Reading to Learn

Rationale: Reading is the first step in learning. In order to comprehend long texts, students must practice their ability to summarize long texts. Reading comprehension is an important literacy goal because understanding the message is the reason, we read in the first place! When reading, it is important for students to be able to differentiate between important and unimportant information so that they can recall the main ideas of a passage. One summarization method is called the about-point method in which readers ask two questions from the text. Readers ask what the text is about and what the main point is. This causes readers to sort through the different points made in the text and find an umbrella term to put all of the author’s important points under. This is called subordinating the points.

This lesson will teach students how to pick out the important information in a long text, summarize the text, and then demonstrate their understanding of the whole text. This lesson is designed to test comprehension skills and help students summarize text without thinking about unimportant details.

 
Materials:

1. Pencil and paper for each student

2. “Great White Shark” National Geographic Kids article for each student

3. Assessment Checklist for each student (filled out by teacher) - attached at bottom 

4. Comprehension Quiz

 
Procedures:

1. Say: "Today we are going to work on summarizing a passage! Have you ever read a book and really wanted to tell your friend about it, but you didn’t want to read them the entire book? What did you do? [Allow students to respond] You only told them the main ideas, right? You couldn’t tell them every part of the story, so you just told them the important parts. Does anybody know what that’s called? [Allow students to respond] It’s called summarization! Summarizing books and stories is very helpful when we just want to give someone a brief idea of what we just read. It also helps you as the reader to understand what you just read! Since you are all fluent readers, you are all capable of learning this important comprehension skill Today we’re going to read an article about great white sharks and practice our summarization skills!"

2. Say: "Before we start reading our article, let’s see what we already know about great white sharks. Does anybody know any cool facts about great white sharks? [Allows children to respond; as students respond, record their responses on board in front of classroom] Great White Sharks are on their own as soon as they are born. How do you think sharks grow up? Let's read and find out!"

3. Say: "We’re going to write down the 3 rules of summarization. Our first rule is “delete”, we need to get rid of any unimportant information in the text. We need to decide which parts are important, and cross out ones that aren’t. When you’re reading a book, you’ll have to mentally “cross out” the unimportant words and read through and delete any information that is repeated anywhere in the text.  Our second rule of summarization is “substitute”. After we have deleted the unnecessary information and found the parts that we think are important, we want to shorten it a little bit. We’re going to substitute long parts into shorter parts. Our third and last rule of summarization is “create”. Once we get rid of the unimportant information and pick out the parts that are important, we need to create main idea sentences. One great strategy to summarize texts is called the about-point strategy. It is called about-point because the reader asks themselves first, what is the text about? And second, what is the main point the author is trying to make? You will have to find an umbrella term that encompasses all of the important points from the text.”

4. Say: "I’m going to help you summarize the first paragraph using the about-point strategy. So first we’re going to read the paragraph one time to figure out what it’s about. So let’s read about one of the whale’s that live in the ocean.  [Read out loud and have students follow along on their own sheet]

 

‘Six tons of pure power whacks an ice floe floating in cold Arctic waters. The seal lying on top of the ice doesn't stand a chance. Knocked into the sea, the seal becomes a meal for one of the ocean's top predators—the huge orca, or killer whale. Orcas hunt everything from fish to walruses, seals, sea lions, penguins, squid, sea turtles, sharks, and even other kinds of whales. Depending on the season and where they are, their diet varies—some orcas eat more fishes and squid than seals and penguins. But wherever they are in any of the world's oceans, average-sized orcas may eat about 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of food a day. Orcas have many hunting techniques, and bumping seals off ice is just one of them’.

 

First, we need to figure out what this paragraph is about. It is about the Orca, killer whale. What are some of thing main points in the paragraph? Killer whales are the oceans top predators, and hunt fish to walruses, seals, sea lions, penguins, squid, sea turtles, sharks, and even other kinds of whales in the ocean, and that they eat around 500 pounds of food a day and have several techniques to hunt. To summarize these and make a topic sentence, I can say, “Orca whales are one of the most dangerous animals in the sea due to their various hunting techniques and wide variety of options.”

 

5. Say: “Now that I have shown you this example, I want you to read this next paragraph, and we will work together to come up with a topic sentence using the about-point method. Here is the next paragraph of the article:

 

‘Often referred to as wolves of the sea, orcas live and hunt together in cooperative pods, or family groups, much like a pack of wolves. They work together as they hunt. Groups of orcas cooperate to herd fish into a compact area so that they're easier to eat. They will also slap their tails onto the water's surface, causing a wave to wash prey, such as penguins or sea lions, off ice floes and into the water. Sometimes a pod of whales will join forces to surround a larger animal, such as a blue whale. They chase, bite, and wear it down until it becomes a meal.’

 

[Allow the students time to read this paragraph from the board] What is this paragraph about? [Let students answer] Yes, this is about Orca groups . What key points is the author trying to make? [Let students answer] Great! This paragraph talks about how groups of Orcas work together for a meal by slapping their tails onto the water’s surface, or chasing an animal. How could we combine these ideas into a topic sentence for the paragraph?” [Wait for a response and use their answers to come up with a topic sentence like the following: Groups of Orcas called pods, can work together to hunt for a meal.]

6. Say: Before we read our new article about Great White Sharks, we need to go over some important vocabulary that we might not already know. What does the word pup mean? [Allow time for students response] Pup is the name for a baby shark. [Write word and definition on board so students can reference as needed]. Sometimes we call baby animals different things than their grown-up name. For example, a baby cow is a calf, and a baby deer is a fawn. Let’s use this word in a sentence. ‘A shark can have up to twenty pups at a time”. 

7. Say: “Okay now I want everyone to read the article silently to themselves, cross off the unimportant information, highlight the important information, and create main idea sentences for each paragraph! I’ll be walking around to make sure that you’re working and see if you need any help. Once you’re done, please record your steps of summarization and turn it in to me.Assessment: [Hand out comprehension quiz as students finish summarizing; as they turn in their chart and article, fill out the assessment checklist for each student to assess their summarization skills] –

______ Collected important information

______ Ignored trivia and examples in summary

______ Significantly reduced the text from the original

______ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph

______ Sentences organized coherently into essay form

 

Quiz:

1) Who takes care of baby sharks after they are born?

 2)How long are baby sharks at birth?

3)What do young Great White Sharks eat?

4) How do sharks use their tails to help them hunt?

5)How long can sharks go without eating after a meal?

 

References:

Orcas https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/orca/

Great White Sharks https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/great-white-shark/

Lolley, Julia. “Super Summarizers”. https://sites.google.com/site/myctrdlessons/home/reading-to-learn-super-summarizers

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