Soar through Summarizing: Reading to Learn!

Kelsey Hendrix

Rationale: The main goal of reading is comprehension; summarization is significant in appreciating what one has read. This lesson can help summarization by modeling beneficial summarizing strategies and having graphic organizers for a reminder of the strategies for the students. Students will be able to read an article and create their own correct topic sentence by using rules of summarization.

Materials:

Copies of "Snowy-Owl" from National Geographic Kids, one per student 

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/snowy-owl/

A display with summarization rules on it, and bookmarks (one per student) with summarization rules: 
          

 -Get rid of unimportant information
          

-Get rid of repeated information
           

-Organize items and events under one umbrella term         

-Select a topic          

-Write a topic statement that covers everything that is important from the passage of the text.                            

A display of this brief polar bear passage:

"Polar bears live along shores and on sea ice in the icy cold Arctic. The open area in which they live is called tundra. When sea ice forms over the ocean in cold weather, many polar bears, except pregnant females, head out onto the ice to hunt seals. Polar bears also like fish. Polar bears have been spotted on sea ice hundreds of miles from shore. When the warm weather causes the sea ice to melt, polar bears move back toward shore.”
    http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/polar-bear/

Paper

Pencils

Pens for each student

Highlighters for each student

Dry erase board and marker



Summarization Checklist:

Procedures:

1. Introduce the new comprehension strategy. "Today we're going to learn another way to help us understand and remember what we read – summarization. Can anyone tell me what summarization is? It is being able to get rid of unimportant information and remember the important facts about a passage. Summarization helps our comprehension because we know what information helps us and we know what information does not."

2. Review vocabulary with students, focus on the word tundra. Explain the word: Tundra is a large open area with few to no trees where the Snowy Owl is often found. The Arctic is an example of tundra because it is open and there are hardly any trees. The Rainforest is not tundra because it is filled with trees. Ask the question, “Is Auburn a tundra? Why or why not?” to clarify. As an activity students will complete the following sentence: Large open areas with no _____  are often called______ .

3. Continue with students... "To comprehend what we read, we have to summarize, and we have some quick rules for good summarization." Next I will read the rules that are on the poster to them. "I want you to read our poster about polar bears silently and when you are all done I will summarize the poster topic first."

4. Let’s look at the polar bear poster. It says, "Polar bears live along shores and on sea ice in the icy cold Arctic. When sea ice forms over the ocean in cold weather, many polar bears, except pregnant females, head out onto the ice to hunt seals. Polar bears have been spotted on sea ice hundreds of miles from shore. When the warm weather causes the sea ice to melt, polar bears move back toward shore." The first thing we need to do, based on our rule list, is: Get Rid of Unimportant Information. I’ll take this pen I have and cross out "head out onto the ice to hunt seals," first. Since we’re learning about the area the polar bears live in we don’t need to know about the way they hunt. The next rule is to get rid of repeated information – “Polar bears have been spotted on sea ice”. The next thing we do is organizing items under one umbrella term, which is a general idea of what our passage is about. I'll highlight 'Polar Bears live along shores and on sea ice in the icy cold Arctic,’ The open area in which they live is a tundra' Our umbrella term is *Polar bears live along shores and on sea ice.* The next step is to decide on a topic for the passage, and our topic is polar bears. The final thing we do is complete a topic sentence about our passage. This helps us finally short and sweetly describes our passage in one sentence. Let me think. My topic sentence is, Polar bears live in the icy Arctic, in places known as tundras.’

5. I have a copy of "Snowy Owls" from National Geographic that I want you to read. I have bookmarks for you, too, with your summarization rules so that you can have them right with you at your desk. Provide a brief "book talk" for the article. What do you know about owls? Where do they live? What about them makes them so different from their animal neighbors?  I want you to find out by reading this Snowy Owls article. Remember to get rid of information that doesn’t help us by crossing it out with pencils and to highlight information that is important to your understanding of the passage. When you're finished, you will turn in your sentence and article to me."

Assessment:  "I will have the students turn in their topic sentence and their article so that I can see what they felt was important, any reasoning, and to assess their understanding of summarizing. Each student will be assessed with the summarizing chart under materials to see how they grasp important information, trivial information, and sum everything up in one sentence. Topic sentences may vary, but a good topic sentence might say, “Snowy Owls are large white owls that mainly live in the Arctic in open areas called tundra.

 References:

Pouncey, Ashlyn. Reading Fun Facts!

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/awakenings/pounceyarl.htm

National Geographic. Snowy Owl

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/snowy-owl/

 National Geographic Kids. Creature Feature: Polar Bear.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/polar-bear/