Reading Lesson Design:
Flipping into Summarization
By: Rebecca Friday
Rationale:
The main goal in reading is comprehension. Once students are able to comprehend the text they read, they can begin learning how to better understand what they read. This lesson will introduce the definition and strategies of summarization. The ‘about-point strategy is very effective and will be used during this lesson. Two critical questions this strategy focuses on about the text include: “what is it about?” which helps the students figure out the subject of the text to be used in the summary, and “what is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” which encourages students to pull out important parts of the text. Asking these questions may be difficult for students at first, but it will teach them how to identify important information and develop higher level thinking and comprehension skills.
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Materials:
Individual copies of ‘dolphins,’ pencil and primary paper for each student, summarization checklist, dolphin quiz, dry erase board and expo marker, and primary paper, construction paper, markers.
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Procedures:
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Say- “Have you ever had something very exciting happen to you or been somewhere fun that you were so excited to tell your friends about? When you tell your friends about your memory and shorten it and make a more simplified version you are actually summarizing. You have been summarizing and did not even realize it! Summarization is a strategy readers use when they pull important pieces of the text which is called a summary. They do this to be able to comprehend the text better. Summaries are so important because it is very hard to remember every single detail in a book or story that we read.
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Say- “We can learn to summarize text by using a strategy called about-point. When you use about-point, you will ask yourself two different questions after you read.” Write the questions on the board for the students to see. “First you will answer the question: ‘what is the text about? And then you will answer this question: ‘what is the main point the writer is making about that topic?’ This second question will help you use critical thinking skills to identify the most important parts in really helps to cross it out as you read so you will not go back to it, and you can stay organized. When you answer this question, you will be able to build your summary and have a great first topic sentence!”
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Say- “I have an article called ‘dolphin’ that you will read first independently and once we do that, we will read it together out loud and then we will practice the about-point strategy with a short paragraph before you try one on your own. Have any of you ever seen a dolphin before? Perhaps at the beach? Did anyone know they can use echolocation? Wow! We are going to learn more about Dolphins in today’s lesson.”
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Say- “Now, let’s look at a paragraph form the article together: ‘Like the name “bottlenose” suggests, this species of dolphin has a short, stubby beak. Its sleek, conical body varies in color from a light to slate grey on the upper body to a pale to pinkish grey on the bottom part. Bottlenose dolphins measure around 2-4 m (6-12 ft.) long and weigh 135-650 kg (300-1400 lbs.). Males are significantly larger than females.” This paragraph introduces you to dolphins and even talks about their bottlenose, but what is the most important thing you noticed? Normally, you would think that dolphins are fairly light. Do you think I can form a topic sentence about Dolphins from this information? Yes, I can! Let’s write ‘Dolphins noses are short and stubby. They are two different colors. [instruct students to write this topic sentence on their primary paper]
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Say- “Now, it is your turn to try about-point by yourself! Read these sentences ‘Dolphins aren’t involuntary breathers like humans. They must consciously swim to the surface to take a breath. This means they can never fully sleep. One side of their brain must always be active so that they remember to breather.’
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After they are done reading ask them- “what is this paragraph about? Good, the dolphins are very social animals! What is something important about their sleeping? Yes, they their brains are never fully off. What is another point? Yes, they can never fully sleep. Great Job. Now let’s try to make a topic sentence with this information on our own and write it on a page of primary paper.” [give students a couple of minutes to come up with their topic sentences.]
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Say- “Now that everyone has had the time to write their own topic sentences, how about we all share our sentences!” [allow the students to share and ask one student to volunteer to write their sentence on the white board and approve of it or help them fix it and explain why it’s right or why you fixed certain things.]
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Say- “Now, I would like you to make a topic sentence of the rest of the paragraphs in the article using the about-point strategy. After you are finished with this you should have a great summary about dolphins. Remember that you should always answer question in about-point to make your topic sentences for each paragraph. If you need to, the questions are on the board for you to refer back to. Don’t forget that you should summarize using your own words, you can throw out the ‘fluff’, and only choose the important details. When you are done with this, put all of your sentence together on your lined primary paper to put your summary together, then illustrate your own lion on a piece of construction paper with markers! When you’re done putting your summary together, turn your primary paper and dolphin drawing to me!”
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Teacher instructions: Look over each student’s submission to ensure they grasped the concept of summarization by using the checklist below to grade. Students will also take a short quiz while you are grading to make ensure they understood the article as a whole.
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After the quiz allow all of the students to share their favorite fact they learned and hang up their writings and illustrations.
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References:
Mackenzie McCollum, Roaring into Summarization:
https://kenziemac22.wixsite.com/my-site-2/rl-design-1
Article: P.A. Smith. ‘Dolphin’. https://animalfactguide.com/animal-facts/bottlenose-dolphin/
Checklist:
Student Name: __________________
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________ Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph
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________ Excluded unimportant or repetitive information
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________ Significantly reduced the text from original to form summary
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________ identified important points
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________ Successfully conjoined the important points to form a topic sentence
Quiz:
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Where are bottlenose dolphins found?
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What color are bottlenose dolphins?
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How fast can bottlenose dolphins swim?
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What helps maintain their body heat and protects them from predators?
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True or False: Dolphins can never fully sleep
Primary Paper:
