Rationale: Knowing how to read is key in all aspects of learning. Learning entails reading and understanding a message behind information. Summarization is an important technique when one begins to read to learn. Summarization means reading a text and deciding which parts are important and which parts are less important. By doing this you will be able to summarize or give a general description of the text that was read. This lesson will help students learn and practice deciding which parts of a text are important to the main idea, summarize the text, and be able to discuss what they read. 

 

Materials:

-Individual copies of “Mission-Ready”  Times for Kids article

- Marker Board and Markers

- Individual handout of summarization rules

-Overhead projector

-Comprehension Questions Handout

 

Procedure:

1. Say: “Today we are going to learn about summarization. Summarization is a strategy used to pick out the important parts of a text you read and be able to create a general description of that text. Have you ever read a really interesting book and wanted to tell your friend what it was about? I’m sure you didn't repeat the whole story word for word right? ( allow class response) You probably told them only the important parts of that story right? (allow class response) Well guess what! You summarized that story to tell your friend!”

 

2. Say: “To be able to summarize we need to follow a few rules. ( pass out individual rules handout) Rule number one says to delete any information that we do not think is needed in our summary. Rule number two says that we need to read through and delete information that has been repeated. Rule number three says we need to replace lists of items with easier terms and come up with a topic sentence to begin writing the summary. Rule number four says we need to order the important events. Today, we are going to use these four rules to practice writing summaries.”

 

3.  Say: “To practice, we are going to read an interesting article about an astronaut who is going on a space mission.( pass out individual handouts). There are a few words in this article that you may not know the meaning of such as:  spectacular (write on board) which means very impressive. (Read whole article together as a class and talk about other unknown vocabulary words)  To start, I am going to help you decide the important parts in one of the paragraphs. ( display paragraph on overhead). Paragraph: “We are training every day,” Arnold told TFK. “No days are alike.” Arnold is a former science teacher. He has been to space before. But his last mission lasted only 12 days. “We are going to be up there for six months,” he says. “Things can change rapidly. We need to be prepared.”  ( Read paragraph aloud) In this paragraph, I think we can leave out that Arnold was a former science teacher, that is just an interesting fact thrown in. We can also leave out how long his last mission was. My new paragraph would look like: Experienced astronaut, Arnold is training every day for his six month long, unpredictable mission to space. Do you understand how I shortened the paragraph and used just the important parts? (allow time for questions) 

 

4. Say: Now I want you to read the next paragraph to yourself and then work with your reading buddy to practice summarizing the next paragraph. I want you to underline information you think are important to the main idea and cross out information you think is less important and replace information. Use what you und your partner underlined to create a summary of that paragraph. Once you all have finished we will share some of your summaries with the class.  Use the questions on the back of your summary rules handout to help you with this task!” 

 

Questions to ask yourself:

                                            -What is the main idea?

                                      -What things do I need to circle?

                                            -What can I cross out?

                                     -What are words that I don’t know?

                      -What are some important details that I need to know?

 

5.Say: “ You guys are doing a great job! Now that you have practiced summarizing with me and your reading buddies, I want you to try out your summarizing skills on your own!  If you get stuck, remember to look at your handout checklist questions. If you still need help, feel free to ask me! I will be walking around the room as you work.” 

 

Assesment: Have the students turn in their individual summaries and check their understanding of summarization. Also provide a handout with comprehension questions about the article. Help students individually if they appear to be struggling with summarization. 

Assessment Checklist: 

- Did the student pick out the important ideas of the text?

-Did the student grasp the idea of summarization?

- Did the student correctly answer comprehension questions? 

 

 

References: 

-Lesson design: https://courtneyslessondesigns.weebly.com/reading-to-learn.html 

- Article: https://www.timeforkids.com/g34/mission-ready-2/ 

- Comprehension Questions Handout: https://timeforkids-com.go-vip.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/tg34_120817_cover-quiz2.pdf