Digging in and Summarizing
Courtney Walker
Reading to Learn Lesson Design
Rationale:
Reading is the starting point of all aspects of learning. In order to learn, one must be able to read and discover the message behind information. When reading to learn, an important technique to implement is summarization. Summarization is the ability to read a text and figure out which parts are important and which are less important and then be able to make a general description of what was read. This lesson will help students practice deciding which parts of a text are important, summarize the text, and then be able to discuss what they read.
Materials:
Procedures:
Paragraph:
Nearly 100 million years ago before giant dinos like Tyrannosaurus rex ruled the world, a volcano rumbled in an ancient, marshy land. Fiery lava belched out of the crater, and ash snowed down on what is now part of the Gobi desert in China.
“First, I would leave out the part where it mentions the Tyrannosaurus rex. That is just a little fun fact. Second, we can leave out that the ash snowed down onto what is now part of the Gobi desert in China. Everything else is important to the main idea. Here is what my paragraph looks like now: Nearly 100 million years ago, a volcano rumbled in an ancient, marshy land. Fiery lava belched out of the crater, and ash snowed down.
4. Say, “Now I am going to pass out the rest of this article and this time, I want you and a peer next to you to work together on summarizing it. Remember to underline, cross out, or replace information. (Hand out copies to each student.) Go over a good example of a summary of the second paragraph as a class once everyone is done to make sure they know what to do when they summarize on their own.
Paragraph: As it fell onto the moist earth, the ash combined with water to create a gooey mud trap, like superthick quicksand. Before long, a small dinosaur called a Ceratosaur wandered into the muck on its hind legs and couldn't break free. Another meat-eating dino spied easy prey and ran toward the helpless animal. But this was no free lunch! Both predator and prey sank to their doom in the "quickmud."
Questions for students
-What is the main idea?
-What things do I need to circle?
-What can I cross out?
-What are words that I don’t know?
-What are some important details that I need to know?
5. Say, “Okay, now that you have practiced with me and a peer it is time for you to try to summarize a paragraph on your own! Remember to look at our summarizing rules poster! When you are done, talk with a buddy next to you and review each other’s work. I will be walking around and checking your progress, as you work, don’t hesitate to ask me questions of you need help!
6. Assessment: To assess students understanding of summarizing I will take up their summary to see who needs further help. I will call students to my desk if they appear to need more practice with summarizing. I will also ask the students comprehension questions about the article and ask them to tell me about it.
Example checklist for students:
When summarizing did the student….
Delete unimportant facts? YES or NO
Delete repeated information? YES or NO
Write a topic statement that covers everything that is important from the passage of the text? YES or NO
Write a topic sentence? YES or NO
Write a summery that includes the main idea? YES or NO
Define unknown words? YES or NO
References:
“Dino Death Pit”. National Geographic Kids. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/science/dino-death-pit/#trex.jpg
Kerr, Kelly. The Key to Unlocking a Perfect Summary. http://klk0024.wixsite.com/design/copy-of-begninning-reading-design
Reading is the starting point of all aspects of learning. In order to learn, one must be able to read and discover the message behind information. When reading to learn, an important technique to implement is summarization. Summarization is the ability to read a text and figure out which parts are important and which are less important and then be able to make a general description of what was read. This lesson will help students practice deciding which parts of a text are important, summarize the text, and then be able to discuss what they read.
Materials:
- Pencil, black colored pencil, and highlighter for each student
- Blank sheet of paper for each student
- “Dino Death Pit” National Geographic Kids article for each student
- Summarization checklist for each student (at the bottom)
- Summarization Rules (Make in to a poster)
- Leave out unimportant information
- Leave out repeated information
- Pick out important information
- Create the topic sentence
Procedures:
- Say: “Good readers don’t try to remember everything. They use summarization strategies to remember only the important details of a text. So, instead of trying to remember a whole text of words, we summarize to get the main details of a story. Today we going to learn to summarize to we can be expert readers.”
- Say, “Now we are going to talk about some rules that we need to use to help us when we are writing summaries. Our first step is that we need to delete any information that is unimportant or not needed. Second, we need to read through and delete any information that has been repeated. Thirdly, we need to replace lists of items with easier terms, and come up with a topic sentence to begin our summary of the story. Lastly, we need to order the important events. Remember to look at our poster to make sure you are not forgetting a step in the process. We are going to practice with these rules by reading an article about Dinosaurs and Fossils.”
- Say, “Ok, now we are going to look at the first part of the article together. I will put it on the overhead so that everyone can see it as we read along together. (put paragraph on board) As I am reading this passage, I am going to model how to cross out unimportant details, underline important details and pick out a nice topic sentence. This article is about Dinosaurs and Fossils. Raise your hand if you have heard of a fossil. Tell me what you know about them. Good, they are the remains of creatures that lived many, many years ago. Some may even be of extinct creatures!. We are going to read to find out more information about Dinosaurs and Fossils.”
Paragraph:
Nearly 100 million years ago before giant dinos like Tyrannosaurus rex ruled the world, a volcano rumbled in an ancient, marshy land. Fiery lava belched out of the crater, and ash snowed down on what is now part of the Gobi desert in China.
“First, I would leave out the part where it mentions the Tyrannosaurus rex. That is just a little fun fact. Second, we can leave out that the ash snowed down onto what is now part of the Gobi desert in China. Everything else is important to the main idea. Here is what my paragraph looks like now: Nearly 100 million years ago, a volcano rumbled in an ancient, marshy land. Fiery lava belched out of the crater, and ash snowed down.
4. Say, “Now I am going to pass out the rest of this article and this time, I want you and a peer next to you to work together on summarizing it. Remember to underline, cross out, or replace information. (Hand out copies to each student.) Go over a good example of a summary of the second paragraph as a class once everyone is done to make sure they know what to do when they summarize on their own.
Paragraph: As it fell onto the moist earth, the ash combined with water to create a gooey mud trap, like superthick quicksand. Before long, a small dinosaur called a Ceratosaur wandered into the muck on its hind legs and couldn't break free. Another meat-eating dino spied easy prey and ran toward the helpless animal. But this was no free lunch! Both predator and prey sank to their doom in the "quickmud."
Questions for students
-What is the main idea?
-What things do I need to circle?
-What can I cross out?
-What are words that I don’t know?
-What are some important details that I need to know?
5. Say, “Okay, now that you have practiced with me and a peer it is time for you to try to summarize a paragraph on your own! Remember to look at our summarizing rules poster! When you are done, talk with a buddy next to you and review each other’s work. I will be walking around and checking your progress, as you work, don’t hesitate to ask me questions of you need help!
6. Assessment: To assess students understanding of summarizing I will take up their summary to see who needs further help. I will call students to my desk if they appear to need more practice with summarizing. I will also ask the students comprehension questions about the article and ask them to tell me about it.
Example checklist for students:
When summarizing did the student….
Delete unimportant facts? YES or NO
Delete repeated information? YES or NO
Write a topic statement that covers everything that is important from the passage of the text? YES or NO
Write a topic sentence? YES or NO
Write a summery that includes the main idea? YES or NO
Define unknown words? YES or NO
References:
“Dino Death Pit”. National Geographic Kids. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/science/dino-death-pit/#trex.jpg
Kerr, Kelly. The Key to Unlocking a Perfect Summary. http://klk0024.wixsite.com/design/copy-of-begninning-reading-design
Click here to return to the Horizons index http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/horizons.html