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Rationale: In this lesson, children will learn how to read expository texts in order to gather information. Strengthening reading comprehension while reading text for information is the next step after learning to read text fluently. In other words, children must learn to read to learn. Having students summarize expository text allows the teacher to assess student understanding of the text. It is important for students to learn how to summarize the important information from the text and exclude the trivial information. This lesson is designed for students to practice comprehension skills and summarization without trivial details. 

 

 

Materials:

  • Pencils

  • Paper

  • Highlighters

  • White board

  • Dry erase markers

  • Rubric for grading summaries

  • “Sloth” National Geographic Kids article

 

 

 

 

Procedures: 

 

1. Say: “Today, we will work on summarization and practice how to summarize a text on sloths from National Geographic Kids. Summarizing is a wonderful tool to use after reading a text. When summarizing, you only want to state the most importation information of the text and leave behind any information that is not important (trivial) or repeated information. I have picked out a fun article that we will practice summarizing with. We will try to focus on the main idea and facts that support that idea. We will leave out unimportant information.”

 

2. Say: “Now, I am going to pass out a stack of papers and I would like for everyone to take one sheet. Watch me as I show the class how to fold the paper into a trifold. First, take the paper and fold it over into 1/3 of the page, just like this. [Do demonstration] Then, with the remaining part of the paper, fold it behind the two parts. Your paper should be split into three sections now: a title page, two middle pages, and a back page. [Show your own paper split up]. Okay, now it is your turn! I will be walking around if you need help.” 

 

3. Say: Now that everyone has their paper folded, we will be using it as a study card for the steps of making a summary. You can use this whenever you need help summarizing articles. The first step in summarization is picking out the most important details and underlining or highlighting them. The second step is finding the repeated details that are unimportant and crossing them out. Finally, the third step is organizing the information you found in step one. The main idea should be supported by the details. Now, write these steps on a page in your study card. [Ask students to recall the steps to you as you have them write the steps in their cards.] The last page of your study card will be for information that you need to remember about summarizing. For instance, summaries should always be shorter in length than the information you are summarizing.

 

4. Say: “Now, I am going to pass out the article about sloths. We will summarize the first paragraph together, as a class. Has anyone heard of sloths before? Have you ever wondered what they are like or how they live? How do they avoid dangerous predators that are out to get them? Let’s read to find out more about sloths and how they live. [Read first paragraph aloud] Now that we’ve finished reading, let’s practice summarizing. I am going to highlight things that are important and cross out things that aren’t.”

 

5. [demonstration on white board] Say: “We can cross out the first two sentences, “It's a good thing sloths don't have to go to school. They'd never make it on time” since it isn’t very important. We can highlight “sleep up to 20 hours a day” in the next sentence since this gives us an important piece of information about sloths. We can also highlight “barely move at all” and “algae grows on their fur” in the last two sentences. This gives us important details about the low activity level of sloths.”

 

6. [Ask students about what they think the main idea is] “That is correct!! The article talks all about sloths; the two different species and where and how they live! Usually the main idea is relevant to the title of the article or is mentioned a lot throughout the article. [Ask students what they think the main point is] Great job!! The message is that sloths are slow and sleep most of the time.”

 

7. Say: “On the first page of your study card, summarize this main idea. The main idea is that sloths move slowly and sleep most of the day. A supporting detail would be that they sleep 20 hours a day. Another supporting detail is that algae grows on their fur because they move so slowly and sleep so much.”

 

8. Say: “Now, let’s continue to pick out the important pieces of information from the rest of this sloth article. I want you to go through and read each paragraph to yourself. Summarize it the best that you can, highlighting the important parts and crossing out anything you think isn’t important to the main idea.”

 

9. [Walk around the classroom] Say: “Everyone’s study cards are looking excellent! Once you’ve read the entire article and have written down the main ideas along with supporting details, I want you to write a very brief summary of the article. At the bottom of the article, I would like for you to write any vocabulary words that are new or unfamiliar to you that you learned from the article. Then, write a sentence for each new word you learned. For example, let’s take a look at the word algae. Algae are groups of green, aquatic, eukaryotic organisms. So if I were trying to write a sentence with that word I would say, “There is a large amount of algae on the surface of that pond.”

 

Some possible vocabulary words:

-predators

-vertebrae

-species

-identified

-slugger

 

 

 

Assessment: To conclude the lesson, students will be assessed on how well they completed his or her summaries. I will use this scoring rubric to grade the summaries for correct, adequate information:

 

In his or her summary, did the student…

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-Remove trivial information? YES/NO

-Write a topic sentence? YES/NO

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

-Select key information from the article? YES/NO

-Choose the correct main topic for this article? YES/NO

-List any new vocabulary words/definitions at the end? YES/NO

 

 

I will also ask the students a series of comprehension questions to see if they read and understood the article:

 

-What part of the world can sloths be found? (Tropical forests, Central and South America)

-How many species of sloths are there? (two)

-What is the difference between the species? (the number of toes; two and three)

-What is unique about the facial coloring of three-toed sloths? (makes them look like they are smiling)

-What allows three-toed sloths to be able to turn their heads almost all the way around? (two extra neck vertebrae)

-What are some predators that hunt sloths? (hawks and cats)

-What do sloths do when caught by a predator? (bite, hiss, slash with claws, shriek)

 

 

 

References:

SUMMARIZING SLOTHS

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