Swinging into summarization
Rationale:
After readers learn to read fluently and correctly, the next step to learn is comprehension. They must learn how to read to learn. This is accomplished by distinguishing the difference between important information in the text from the information that is less significant. The point of this lesson is to teach students to summarize, an essential skill in reading comprehension. Summarization includes the skill of superordination or finding an umbrella term for the events that happen in the text. This lesson will teach students how to summarize the text as well as how to demonstrate their understanding of what they are reading.
Materials:
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Construction Paper (1 per child, for summarizing rules)
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Markers (1 per child)
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Vocabulary Words [opposable, robust, prohibited] written on Whiteboard
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“Spider Monkey” National Geographic Kids Article (1 per child)
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Highlighter (1 per child)
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Whiteboards (1 per child)
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Dry erase markers (1 per child)
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Summarization Creation Worksheet
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Pencils (1 per child)
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Paper (1 per child)
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Comprehension Questions [1. Do spider monkeys have opposable thumbs? 2. What is the main thing spider monkeys like to eat? 3. How did the spider monkeys get their name? 4. Why do spider monkeys sometimes eat seeds and leaves? 5. How does the spider monkey’s tail help him climb trees?] written on Whiteboard
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Assessment Checklist
Procedure:
1. Say: “Today we are going to learn something called summarization. Do any of you know what that means? [Allow time for students to answer]. “That’s right! Summarizing something means you are telling only the main parts of a story, not the entire thing. This skill is something that can be very helpful when we are wanting to comprehend or understand what we are reading. So, today we are going to Swing into Summarization by reading an article about some swinging spider monkeys!
2. Say: “Before I hand out the articles let’s talk a little about spider monkeys. Does anyone already know anything about spider monkeys? [Allow time for students to answer] “Yes, they can swing from tree to tree very quickly and they do sometimes look like spiders! All right let’s learn some vocabulary really quickly to make sure we know what all the words in our article mean. The first vocabulary word is prehensile. Has anyone ever heard of this word? [Allow time for students to answer]. Prehensile means capable of grasping or holding. For example, an iguana has a prehensile tail because it can curl around things and “hold” them! Would you think that a monkey has a prehensile tail? [allow answers] We’ll have to read and find out! But I have another word to review before we start. Our next word is robust which means healthy and strong. If I were going to use that word in a sentence I would say: The young boy had a robust heartbeat. Other things can be robust too, like the flavor of cheese! Do you think blue cheese or mac n’ cheese is more robust? [allow answers] All right, the last unfamiliar word from this article is prohibited. Prohibited means that something has been stopped or banned. Something that is prohibited cannot be done anymore. For example, if I say you are all prohibited from eating lunch, you would all be very hungry when you get picked up because you would have had no lunch! Okay, I have written these vocabulary words on the board in case you forget what they mean. Let’s practice using them just to make sure we understand them completely. I’m going to write a sentence on the board and I want you to write on your whiteboards what you think the word is, you can work with a partner! [write on board, ‘The iguana has a _____ tail’]. Okay, show me your boards! [Allow students to show boards, if anyone got it incorrect, review the meaning of the word]. “All right, now let’s try another word” [write ‘This cheese has a ____ flavor’ on board]. Okay, let’s see your answers! [Allow students to show answers, if anyone has it incorrect, spend more time discussing this word]. “Last one guys! This is a harder one. [write ‘The teacher will ____ playtime because the students did not do their jobs’]. Let’s see your answers! [Allow students to answer, correct any incorrect answers].
