Rationale:

The ultimate goal of reading is achieving reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand a text that was just read. In order to become skilled readers, we must be able to process a text, and a helpful strategy to do this would be through summarization. To summarize, means to gather up the main points and gather an understanding from those points. In this lesson, students will summarize a passage by highlighting the important information, crossing out the unnecessary information, and describing the passage in a few sentences.

Materials:

• Individual copies of the National Geographic Kids article about Tundra Swan: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/tundra-swan/#tundra-swan-group-lake-swim.jpg

• Dry-erase marker/white board (To write summarization steps)

• Thick Sharpie poster marker & highlighter (for teacher)

• Paragraph 1 from article to summarize with class

• Highlighters (one for each student)

• Pencils (one for each student)

• Notebook Paper

• Summarization checklist (For teacher’s use- one for each student; see bottom of page)

• Comprehension quiz (one for each student; see bottom of page)

Procedure:

1. Say: “Has anyone read such a good book or article that they wanted to tell their friends and family about it? (Wait for response). Great, me too! I love talking about what I just read, because it helps me understand the content and I think it’s super interesting to share. But when I do this, I don’t tell them word-for-word what I read. Do you? (Wait for response). I didn’t think so. The process of understanding a text and talking about the key points is called summarizing. Good readers summarize to help them comprehend a text as well as share the information they just read.”

2. Say: “Three rules that can help us remember how to summarize are: (Handout individual pieces of paper for students to copy down the three rules)

   1. Cross out any unimportant or repeated information that isn’t essential to the message of the text.

   2. Find and highlight the important information that is essential to the text.

   3. Form a topic sentence from the important information you highlighted.

     Now that we have those rules written down, you can refer back to them when we practice summarizing our article in the next few minutes.”

  3. Say: “The article we will be summarizing today is from National Geographic on the Tundra Swan. (Handout individual copies of the article            and present book talk). Has anyone ever heard of a Tundra Swan? Do you all think that Tundra Swans are fast? What do you think Tundra              Swans diet consists of? We are going to have to read our article to find out!”

  4. Say: “To get us started on summarizing, we are going to do one of the paragraphs together as a class. But before we do this, let’s go over s          some of the vocabulary in the text. Reviewing vocabulary is important before reading a text because part of being a good reader is having            reading comprehension.”

(For each unknown vocabulary word:

• Explain the word in simple language

• Model how to use the word: what does or doesn’t it mean

• Provide sample questions using the word

• Scaffold by making a sentence using the word for students to complete.)

Example:

Words- solitary, incubate, migrate, pondweed

• Incubate is when a bird sits on their eggs to keep them warm to bring them to hatching.

• Eggs must be warm in order for them to hatch, which is why mother birds must incubate their eggs. When a mother leaves her eggs alone, they become cold because they are not being incubated.  

• Before baby tigers are born, do they go through incubation?

• Bird eggs go through incubation to… (keep their eggs warm for hatching).​​

   5. Say: “Now that we have reviewed vocabulary from the text we are able to begin summarizing our text. Like I said earlier, we will do one of           the paragraphs together and then each of you will read the article on your own summarizing the important points. As we are doing this, don’t        forget to refer back to the three steps we wrote down earlier.”

   6. Say: “I want everyone to read the first paragraph. (Wait for children to read the first paragraph- while they are reading, pass out pencils and        highlighters for them to follow along with). Can anyone tell me what the first thing we should do to begin summarizing this article? (Wait for          response). Correct, we are going to cross out any unimportant or repeated information that isn’t essential to the message of the text. So let’s            cross out the third sentence in this paragraph. The second thing we must do is find and highlight the important information that is essential to          the text. I think we should highlight sentence one and two because it is important information on the Tundra Swan.

 

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     The last thing I will do is form a topic sentence from the important information we highlighted. (Write topic sentence on board): Baby Tundra           Swans have fluffy feathers to keep them warm in their cold environment.”

  7. Say: “Now that we have a better understanding on how to summarize, I want you all to read the article and use the summarization rules on t        the third paragraph. (Wait for students to read and complete the three rules). Now let’s look what we need to cross out. I think we should cross        out the first sentence. The last three sentences should be highlighted because they are important information for the paragraph. With these              highlights we are able to come up with a topic sentence: Tundra Swans lay their eggs in wetlands because they contain moss, grasses, and            sticks for their nests.”

 

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  8. Say: “We have now successfully summarized two out of the six paragraphs of this article. I would now like you to finish reading and                    summarizing the article using your summarization rules. I would like for you to cross out any unnecessary information and highlight important        information on your handout, but write your topic sentences on a notebook sheet of paper (Pass out notebook paper). You should write a topic        sentence for each paragraph. Once you have finished this, you should have a good understanding on the important information on Tundra            Swans. Once everyone finishes crossing out, highlighting, and writing their topic sentences we will have a short quiz.”

  9. 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

______ Significantly reduced the text from the original

______ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph

______ Sentences organized coherently into essay form

  10. Quiz: (Pass out quiz to each student)

• Do Tundra Swans live in warm or cold environments? (Cold)

• Where do Tundra Swans make their nests near? (Wetlands)

• What do Tundra Swans mainly eat? (Plants/roots)   

• Are Tundra fast or slow? (Fast)

• Do Tundra Swans migrate? (Yes)

 

References:

Paula Anderson, Let’s Sea how to Summarize

http://pea0002.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn

 

Rachel King , Buzzing into Summarization

http://rackel201458.wixsite.com/ctrdlessons/reading-to-learn

 

Jackie Hoagan, Buzzing into Summaries

http://hoganjackie96.wixsite.com/mysite/-about

 

Article: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/tundra-swan/#tundra-swan-swimming-solitary.jpg