Reading to Learn (RL) Design:

Roaring into Summarization

Rationale:

The main goal in reading is comprehension. Once students are able to comprehend the text they read, they can begin learning how to better understand what they read. This lesson will introduce the definition and strategies of summarization. The “about-point strategy is very effective and will be used during this lesson. Two critical questions this strategy focuses on about the text include: “what is it about?” which helps the students figure out the subject of the text to be used in the summary, and “what is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” which encourages students to pull out important parts of the text. Asking these questions may be difficult for students at first, but it will teach them how to identify important information and develop higher level thinking and comprehension skills.

Materials:

Individual copies of ‘Lion,’ pencil and primary paper for each student, summarization checklist, Lion quiz, dry erase board and expo marker, and primary paper, construction paper, markers.

Procedures:

1. Say- “have you ever had something very exciting happen to you or been somewhere fun that you were so excited to tell your friends about? When you tell your friends about your memory and shorten it and make a more simplified version you are actually summarizing. You have been summarizing and did not even realize it! Summarization is a strategy readers use when they pull important pieces of the text which is called a summary. They do this to be able to comprehend the text better. Summaries are so important because it is very hard for us to remember every single detail in a book or story that we read.

2. Say- “We can learn to summarize text by using a strategy called about-point. When you use about-point, you will ask yourself two different questions after you read.”Write the questions on the board for the students to see. “First you will answer this question: ‘what is the text about?’ and then you will answer this question: ‘What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?’ This second question will help you use critical thinking skills to identify the most important parts in the text. To find the important points, you must look for, find and take away the ‘fluff’ that you do not need for the summary. It really helps to cross it out as you read so you will not go back to it and you can stay organized. When you answer these questions, you will be able to build your summary and have a great first topic sentence!”

3. Say- “I have an article called ‘Lion’ that you will read first independently and once we do that, we will read it together outloud and then we will practice the about-point strategy with a short paragraph before you try one on your own. Have any of you ever seen a lion before? Perhaps at the zoo? Did anyone know they are the second largest cat in the world? Wow! We are going to learn more about Lions in today’s lesson.”

4. Say- “Now, let’s look at a paragraph from the article together: ‘Living in the grasslands, scrub, and open woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa, the lion is the second largest cat in the world. It is dwarfed slightly by the tiger, which is closely related and has a very similar body type.’ This paragraph introduces the lion and talks about where it lives and even talks about how big they are, but what is the most important thing you noticed? Normally, you would think that lions are the biggest cat, but they are actually a close second. Do you think I can form a topic sentence about Lions from this information? Yes, I can! Let’s write ‘Lions are animals from Africa that are very large. They are the second largest cat!” [Instruct students to write this topic sentence on their primary paper]

5. Say- “Now, it is your turn to try about-point by yourself! Read these sentences: ‘Unlike other cats, lions are very social animals. They live in groups, called prides, of around 30 lions. A pride consists of up to three males, a dozen related females, and their young. The size of the pride is determined by the availability of food and water. If resources are scarce, the pride becomes smaller. Pride members keep track of one another by roaring. Both males and females have a very powerful roar that can be heard up to 8 km (5 mi.) away.’

6. After they are done reading ask them- “What is this paragraph about? Good, the lions are very social animals! What is something important about their prides? Yes, they keep track of one another by roaring! What is another point? Yes, each pride has around 30 lions. Great Job. Now let’s try to make a topic sentence with this information on our own and write it on a page of primary paper.” [give students a couple of minutes to come up with their topic sentences.]

7. Say- “Now that everyone has had the time to write their own topic sentences, how about we all share our sentences!” [allow the students to share and ask one student to volunteer to write their sentence on the white board and approve of it or help them fix it and explain why it’s right or why you fixed certain things.]

8. Say- “Now, I would like you to make a topic sentence of the rest of the paragraphs in the article using the about-point strategy. After you are finished with this you should have a great summary about lions. With the summary you will be able to remember the most important details about what you read today about lions. Remember that you should always answer both questions in about-point to make your topic sentences for each paragraph. If you need to, the questions are on the board for you to refer back to. Don’t forget that you should summarize using your own words, you can throw out the “fluff”, and only choose the important details. When you are done with this, put all of your sentences together on your lined primary paper to put your summary together, then illustrate your own lion on a piece of construction paper with markers! When you're done putting your summary together, turn your primary paper and lion drawing to me!”

9. Teacher instructions: look over each student’s submission to ensure they grasped the concept of summarization by using the checklist below to grade. Students will also take a short quiz while you are grading to make ensure they understood the article as a whole.

10. After the quiz allow all of the students to share their favorite fact they learned and hang up their writings and illustrations.

References:

Mackenzie Day, Waddling into Summarization:

https://mackenzieala.wixsite.com/lessondesigns/rl-design

Article: P.A. Smith. ‘Lion’. https://animalfactguide.com/animal-facts/lion/

Checklist:

Student Name: ________________

1. ______ Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph

2. ______ Excluded unimportant or repetitive information

3. ______ Significantly reduced the text from original to form summary

4. ______ Identified important points

5. ______ Successfully conjoined the important points to form a topic sentence