Speedy Summarizing

Katie Oliver

 

Rationale: In order to read with the most success, we need to be able to comprehend, or understand, what we are reading. One of the most useful reading strategies we can use to gain comprehension is called summarization. Summarization involves reading a passage and taking out any uncesssary information so we are left with only the important facts. In this particular lesson, students will practice summarizing a passage about cheetahs, the fastest animal on land.

 

 

Materials:

• Primary paper and pencil

• Poster listing the summarization rules

  • Rules:

    1. Delete the trivia, or unimportant information

    2. Find the important information

    3. Make a topic sentence

• Assessment checklists (for teacher to use)

  • Assessment Checklist:

    Student Name: __________________________

    1. Did the student successfully delete unimportant/redundant information?

    2. Did the student successfully identify important parts?

    3. Did the student use the important information to come up with topic sentence?

• Copies of "Raccoon" and "Cheetah" articles from National Geographic Kids for each student

• Colored markers for students

• Highlighters for students

• Lined paper for students

• SmartBoard

 

 

Procedures:

1. Say: "Who has ever read a book or an interesting article that you found so interesting that you told a friend or family member about it? Now when you told them about it, did you tell them every single thing to read, or did you tell them only the most important and intereting things  you remember? (Give students time to respond). Very good! When telling someone about something we read, we only tell them the most important parts. This is called summarizing, and you were probably doing it without even knowing you were! Summarization is a very helpful strategy that you can use to remember and understand what you read. Knowing how to summarize shows that you comprehend what you are reading."

 

2. Say: "In order to summarize, we have to follow a few simple rules. But before I tell you what those rules are, we are going to read a short article together about raccoons. Have any of you ever seen a raccoon? Most of you probably have. Let's read through this together. Follow along as I read out loud." Read through the passage aloud while students follow along.

 

3. Say: "Now that we have read our passage, the first thing we need to do is look at our summarization rules. Our first rule is to delete the trivia, or unimportant information. This means to go through the passage and cross out any extra information that we do not really need to know. I'm going to read back through the passage and see if there are any sentences that tell us things that are not very important. I'm going to use the SmartBoard, but you use your colored marker to cross out any unimportant information."

 

4. Say: "Next, our second rule tells us to find the important information in the passage. This should be pretty easy. We have already gone through and marked out any unimportant facts, so what we have left should be the important things. Take your highlighter and highlight the important facts you find in the rest of the passage. These will be the things that we want to remember the most."

 

5. Say: "Finally, our last rule is to make a topic sentence. This part can be a little tricky. The topic sentence is supposed to provide a very short but clear explanation of what we read. It would be like if someone told you that you had to sum up what you read in one sentence. We do not want to include every detail, but we want to provide enough information that tells us we remember what we read. Take a look at the important information we highlighted and come up with a topic sentence that gives us an idea of what our passage was about.

 

6. Say: "You all did a great job practicing our summarization rules. Now, I want you to take your copy of the "Cheetah" passage and use our rules to summarize it on your own. Be sure to mark out the unimportant information with your colored marker, and use your highlighter to mark the important facts. Answer the comprehension questions I've written on the SmartBoard so I know you have understood the main points of the passage. Finally, try writing a topic sentence on the back of the article. When you have finished, turn in your article and return to your seat."

• Comprehension questions:

  • How fast can a cheetah run?

  • Explain how the cheetah hunts for its food.

  • What kind of animals do the cheetahs eat?

 

7. Assessment: Once all student papers are turned in, I will use my assessment checklist to see if students have correctly marked the unimportant and important information and written a well-constructed topic sentence. Not all topic sentences will be identical, but I will generally be looking for each student to incorporate the important information that they highlighted.

 

 

Resources:

Mary Cameron Faison. Buzz Into Summing. http://marycameronf.wix.com/msfaisonsreadingtips#!buzz-into-summarization/crno

 

Lauren Ayers. Transforming into Summarizing. http://laa0020.wix.com/laurenaayres#!reading-to-learn/c2474

 

Raccoon. National Geographic Kids. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/raccoon/#raccoon-grass.jpg

 

Cheetah. National Geographic Kids. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/cheetah/#cheetah-running.jpg

 

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