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Swimming into Summarization with Sharks

A Reading to Learn Lesson

 

Rationale: Upon learning to read with fluency, students learn to read comprehensively. This way, they can completely absorb the message of a text. In other words, kids must learn to read to learn. This lesson about summarization demonstrates one effective way in which students can eliminate trivial information in a text, summarizing that text by leaving only the most important facts.

 

Materials: Large Index Cards, notebook paper, Pencils, Highlighters or colored pens, hole punch, thin ribbon or string, Dry Erase Board, Dry Erase markers, overhead projector, pre-printed articles about sharks ("Shark Attacks!"), grading rubric

 

Procedures:

 

1. Say, “who knows what it means to summarize?” Take a few answers from the class. Then say, “summarizing happens when you state ONLY the important information and get rid of the trivial or redundant information (take care to explain the terms ‘trivial’ and ‘redundant’). Today we will practice summarizing using two articles about sharks. We will focus on the main idea, the facts that supported the main idea, and the trivial or redundant information that we should remove.”

 

2. Pass around a stack of large index cards (pre-hole-punched with three holes along the top of each card) and instruct each student to take 3 of them. Then have each student come to the front of the class to choose one long piece of colored ribbon or string. Instruct students to cut ribbon into three pieces of equal length. Say, “Now, follow my instructions. We are going to make a booklet of our index cards. Place the three cards in a neat stack and line up the holes. Tie each piece of your colored ribbon or string through one hole and knot the string so that it holds your cards together. We will use this booklet as a study buddy when we are writing summaries.”

 

3. Explain the steps of summarization to students: “First, we decide what the most important details are. Then, we highlight or underline them. Second, we find the redundant details that are not important and we cross them out. Finally, we organize the important details. The main idea of what we are reading should be supported by those details. By doing all of these things we have summarized, or, we have squeezed together everything important that happens in the paragraph into one short paragraph. Let’s write these steps together in our study booklet.” Have students write each step on one of the index cards in their booklets. As the class works on writing each step in the booklets, call on students around the room to recall the steps. Also be sure to discuss in detail each step as you instruct the children to write. Say, “take notes about each step on each card. On the back of your last index card, write special facts you should remember about summarizing, like, summaries will always be shorter in length than the information you are summarizing!”

 

4. Pass out class set of article entitled “Shark Attacks!” from the Discovery Kids website. Say, “Let’s read an article about sharks, now! Many sharks have special characteristics that make them very interesting ocean dwellers. Let’s talk about what makes sharks special.  Let’s start by reading the first couple of paragraphs together.” When finished reading the first 2-3 paragraphs, help students practice summarizing the article’s first two sentences by displaying the article with the overhead projector and talking about the projection.

 

5. Say, “the first two sentences read, ‘shark teeth are popular and often inexpensive beach souvenirs. Sharks shed their teeth constantly, and once one falls to the ocean floor, it’s quickly covered with sand.’ What’s the main idea?” Tell students that the main idea usually relates the title of the article and is often mentioned many times throughout the article. Ask students to tell you what they think is the main idea. Say, “Awesome job! The message this part of the article is trying to give us is that because sharks lose their teeth all the time, people like to buy those teeth from people who have scooped them off the ocean floor.” Be sure to model for students highlighting all of the important information related to this. Say, “we when are referencing this article we need to include every bit of information, but since we are summarizing, we only need the important stuff. Let’s cross out what isn’t important.” Make sure students are aware they may write on the article itself.

 

6. Tell students to finish reading the article independently. Say, “use your study booklets to summarize everything you can. Highlight the important parts and the supporting details, then cross out unimportant details! It might help to highlight and underline in different colors.”

 

7. Say, “Once you’ve read the whole article and highlighted and underlined the main ideas and supporting details, please write a brief summary of the article on a piece of notebook paper. At the bottom of your summary, write down any new vocabulary words you learned and tell me what they mean. Write a sentence using each new vocabulary word. For example, in the eight paragraph of this article, we read the word ‘ravenous.’ You could write a sentence using ravenous like this: ‘After the dog had traveled many miles without eating, he was ravenous.’”

 

Assessment:

 

Asses students by reviewing their summaries using a scoring rubric. Students should include pertinent main ideas and supporting details in their summaries.  Students’ comprehension is assessed by asking them a series of comprehension questions.

Rubric:

      Did the student remove/cross out trivial information from the article?

      Did the student write an appropriate topic sentence?

      Did the student write 3-5 good, concise sentences?

      Did the student select key information from the article?

      Did the student choose the correct main idea/topic for the article?

      Did the student list new vocabulary words and their definitions/sentences at the end of the summary?

 

 

Comprehension Questions:

1. What is contained in sharks’ livers’ to keep the organ buoyant? 

2. How can you fend off a shark during an attack?

3. What three types of sharks are most likely to attack humans?

4. Where do most shark attacks occur?

5. How many miles can a shark travel in one day?

6. Are sharks or humans the more frequent predators?

 

References:

 

Discovery Kids. “Shark Attacks!” http://discoverykids.com/articles/shark-attacks/

 

Stone, Mallie. “Summarization Station.” http://mvs0002.wix.com/msstonesstudies#!reading-to-learn/ck5r

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