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Swimming Towards Summarization

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Rationale

In order to become even better readers, it is important that we are able to comprehend what we are reading. One way to improve our comprehension is to learn how to summarize what we just read! When we summarize we take all of the important details and main ideas out of a text and combine them in a smaller way that explains the story to someone who has not read it. This lesson will help students learn how to find the main ideas and key details in a text by having the teacher model summarization and then by practicing summarizing by themselves.

 

Materials

  1. Pencils

  2. Paper

  3. Yellow Highlighter

  4. Black marker

  5. Passage on Smart Board (“Aquatic Biomes”)

  6. Classroom copies of “Aquatic Biomes”

  7. Classroom copies of “Stingray”

  8. Classroom copies of “Seahorse”

  9. Classroom copies of “Great White Shark”

  10. Rubric for Summarization

 

Procedure

Introduction

1. Say:  Because we are all fluent readers we are going to be working with a new skill that can help us gain reading comprehension. The strategy we are going to be working on is summarization. Do any of you know what summarization is? That’s right! Summarizing is when you take a story that we’ve read, and you pick out all of the important things. Summarization helps us take one big article and look at the important facts, rather than the whole text.In order to summarize, we must learn how to do it! These are the three rules of summarizing and if you wish, you may write them down! First, after you read the passage or article, you are going to remove any repeated information. After you complete this, you will need to highlight the most important information. The third and final step is that you will write a very short statement about the main idea of what you just read!  We are going to look at an article so that we understand the main points of the article. As we summarize we are going to be focusing on the main idea, looking at facts that support this idea, and what information we can take out.

 

2. Say: Before we learn more about how to summarize, let's review what we've have learned over the past few days. When we have been talking about the aquatic biome, who can tell me what exactly we have been learning?  (Call on student.)  That's right! We have been talking about the different animals and aquatic biomes. Let's review some of the vocabulary we've talked about recently.  Yesterday, we learned what the word saltwater means. You could say, "The saltwater in the ocean tasted very salty when I accidentally got some in my mouth."  Why did the water taste so salty? (Call on student.)  That's right!  Saltwater has a high concentration of salt, just like the ocean!  Yesterday, we also talked about the different animals in the aquatic biomes. We said that the aquatic biome is split in two parts: saltwater and freshwater. You could say, "Some animals may live in saltwater like sharks, while other animals live in freshwater like a goldfish."  Which one of these animals would you probably not find in an aquatic biome?  A grouper, a clown fish, a blue whale, or an elephant?  (Call on student.)  That's right! You will probably not find an elephant in the aquatic biome because it probably wouldn’t survive with all of the water.

 

3. Say:  Now that we've reviewed our vocabulary, let's talk again about summarizing. Do you know why summarization is important?  It helps us 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 going to tell about the main ideas and key points in the text.  When you’re summarizing, make sure that you only mention the important, big ideas and leave the not so important aspects of the story out. When you read something you think is important, you can highlight it so you remember! If you read something you think is not important, you can mark it out with the black marker so you can pay attention to the more important details. 

 

4. Say:  Now we are going to read a passage together called “Seahorse”. I will read it on the Smartboard while you read it at your desk.  Read it quietly to yourself, and I will do the same.  Remember to use your highlighter for important details, and back marker for not so important details. Allow students a few minutes to read. Who can give me a brief summary of what you read? *Choose different students to share what they read*   You’ll notice on my copy of the story, on the board, that I highlighted important details and crossed out details that were not important. 

 

5. Say: Have any of you wondered how seahorses live? Do their curly tails help them to survive? Or is it hard on them? Seahorses are very interesting animals that have very unique qualities! In this article you are going to read all about seahorses and what makes them so cool!  I am going to give you a black marker and a yellow highlighter. As you read, use the yellow highlighter to highlight details that you think are important and add to the main idea of the story.  Take the black marker that I have given you and cross out the details that you do not think are important. When you’ve finished reading and marking details in the story, I want you to summarize what you read in 5 sentences or less. Remember to only include main ideas and important details.  Do not include any of the details that you crossed out, only the ones that you have highlighted.  Write in complete sentences and be sure to use correct punctuation.  The most important thing is not to copy the text just like it is word for word but put it in your own words.  *Allow 15 minutes for students to summarize*

 

6. Say:  Now that you have all summarized the passage, I will call on some of you to give me main ideas.  Let’s see if we can find ten main ideas.  *Listen as students read their summaries and look for common main ideas and then write them on the board*

 

7. Say:  We have now summarized an article.  I’m passing out another one called “Great White Shark.” I want you to read it to yourself and summarize.  Who can tell me what you’re looking for when you summarize?  We are looking for main ideas and important details.  Always be sure to include key words in the text.  Remember to use your highlighter for important details, and back marker for not so important details. When you’ve finished reading and summarizing, I will collect your papers.

I will ask these comprehension questions for a Reading Comprehension check at the end:

 

  1. What is a baby shark called?

  2. What do Great White Sharks like to eat?

  3. How do sharks hunt for their food?

  4. Where might you find a shark?

  5. Do you think a pup (baby shark) ismaller or larger than you when you were a baby?

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Rubric for Summarization Assessment

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Student Name:

Date:

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Did the student...                                                                                                                            Yes          No

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Read the article all the way through?

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Pick out the most important information?

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Delete unimportant informtion?

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Comprehend the information from the article?

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Write a short paragraph summarizing the most important parts of the article?

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References

“Aquatic Biomes” Website:  https://kidsbiology.com/biology-basics/aquatic-biomes/

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“Great White Shark” Article: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/great-white-shark/#great-white-shark-swimming-blue.jpg

 

“Seahorse” Article: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/seahorse/#sea-horse-closeup-face.jpg

 

“Stingray” Article: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/stingray/#stingray-swimming-closeup.jpg

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Sydney Beatty “Creeping and Crawling into Summarization” https://slb0061.wixsite.com/lessons/reading-to-learn

 

The Reading Genie http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/

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Click here to return to the Engagement Index http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/engagements/  

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