Super Summarizers!

A Reading to Learn Design

By Maggie Cox

 

Rationale:

Once children learn to read accurately and fluently, they must move on to the next step of reading to learn in order to reach the ultimate goal of comprehension. This lesson’s focus is summarization, a strategy to help students read to learn. The lesson will help students learn to summarize by teaching readers to delete unimportant or repeated information to allow focus on the imperative parts of a text.

 

Materials:

Bookmarks with summarization rules: Delete unimportant or repeated information, Find important information, Write a topic sentence; SmartBoard; Pencil, highlighters, and paper (for each student); Summarization Assessment Checklist; Class copies of “How Bats ‘See’ at Night” and “Parrots That Eat Dirt”.

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “Who can raise their hand and remind me what word comprehension means?” (Allow students to respond.) “Very good! To comprehend means to understand, so word comprehension means to comprehend, or understand, a word. Our main goal when we read should be to comprehend all the words, so we can understand the whole book!”

2. Say: “Learning to summarize can help us comprehend what we read. Summarizing means finding the main ideas of what we have read. When we summarize, we need to first delete all of the stuff we read that isn’t important, because that doesn’t help us understand what we have read. Then, we need to delete anything we read that was repeated, or written more than once, because those facts have already been stated one time and we don’t want to get confused. Next, we pick out the important information that provides details on the main idea of what we read. Finally, we write a topic sentence that helps us comprehend the main idea of what we have read.”

3. Say: “Who knows what birds eat?” [Allow students to respond]. “Did you know that instead of seeds or bugs, some parrots eat dirt? This article is called “Parrots That Eat Dirt”. We’re going to read it together to find out why these parrots like to eat icky dirt, instead of plant seeds, like most birds. While we read, I want you to follow along on your own paper. We will highlight what we think is an important main idea, and cross out any information that has been repeated and we already know, or that we think is unimportant to understanding the article. We also want to underline what we think might make a good topic sentence. Usually, the first sentence of a paragraph makes a great topic sentence.”

   • Display article, “Parrots That Eat Dirt”, on the SmartBoard. We will read the article as a class, calling on a new student for each paragraph. While we read, we will highlight, underline, and cross out information. Pause after each paragraph to pick out important information and mark out what is unnecessary.

   • After reading, review vocabulary: “In the last paragraph, I noticed a really long word that I didn’t quite understand. Did anyone else catch the word endangering? To endanger means to threaten or to put something at risk. [Write word and definition on the board]. Can someone read me the first sentence of the last paragraph in the article? [Call on student to read]. Here, the author is trying to tell us that the people put these parrots in danger. If it were not for the people and their endangering way of life that hurt the parrot’s home, these birds would still be alive today. Let’s use endangering in another sentence. Sam felt endangered by his neighbor’s dog when it started barking at him from behind the fence. Even though we used this word in a different form, the word endanger still has the same meaning. Tell me about some times when you’ve felt endangered. [Allow student response]. Those sound like some scary times! I want you to think of your own sentence using the word, write it down, and I’ll call some of you to come write your sentence on the board to share with the class. [Give students time to write sentence and allow two or three to share].”

   • Create a short, three sentence summary of the article as a class. Call on students to help write each sentence, and write their suggested sentences on the SmartBoard.

 

Assessment:

Give each student a bookmark with summarization rules listed on it and a copy of the article “How Bats ‘See’ at Night”. Students will read the passage on their own and will highlight, underline, and cross out as they read. Afterward, each student will write their own three sentence summary which will be graded using the rubric below. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Carter, Lauren. Reading Genie Website. “Flying Through Summarization.”             

< https://sites.google.com/site/ctrdlaurencarter/reading-to-learn>.

Esser, Sarah. Reading Genie Website. “Summing It Up.”

< http://auburn.edu/%7Esje0003/esserrtl.htm>.

Hansen, Amy S. “How Bats ‘See’ at Night.”

< http://www.highlightskids.com/audio-story/how-bats-see-night>.

Myers, Jack. “Parrots That Eat Dirt.”          

< http://www.highlightskids.com/audio-story/parrots-eat-dirt>.