Some Super Summarization
Lesson for Full Alphabetic Readers
Rationale: In order to become better readers, we must truly understand what we are reading. One way to improve our comprehension is to learn how to summarize. To summarize is to take all of the important details and main ideas out of a text and combine them in a way that explains the story to someone who has not read it. This lesson helps students learn how to find those main ideas and key details in a text by having the teacher model summarization and then by summarizing themselves. The teacher will model how to pick out important details and eliminate unimportant ones, and then guide students through summarizing their own passages.
Materials: pencils, paper, highlighter, Sharpies (black), dry-erase board, dry-erase markers, passage sample on SmartBoard (sample paragraph from “National Geographic for Kids: Emperor Penguin); classroom copies of full article “National Geographic for Kids: Orca Whale;” classroom copies of full article “National Geographic for Kids: Emperor Penguin;” rubric for summarization
Procedures: 1. Say: Today we are going to talk about summarization. You tell me what you think summarization is. That’s right! Summarizing means taking a story that we’ve read and picking out all of the important things, like main ideas and really important details. When you summarize, you are retelling the story or passage you have just read giving only the important details and main ideas that you found in it. We leave out the details that are not as important.
2. Say: Do you know why summarization is important when we read? Yes, it helps us to pick out all the important things in the story. Have YOU ever summarized before? If you have, you know that when you do, you are just going over the main ideas and key elements in the text. When you’re summarizing, make sure that you only mention the important ideas and leave the small ones out of the story.
3. Say: Now we are going to read a passage together on the SmartBoard. You read it quietly to yourself and I will at the same time. *Show Paragraph 2 from “Emperor Penguin” article and wait for students to finish reading* Okay, who can give me a brief summary of what you read? *Give different students a chance to give their summaries and assist as needed. Jot down some of their summaries on the board.* Let’s take a look at my copy of this paragraph on the SmartBoard. Notice how I highlighted important details and crossed out details that were not important. That helps me keep facts straight and the main idea in mind. In the first paragraph, I highlighted the part that says, “…spend their entire lives on Antarctic ice and in its waters,” and I marked out the part that says, “They survive…” because the sentence goes on to explain that afterwards.
4. Say: Now, I am going to pass out the whole article about these Emperor penguins. I am also giving you a black Sharpie and a highlighter. As you read, highlight details that you think are important and contribute to the main idea of the story. Take the Sharpie and cross out the details that you do not think are important. When you’ve finished reading and marking the story, I want you to summarize it in 6 sentences or less. Remember to only include main ideas and details. Don’t include any of the details that you crossed out, only the ones that you have highlighted. Write in complete sentences and use correct punctuation. The most important thing is not to copy the text just like it is but put it in your own words. Before you read, let’s quickly remind ourselves of what a few of the words in the passage mean: ‘adaptations’ are ways that the penguins would have to change or work around to live. Don’t confuse it with the word ‘adoptions,’ which are when a parent or parents decide to be a father or mother for a child that they didn’t birth, but that does not have a mother or father. We could use ‘adaptations’ in a sentence like this: “Since it gets cold in the winter, we have to make adaptations to what we wear; we put on jackets and long pants.” What adaptations would we have to make if we moved to Jamaica where it’s always very hot? Listen to this sentence and fill in where we could use this word: “Ms. Jones did not have time to finish the entire lesson, so she had to make some ___ to make the lesson shorter.” The next word, ‘courtship,’ is talking about the time that the female penguin is pregnant, and ‘occupy’ means to live or take up space. Okay, now let’s get to reading and summarizing. *Allow 15-20 minutes for students to summarize*
5. Say: Now that everybody has summarized our article about Emperor penguins, I will call on some of you to give me main ideas. Let’s see if we can find 5 main ideas. *Listen as students read their summaries, look for common main ideas, and then write them on the board*
6. Say: We have now summarized one full article. I’m passing out another one called “Orca Whale.” What do we think orca whales are? Where do they live and what do they eat? *Allow students to make suggestions or take guesses.* Now let’s come up with a few questions as a class that we want to know about orca whales. *Allow students to ask questions and jot these down on the board.* We’ll read this article to find out all of the answers to our questions. I want you to read it to yourself and summarize. Who can tell me what you’re looking for when you summarize? *Allow students to give ideas about what they should be looking for.* Great answers! Yes, we’re looking for main ideas and important details. Always be sure to include key words in the text. When you’ve finished reading and summarizing, I want you to come put your papers on the front table.
Rubric- Set up a rubric for each student using the following criteria:
Did the student…
1. Read the article all the way through?
2. Pick out the most important information from the article based on methods used in class?
3. Delete trivial information?
4. Comprehend the information from the article?
5. Write a short paragraph summarizing the most important parts of the article read?
References:
“Orca Whale” article:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/orca/
“Emperor Penguin” article:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/emperor-penguin/
Summarization Sensation by Meredith Lamberth- found on the Reading Genie:
https://sites.google.com/site/mslamberthsreadingdesigns/reading-to-learn-design
