Reading to Learn

Leaping into Summarization

Katherine Hope Youngblood

Rationale: It is important that students begin to comprehend information while reading. During this lesson, students will learn to summarize. Summarization can reveal whether a student has fully grasped the importance of the reading they were given. Students will learn how to delete trivial and redundant information in an article about Kangaroo’s. They also will learn how to use important information to make a summary.

Materials: Class set of “Kangaroo” by Kids National Geographic; poster with the rules of summarization on it; assessment chart for each student (for teachers use); marker set for each student; lined notebook paper for each student; Elmo projector

Procedures:

1. Teacher says: Have you ever read a book that was so good that you had to tell everyone about it? When you told a person about the book, did you read the whole book to them? (Call on student). That’s right! We don’t usually read them the whole book. We just tell them the important things from the book. When you give someone the important parts of a story, it is called a summary. Summarization is a helpful strategy good readers use to help comprehend or understand what you are reading. If you can summarize a book or article, it is a good indication that you are able to understand what you’ve read.

2. Before we continue learning about summarization, let’s review what we have already learned about Kangaroo’s this week. Yesterday we talked about where most kangaroos are found. Who remembers? (call on student). That’s right! Australia! Where do the mommy Kangaroos keep their babies? (call on student) That’s right! In their pouch. How do Kangaroos defend themselves. (Call on student.) Good job! They have a very powerful kick. I wouldn’t want to get in a fight with a Kangaroo, that’s for sure!!

3. I’m so impressed with how much each of you remembered about Kangaroos! Now, let's talk more about summarization. Everybody take out a marker and a sheet of paper. Turn your paper horizontal, like a hot dog, and divide it into three different columns. Okay, now let's look at our "Rules of Summarizing" poster. Who can read me what the first rule of summarizing is? (Call on student). Yes, the first rule of summarizing is to delete the unimportant, or trivial information. We don’t want to keep any repeated information. Everybody write this rule at the top of the first column on your piece of paper. It can be very helpful to cross out important information if you can mark on the article you are reading, but you are reading in a book you will probably have to make a mental note that certain parts may not be as important as others. This will help you to understand the message the author is trying to tell you. Let's look at the second rule. The second rule is to find the important information. Everybody write this rule at the top of the second column. When you find something that is important in the book or article you are reading, underline or highlight the sentence so that you can go back and remember that it must be important. The final rule of summarization is to make a topic sentence. Everybody write this rule at the top of the third column on your paper. Making a topic sentence can be very challenging because most texts don't have topic sentences incorporated. A topic sentence combines all of the important information in a short, condensed way so that you are able to summarize and comprehend the paragraph you read.

4. Teacher says: Now we are going to practice summarizing with an article called "Kangaroo". Have any of you seen a kangaroo at a zoo before? I have! They are one of my favorite animals to look for when I go to any zoo. According to this article, Kangaroos can jump really high! Have you ever wondered just how high a kangaroo can jump? Let’s look at the first paragraph of this article to find out.

“Kangaroos possess powerful hind legs, a long, strong tail, and small front legs. Kangaroos belong to the animal family Macropus, literally "big foot." Thanks to their large feet, kangaroos can leap some 30 feet (9 meters) in a single bound, and travel more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) per hour. Kangaroos use their strong tails for balance while jumping. They are the tallest of all marsupials, standing over 6 feet (2 meters) tall."

5. Before we start to summarize this paragraph let’s go over some vocabulary. What does “possess” mean? It means a quality that something has. Possess does not mean that you lack something. Here is a sentence: Jenifer possess a great attitude. Larger ears, big teeth, and a long tail are all thing that a mouse ______ ? That’s right! Possesses! Our last vocabulary word is bound. Bound in this context is just another word for jump. Here is bound in a sentence: I watched the frog bound across the yard. The bunny likes to _____ around on Easter. That’s right! Possesses. Ok let’s get started. Everybody watch me as I use my rules to summarize this paragraph. (Pull out a pre-made copy of the 3 columns on paper). Let's look at the first sentence: “Kangaroos possess powerful hind legs, a long, strong tail, and small front legs.” Do we think it is important that kangaroos have powerful hind legs? I would say yes, because it helps the kangaroo jump high. It’s also important that they have long, strong tails. I am going to write that part of sentence one under my second column of important information. However, I don’t think it’s very important to this paragraph that kangaroos have small front legs. Let’s put that in our first column of unimportant information. The second sentences says, “Kangaroos belong to the animal family Macropus, literally "big foot.” This is good information but I don’t think we need it to understand the paragraph. Let’s put it in our first column. The third sentence is, “Thanks to their large feet, kangaroos can leap some 30 feet (9 meters) in a single bound, and travel more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) per hour.” I would say it is important that kangaroos have large feet, can leap 30 feet in a sing bound. Let’s put that information in our second column. Kangaroos being able to run fast is a fun fact but it has nothing to do with their jumping so let’s put that in the first column. The fourth and fifth sentence says, “Kangaroos use their strong tails for balance while jumping. They are the tallest of all marsupials, standing over 6 feet (2 meters) tall." I think it’s important that the kangaroos use their tails for balance while jumping. Let’s put that in our second column. As for the fifth sentence, although that’s a cool fact, I don’t think it’s important for our understanding of the paragraph. Let’s put it in the first column.

6. Now that we have finished the first paragraph let's try and see if we can come up with a topic sentence. Remember, a topic sentence is one sentence that explains what the whole paragraph is talking about. I am going to look at the parts I have in my column 2 for the important information I wrote down. Look at your second column to see what important information that we wrote down. I have that “Kangaroos possess powerful hind leg and a long, strong tail. Kangaroos have large feet, can leap 30 feet in a sing bound. Kangaroos use their tails for balance while jumping." I would make this a topic sentence by saying: Kangaroos’ powerful and large hind legs help them leap 30 feet in a single bound, and their long, strong tails help them balance while jumping. Now I have all my important information in one sentence, and this is a summary of the paragraph I was reading. Does anybody have any questions?

7. Now, I am going to let you summarize each of the remaining paragraphs. Remember to use your paper with the columns to help you break up the information. You can also look at our summarizing poster as well if you need help! Come up with one topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, I want you to staple the article to your paper with your columns, and turn it in to me.

8. Assessment: I will review each student's column chart to determine if they could successfully summarize the different paragraphs. I will use the assessment checklist to record each child's grade. Topic sentences may vary slightly, but I will be looking to see if they child included the important information in each.

Comprehension Questions:

1. Where do Kangaroos live?

2. What do Kangaroos do when threatened?

3. What are some dangers a Kangaroo may face?

Assessment Checklist:

Student Name: ___________________________

1. Did the student fill out the chart on his/her paper?

2.Did the students come up with topic sentences for the remaining paragraphs?

3.Did the student successfully delete unimportant/redundant information?

4.Did the student successfully identify important parts?

5.Did the student use the important information to come up with topic sentence?

References:

Kangaroo by Kids National Geographic http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/kangaroo/#kangaroo-group.jpg

Margaret Anne Logan- Going Nuts for Summarization https://sites.google.com/site/margaretannesamazinglessons/going-nuts-for-summarization

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