Summarization is Bear-y Cool

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Sadie Shell

Reading to Learn

 

Rationale: The goal for readers is that they will learn by comprehending what they have read. After students begin reading correctly and fluently, they move onto the next level, comprehension. Comprehensive reading is how the student will be able to understand what the text is saying. Children must be taught how to read to learn. The biggest part of being to read to learn is summarization. Summarizing teaches students to pick the most important information and get rid of the extra details. Students also learn how to use a graphic organizer. 

 

Materials:

• Paper, pencil, and highlighter for every student

• Summarization checklist for each student

• Bookmark paper strips for summarization rules

• Articles: Polar Bear and Brown Bear

• Summarization rubric 

 

Procedures:

1. Say: “Today we’re going to learn how to summarize an article! We can remember what we read more easily by summarizing it. What is summarizing? It’s picking out the most important information in an article. We are going to practice how to summarize with two articles. We will determine what the main idea is, what information supports the main idea, and what details we can take out.” 

 

1. Say: “Now we must learn the rules of summarizing. [Pass out the bookmark sized paper] First, I’m going to write each rule on the board. I want you to copy it onto your bookmark. Once we finish writing down these rules, you will be to look at this bookmark while you are reading.” 

 

1. Say: “The first thing you do after you read an article is to remove the repeated information. Next, you highlight the important information. Finally, you write a statement that explains the main topic or concept of the article. The main idea should be supported by all the details.”                                                                                                                                                                                              

2. Say: “Now I’m going to give everyone an article on the Polar Bear.” Give every student a copy and then a book talk. “This article is about a polar bear. Does anyone know where polar bears live? Do you know what they eat?  Lets read to find out if you knew these things about polar bears.” Allow students time to read article.

3. Say: “Now, let’s pick out the information that is not important. I’ll start, do we need to know how sea ice forms in order to learn about polar bears? No, so let’s cross it off with our pencil. Do we think that it’s important to know that polar bears hunt seals? Yes! So let’s high-lite it! Now, you all continue to do this for the remaining part of the article. Our first question is, “What is it about?  What is the main point? We know that the article is about polar bears, so maybe our topic sentence could be about that! Use your topic sentence and the information that you have left to write our summary on your paper and make sure it is in your own words. (Walk around and help with writing.)

 

1.  Next pass out the article “Brown Bear”.

 

1. Say: “This article is about brown bears! When you read the article remember to highlight the important information with your highlighter and cross out the unimportant information with your pencil. Once you finish a paragraph, write a summary sentence. [Once students finish reading paragraph two, stop them.] Okay, so let’s practice our summarizing skills by using the second paragraph.” 

    “As winter approaches, brown bears—often called grizzly bears—prepare for a long hibernation. During the fall, a brown bear eats practically around the clock, stocking up for the four to seven months when it'll have to live off stored body fat. A grizzly may chow down on 90 pounds (40 kilograms) of food each day.”

 

 

1. Say: “What do you think hibernation is? (Give a few seconds wait time) It’san extended period of remaining inactive, often in winter. Can someone give me a sentence with the word hibernation in it?  (Wait for response). Next, we are going to find the main idea in this sentence. [Ask students this]. Good job! In this paragraph, the main idea is that brown bears store food for hibernation. We can cross out the other information because it isn’t important right now. Your sentence should look like, and the rest of the sentence should be crossed out.” [display what it should look like on overhead]                          

                                                                                                       

1. Say: “We will continue picking out the important points in each paragraph. This time you are going to continue to read by yourself. Summarize as much as you can. Always highlight the important parts and crossing through the unimportant details. I’ll walk around and check everyone’s work. Once you’ve finished reading the whole thing, write a combined one-paragraph summary of the whole passage.”

 

Assessment:

In his/her summary, did the student…

• Delete insignificant information?  YES / NO

• Write a topic sentence?  YES / NO

• Write 3-5 good, concise sentences?  YES / NO

• Select the key points from the article?  YES / NO

• Chose the correct main topic for this article?  YES / NO

• List 5 new vocabulary words/definitions at the end?  YES / NO

 

After the assessment, I will also ask each student questions as a reading comprehension check for the end of the lesson. The questions will include:

• When do brown bears hibernate?

• Are female brown bears pregnant when hibernating?

• Why do brown bears store food before hibernation?

 

Reference:

 

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/polar-bear/#polar-bear-cub-on-mom.jpg

 

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/brown-bear/#brown-bear-fish-stream.jpg

 

Carley Prichard, Stung with Summarization https://carleyprichard.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/reading-to-learn

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