Ms. Stewart's Lesson Designs

“Jumping into Summarization!”
Reading to Learn Design | Sara Stewart
Rationale: Summarization is an important strategy for students when comprehending text. An effective way of summarizing is called about-point, which asks two critical questions about the text: 1) What is the text about? This is usually an easy question, and it identifies the topic that becomes the subject of the topic sentence. 2) What is the main point the writer is making about that topic? This is a more challenging question. Many times, there are several points and the reader must find the most important point. The main point becomes the predicate of the topic sentence.
Materials: Individual copies of an article written for kids on the life cycle of the frog from www.natgeokids.com (URL below), pencil and paper for each student, summarization checklist, and comprehension quiz (below).
Procedures:
1. Explain to children why summarization is important: “Today we are going to learn how to summarize an article we read! This means that we are going to create a shorter version of what we read to help us comprehend the material. Good readers don’t try to remember everything, but instead, the just the key points the author made. Today we will focus on what the main idea is, what facts will support the main idea, and the information we can take with us.”
2. Say: “One of the best ways to summarize is called about-point. When using this strategy, ask yourself ‘What is the text about?’ and ‘What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?’ In order to answer the second question, you have to think of an umbrella term to connect all the important points the writer is telling you.”
3. Say: “In a few short minutes I’m going to show you how I’d do about-point with an article on the life cycle of the frog, which is the article you are going to be reading today. Do you know what a baby frog is called? Do you know if frogs live in the water or land? When are frogs born? These are some of the questions you will be learning to answer today.
4. Say: “Have you ever seen a frog in nature and wondered ‘How did you get here?’. Well today, we will be learning all the steps to how a baby frog becomes an adult frog.”
6. Say: “Now I want you to use about-point on a paragraph:
‘It all starts with adult frogs laying hundreds of tiny eggs, which clump together in groups known as frogspawn. This happens in early spring, when the weather is just starting to get warmer. Spotting frogspawn is often thought of as being a key sign of spring!
You can hunt for frogspawn in shallow, still water – a garden pond, for example! As the eggs are defenceless, they’re usually laid among vegetation and just below the surface of the water, to give them some protection.’
What’s this paragraph about? Exactly, the first stage of the frog's life is when they are eggs. What are the main points the author is making about frogs? Correct, eggs are laid in springtime in the grass near the water.”
7. Say: “Now please finish reading the article and use about-point to make a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, you will have made a good summary of the article and remember the important facts about frogs. As a reminder, when you are shortening the article, only pick out the important information. Also, remember to write in your own words. Once everyone is finished, we will have a short quiz.”
Assessment: Collect each student’s summary of the article, and evaluate the summarization using the following checklist:
__ Collected important information
__ Ignored trivia and examples in summary.
__ Reduced the text from the original
__ Used an idea from each paragraph
__ Summary is organized into a paragraph
Quiz:
1. What was the article about?
2. What are a group of eggs that clump together known as?
3. What are the frogs called in stage 2?
4. What stage do frogs become adult frogs?
References:
Caroline Dean, Surprise! Let’s Summarize!
https://deancaroline4.wixsite.com/teachingfluency/reading-to-learn
The Frog Life Cycle. 31 Mar. 2021, www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/science/nature/frog-life-cycle/.
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