3. [Hand out construction paper and markers] Say: “The last thing we need to do before we summarize our article is to learn some rules that we need to follow in order to become great summarizers. These rules are short and easy to remember, but we need to write them down to make sure we don’t forget. At the top of your construction paper write Rules then under that write #1 delete. What do you think the first rule, delete means? [allow time to answer] “Correct, as we said earlier when summarizing we don’t want to tell the whole story, so we are going to get rid of or delete some of the information we do not think is important. Now let’s write #2 shorten. What do we think to shorten means when it comes to summarizing? [allow time to answer] “By shorten, we mean we are going to shorten the long parts. So, once we have deleted the parts that weren’t important and found the parts that were important, we are going to shorten those long important parts so that the passage can be easily and quickly understood. This can be a little confusing, so let’s practice. If I gave you the sentence: “We talked about January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December during class today.” We could shorten it by saying, “We talked about all of the months during class today.” This way, we shortened our summary and kept important ideas. The last rule we are going to write is #3 create. Once we have deleted the unimportant information and shortened the long parts, we will need to create a main idea sentence for the paragraph.
4. Say: “We are going to practice summarizing together first, then I am going to let you try it on your own. [Hand out spider monkey article] Say: “I have just given each of you a spider monkey article and I am going to read it out loud while you follow along on your copy. Now that we have read the article what do you think we should do next? [allow time to answer] “Correct, we need to delete! The first sentence seems to be important, right? It says “Spider monkeys have long, thin arms with hook-like hands that allow them to swing through the trees” This is something that is important, so we are not going to want to delete it. Instead, let’s get our highlighters and highlight it so we remember that it is important! Now can someone find a sentence that seems to be less important? A sentence that we could maybe delete from our summary? [allow time to answer] “Yes! The sentence in the 5th paragraph that says ‘spider monkeys hug each other and wrap their tails around each other’ is a cute fact about spider monkeys, but I do not think we have to know that about them. Let’s take our pencils and mark through it so we remember it is not an important sentence.
6. Say: Now let’s practice #2, shortening! In the second paragraph, we see this sentence “During the day, the spider monkey searches for fruit, which makes up the main part of its diet. They will also eat flowers, seeds, bark, leaves, and small insects during the dry season when the fruit isn’t available.” Let’s see if we can shorten this. Can anybody think of some words that encompass all of these different foods for the monkey? [allow answers]. “Yes, plants, bugs, seeds, these are all good answers! So, if we are trying to shorten this long sentence because when summarizing we do not need the trivial details but just the important facts, we could replace the details with more general words. Watch, I will say “Spider monkeys love fruit, and search for it during the day. However, spider monkeys can also survive on bugs, seeds, and plants.” [write sentence on board]. I used more general words than the article but I give the readers similar information!
7. Say: “All right, what is our last step? [allow answers]. “That’s right! #3, create or make a sentence that captures the main idea of the paragraph. That means we want one sentence for each paragraph, but we don’t want to lose any of the important information. I’ll show you how to do this using the sentence I wrote just a minute ago. [turn to board]. “So, this is two sentences, but I want just one sentence that gives me all the important information. This paragraph mentions mostly what a Spider Monkey eats. I think that will be my main idea. So, let me create a new sentence, that captures this main idea, and deletes all the extra stuff.” [write on board, cross out unused information]. “ ‘Spider monkeys love fruit but can also survive on bugs, seeds, and plants.’ This new sentence deletes the unnecessary information, shortens the old sentence, and focuses on the main topic of this paragraph: the diet of the spider monkey.
8. [pass out summarization worksheet] Say: “Okay now that you have an idea of what summarizing an article looks like, I want you to finish summarizing this article on your own. I have just passed out a summarization creation worksheet that I want each of you to use while summarizing this article. In each column there you are going to write the main idea sentences that you create while summarizing. I am going to walk around to make sure you are on the right track and I will be there to help you if you need it. When you have finished your summarization creating worksheet turn it in and begin working on the comprehension questions that I have written on the board.
8. Once students have turned in their worksheets I will assess their work using the assessment checklist below.
Summarization Creation Worksheet:
Assessment Checklist:
References:
-“Spider Monkeys” (National Geographic Article)
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/spider-monkey/
-Rules for Summarization by Carol Hryniuk-Adamov
-Andie Attia: “Swinging into Summarization” https://aka0029.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/reading-to-learn
