ok, now I am going to highlight the important information and cross-out the unimportant. We need to highlight her name and that she worked for the Underground Railroad. Need to highlight that the Railroad was used for slaves to be free during the Civil War. Also, the fact that she was the first woman to lead a expedition is important, and she was a spy. All the other information we can cross-out." Allow the students to come up with a couple of sentence to tell the main idea of the passage.
4. Pass out the article from National
Geographic:
PlayPumps: A New Invention Turns Work Into Play. "Make sure you
highlight the
important parts of the article and cross out the unimportant, and use
your bookmark to help you
grasp the idea of summarizing. On
the back of the article I would like you to write me
a topic sentence".
Assessment:
The students will be assessed by using the four rules I have on the poster and bookmark. When they turn in their article with the highlighting, crossing-out, and topic sentence will be able to see if they have to concept of summarizing.
Reference:
Fox, Catherine Clarke, National Geographic Kids: "Harriet Tubman: Civil War Spy"
April 14, 2008. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Harriettubman
Fox, Catherine Clarke, National Geographic Kids: "PlayPumps" April 14, 2008.
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Playpumps
Rosko, Natasha: Sit Down and Read!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/roskorl.html
Sparkman, Rachel: Summarize This!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/sparkmanrl.html