Swimming in Summarization

Reading to Learn Lesson

Katherine Moss

Rationale:

After working on becoming a more fluent reader, it is important that we learn summarization skills. When we summarize, we take all the main ideas and important details out of the texts we read. This way we can easily recap what we just read and explain it to someone in simpler, shorter terms. This lesson will teach students how to pick out the important main ideas and details in a long text and summarize it. Then students will be able to demonstrate their comprehension and understanding of the whole text.

Materials:

• White board and dry erase markers
• Paper
• Pencil
• Highlighters
• Individual copies of the article “Facts About Clownfish”
  • https://www.livescience.com/55399-clownfish.html
• Summarization checklist written on the board
  • I have written my topic sentence, including the main idea.
  • I have picked out details that support the main idea.
  • I have crossed out details that are unimportant or do not support the main idea.
  • I have an ‘umbrella term’ for the passage.
  • I have written 3-5 sentences summarizing the article.

Procedures:

1. Say: “Today in class we are going to learn about summarization. Can anyone tell me what they think summarization might mean? *pause for students to think and respond* Those were all great answers! When we summarize, we read a piece of text and then pull out only the main idea and the most important details. This helps shrink the article down so that we can comprehend and understand it better. We are going to practice summarizing today by reading an article and then writing our own short summary on it.”
2. Say: “Before we can look at our article, we need to know what to look for when we are summarizing. I am going to write some important reminders on the board, so that we all know what to look for when we are summarizing.” Write on whiteboard:

a. Highlight the important details

b. Cross out the small, or unimportant details

c. Figure out an ‘umbrella term’ that connects all your important details

1. Say: “Now that we know what we are looking for, look over here at the summarization checklist.” *give time for students to look at and read the checklist* “Refer back to this checklist when you are summarizing the article to make sure you have answered all the questions.
2. *Hand out the article “Facts About Clownfish” to the class* Say: “Everyone look at the article that I just passed out, what do you think it is about based on the title?” *Wait for students to respond* “Exactly! It is about clownfish. I am going to read the first part with you all to start us off in the right direction.”
3. After reading the first part of the article, say: “Can anyone try and summarize the part we just read?” *wait for students to answer* “Good job! Did you guys all highlight the important details and main points? Look at mine to see if they match up.”
4. Say: “In the section that says “False clownfish live in the coral reefs off the coasts of Australia and Southeast Asia as far north as southern Japan. They are found mainly around certain kinds of anemones, a creature that anchors itself to the seafloor and uses its tentacles to attract food. The anemone's tentacles have stinging cells called nematocysts that release a toxin when prey or predator touches it”, I highlighted ‘coral reefs in Australia and Southeast Asia’, ‘anemones’ and its definition, and ‘stinging cells called nematocysts’.
5. Say: “You’ll notice that the first sentence talks about the living environment of clownfish, and then the rest of the section tells us more details about their living environment. I crossed out all the unimportant words.”
6. Say: “Before we move on, and I let you all summarize on your own, let’s go over some vocab terms that we will need to be familiar with. One word is dominant. Does anyone know what dominant means? *wait for student responses* Good job! Dominant means most powerful or important. The sentence containing this word says: “These social fish live in groups led by one dominant female”. This sentence teaches us that a group of clownfish is has a female leader. Dominant does not always mean “in charge”, it just means powerful, important, and influential. Help me finish this sentence: “One of the most dominant countries in the world is ______” . Other vocab words to go over: toxins, confines, endangered. Say: “Ok! Let’s keep reading to find out more about clownfish!”
7. Say: “We read the first section of the article together, so now I want you all to finish reading the article and then write a short summarization to turn in. Remember to refer back to the summarization checklist on the board, so you know what to look for and what to write down! When you are done highlighting, crossing out, and writing, come turn your papers in at my desk. I will then hand you a quick comprehension quiz.”
8. Walk around as students are writing their summaries and answer any questions students may have.

Comprehension quiz questions:

1. What color are clownfish? Orange
2. What do clownfish live in? Sea anemone
3. What do clownfish eat? Plants and meat
4. Does a female or male clownfish do most of the “egg sitting”? Male

References:

Clownfish article: https://www.livescience.com/55399-clownfish.html

Caroline Horton, “Summarizing in the Sea”: https://carolinehorton21.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn

Kallie Basden, “Swimming in Summarization”: https://kab0077.wixsite.com/kalliebasdenslessons/more

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