Reading to Learn

Flopping into Summarization!

Amelia Welch

Rationale: This lesson will focus on the student’s ability in reading to learn. Knowing how to summarize is a strategy that will help a child fully comprehend a text well. An effective method of summarizing, especially a larger text, is called about-point and this method asks two critical questions. The first question being, “What is the text about?” This question is normally easy to answer and identifies the topic that becomes the subject of the topic sentence. The second question is,” What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” This question comes from analyzing the text at a deeper level by subordinating points from the passage. Readers must point the points together and find an umbrella term that identifies the main points that the author is writing about, which will then become the predicate of the topic sentence. The main point becomes the predicate of the tropic sentence. Students will learn how to summarize a specific text in this lesson by using the about-point method.

Materials:

Pencils for every student
Paper
Copies of “Blue Whale” article/texts
Summarization checklist for the teacher (see below)
Comprehension quiz (see below)

Procedures:

1. Say: Good Morning my friends! Today we will be learning how to summarize an article, text, or book! Does anyone know what a summary is? [Let the class take some time to think and answer] When we are trying to write a summary, we are trying to answer the who, where, why and how questions. Sometimes a text will be too long to remember every detail, therefore, we will create a summary to help us remember the main points! Answering these questions will help us create a topic sentence to tell us the main concept or theme of the text. Today, we will read an article about Blue Whales and summarize it.

2. Say: Alrighty class! Hear is something you want to lean in close and remember. Can you guys say, “About-point method?” Now say it out loud with me, “About-point method!” [Giving them a way to stay engaged] The best way to summarize is to use the method about-point. You must ask yourself two questions. The first question will be, “What is the text about?” The next and tougher question is, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” To answer this question, you have to think of a way to summarize (put together) all of the important points in the text and make an “umbrella term.” An umbrella term is a way to combine all of the important points that the author talks about within the text. Once you form your, you can use them to create a topic sentence!

3. Say: Now that we know the questions we should be answering while reading the article, let me show you gals and guys your article! [Pass out article to students] Drum roll please…. your article is about… Blue Whales! Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen a whale. Where did you see it? What do they eat? How much do they weigh? What do you know about whales? The article that we will read will teach us all about blue whales - maybe even some facts you have never learned before! So, let’s read and find out more about these majestic animals.

4. Say: “Before we get started, we’ll talk about a new vocabulary word you will read in this article. The vocabulary word is buoyancy. Buoyancy the ability or tendency to float in water or air or some other fluid. Let’s look at this word in a sentence. “Blue whales are able to breathe air, but they are very comfortable in the ocean waters where buoyancy helps to support their incredible bulk.” Buoyancy is meaning they float, and blue whales can do that! Do you think we, as human beings, are buoyant? If so, I want you to tell me why you think that. [Allow class to answer] Now let’s try to use it in a sentence! Raise your hand to finish the sentence: “ A food that can be considered buoyant would be…’”

5. Say: Here is a paragraph from the article:

“Only a few thousand blue whales are believed to swim the world's oceans. They were hunted for many years for their blubber and oil, and they were almost hunted to extinction. They were protected under the 1966 International Whaling Convention and are now considered to be an endangered species.”

What is this paragraph about? It is about whales. What are the important points the writer makes? Only a few swims in all the oceans, they almost became extinct but became protected! When we combine these points we can get out topic sentence, “Whales are in many oceans but once almost became extinct until protected by an act.”

6. Say: I want everyone to read this paragraph from this article and then put your hand on your nose when you are done! Here is the paragraph:

mammals are found in all the world's oceans and often swim in small groups or alone.”

Let’s use the about-point method. The first question in the about- point method, what is this paragraph about? The paragraph is about blue whales. Now, the second question I want you guys to try on your own, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” [Give time for the students to think and throw out ideas] Remember this is practice and if you do not know if your answer is right, no worries! Just try it! [Students throw out answers] Alright, good work friends! I would say to answer the question, blue whales are buoyant and are found in many of the world’s oceans. What I did was put the main points that we read in the article and made them all one sentence, known as the topic sentence!

7. Say: Now, I want you gals and guys to finish reading the whole article and use the about-point method to make your own topic sentences. Let’s make a topic sentence for each paragraph! Remember, you want to make the article shorter than what is already is, which means you just need to pick out only meaningful information. Write it in your own words, I want to see what is in your smart brain!

8. Say: Alright, those topics sentences look fantastic! Now, I want you to write a summary with your topic sentences on the article about the blue whales! When you complete your summary, bring it up to me! [I will be walking around answering questions and giving pointers]

Collect each summary and evaluate responses with this checklist:

_ Collected important info

_ Text is reduced from original

_ Sentence brought ideas together from article

_ Thoughts are organized in paragraph

9. Say: Alrighty, last thing! You guys are doing amazing listening and attaining this information! Let’s take a quick comprehension quiz and then we will watch a video about blue whales!

Quiz:

Where do blue whales live?
What do blue whales eat?
Is it easy for them to find food?
How big are blue whales compared to maybe a butterfly?
What is one word you would use to describe a blue whale?

References:

Blue Whale article:

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/blue-whale

Tate, Emily Reading in Fluency:

https://emt0020.wixsite.com/literacylessons/reading-to-learn

Murray, Bruce Reading Genie:

http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/developments/

Murray, Bruce Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea:

https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1359716/pages/powerpoints