Rationale:
The main goal in reading any text is comprehension. Once students are able to comprehend what they read, they can begin learning how to better understand it. 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 identify 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 Bunny Rabbit Facts for Kids
-
Pencil and primary paper for each student
-
Rabbit quiz
-
Dry-erase board and expo marker for teacher/students
-
Construction paper and 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 someone about? When you tell someone about your memory and shorten it, 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 to find the main idea, 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 of 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 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 “Bunny Rabbit Facts for Kids” that you will read first independently and once we do that, we will read it together aloud. 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 rabbit before? Maybe in an open field? Did anyone know that their teeth are always growing and just get worn down as they eat? Wow! We are going to learn more about rabbits in today’s lesson.”
4. Say- “Now, let’s look at a paragraph from the article together: ‘Rabbits are social animals and live in groups called colonies. A colony is a group of animals who usually live, eat and travel together. All rabbits except the Cottontail Rabbits live in underground burrows. A burrow is an underground hole or tunnel that an animal digs. Rabbits usually don’t dig their burrow but move into one another animal has abandoned.’ This paragraph talks about where a rabbit sleeps and even talks about how they find their places to sleep, but what is the most important thing you noticed? Now, you would think a rabbit would live above ground, but they actually live underground. Do you think I can form a topic sentence about rabbits from this information? Yes, I can! Let’s write ‘rabbits are animals that live in colonies who do almost everything together. They even live underground in burrow holes!” [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: ‘Rabbits are one the most recognizable animals. They have small furry bodies with long furry ears and long hind legs. They have short round tails that look similar to cotton balls.
Rabbits come in a variety of colors including greys, browns, white and black. Most wild rabbits are brown. A rabbit has 28 teeth. Their teeth never stop growing. To keep their teeth short, rabbits chew on branches and twigs.’
6. After they are done reading ask them- “What is this paragraph about? Good, the rabbits are very special animals! What is something important about their ears and legs? Yes,they are both said to be very long and furry. What is another point? Yes, a rabbit has 28 teeth. 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. Ask one student to volunteer to write their sentence on the whiteboard 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 for 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 rabbits. With the summary, you will be able to remember the most important details about what you read today about rabbits. 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 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 paper to put your summary together. At the end, illustrate your own rabbit on a piece of construction paper with markers! When you're done putting your summary together, turn your primary paper and rabbit 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 facts they learned and hang up their writings and illustrations.
Quiz:
1. Where do rabbits sleep?
2. What are the Rabbit groups called?
3. Put the number of teeth a Rabbits has.
4. Where do rabbits sweat?
5. True or False: There is a difference between a rabbit and a hare.
Resources:
Soaring into Summarization by Claire Smith
Click here to return to the Invitations index