Let's Learn to Read!
Sharky Summarization
A Reading to Learn Lesson
Rationale: After children can read accurately and fluently they will soon be able to read in order to learn. The ultimate goal of reading is comprehension, and students at this level are ready to take on this task. This lesson introduces students to a helpful strategy known as summarization and to help them read to learn. Students will learn to delete trivial information in an article about sharks, which will only leave them the important facts in the end.
Materials:
Materials:
· Pencils
· Paper
· Highlighters
· Passage sample on Smart Board of "Manatees"
· Dry erase markers
· Rubric for grading summaries
· Comprehension Questions
· Class set of the article "Great White Sharks" by National Geographic
Procedures:
1. Today, we are going to be learning how to summarize an article! This is when you condense the information down to only what is most important by deleting the trivial and repeated information. We are going to practice how to do this skill with two different articles. We will focus on what the main idea is, what facts support the main idea, and what information we can remove.
2. Say: Now we are going to read a passage together on the SmartBoard. This passage is on the Manatees. Are manatees mammals or fish? Do they come to the surface to breathe air like we do, or do they have gills like fish? They are mammals, correct! Let’s read more about our friends the Manatees. Follow along with me as I read this passage out loud. -Show first paragraph of Manatee article on smartboard-
3. Say: Who can sum up what you just read? -Wait for students to give their summaries and write down what they say. -Let’s take a look at my copy of this paragraph on the SmartBoard. Notice how I highlighted important details and crossed out details that were not important. That helps me keep facts straight and the main idea in mind. -Model the sample below on board-
Reaching up to 13 feet (4 meters) long and weighing as many as 1,300 pounds (600 kilograms), West Indian manatees look more like small cars than people. Despite their large size, manatees are graceful swimmers. Although they usually move along in slow motion, they can also cruise, or swim at a steady pace, at five miles (eight kilometers) an hour. In short bursts they can even top 15 miles (24 kilometers) an hour!
4. Explain: To review, the main topic or first sentence tells us what the paragraph will be about. Our first sentence talked about how big the manatees are, and gave us specific numbers, so we highlight it. And then the paragraph tells us about different swimming speeds. This is great information, but we are focusing on the Manatees size, not their speed so we cross it out. Then it tells us that Manatees can sometimes go 15 mph. That’s great information, but we just dont need it! We are summarizing the article about Manatees size.
5. Now the students will practice what they have just learned on their own. Pass out a copy of the Great White Shark article to each student to mark and highlight on. “I am passing out a text about a species of shark known as the Great White Shark, for you to read and highlight the important things. Have any of you ever been to the beach? What about an aquarium that had sharks? This is a really interesting text that will make you think of this fish in a whole different way. If I were you, I would read the story once through and then go back to highlight what I remember was really important. Once you have narrowed the text down, you can double check your work and write a short summary.
6. Before you read, let’s quickly remind ourselves of what a few of the words in the passage mean: -write these on the board too.
1. Breaching- when a Great White Shark launches out of the water after its prey
2. Carnivore- meat eater
Assessment: I will call each student back one at a time once they have had time to read and highlight. I will see what they highlighted, along with the summary that they wrote. I will rate this on the rubric (see below), and ask them a couple of comprehension questions. Once the students have met with me, they will get in small groups to discuss the article and their summaries aloud.
Questions:
1.When Great White Sharks are born how long are they?
2. What do Great White Sharks eat?
3.What is something you find interesting about this shark?
Rubric
Student Name:
Student clearly read article all the way through and used information from different paragraphs.
____ / 3
Picked out information using methods taught in class.
_____ / 2
Deleted unimportant details.
_____ / 1
Wrote a short paragraph summarizing most important details from the article.
____ / 4
Total Points and comments:
______ / 10
References:
Sea Manatee Article from National Geographic KiDS:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/west-indian-manatee/
Great White Shark Article from National Geographic KiDS:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/great-white-shark/
Dobbin, Samantha. Shrink that Thought!
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/adventures/dobbinrl.htm
