Rationale

Our goal for readers is to comprehend what they are reading so they can learn. Once students learn to read correctly and fluently, students can then move onto the next level. The next step is learning to read comprehensively to get the message of a text. In other words, children must learn to read to learn. Students must learn to find an umbrella term for the essential points made in the text. The key component of reading to learn is being able to summarize. Summarizing teaches students how to delete the information that is not needed and use a graphic organizer.

 

Materials

1. Pencil (1 per child)

2. Paper (1 per child)

3. Highlighter (1 per child)

4. Sheets of blank paper for trifold

5. Sheets of lined paper for summarizing articles

6. Copies of the article “Hummingbirds for Kids” by Hummingbird Guide

7. Rubric for grading summaries

Procedures

1. Say: “Today, we will be learning how to summarize the text in an article! Summarization is when you condense the information down to only what is important by deleting all the unimportant or repeated information. We will practice how to do this with an article. We will focus on the main idea, what facts support the main idea, and what information we can remove to make our understanding clearer. The main idea acts as an umbrella to the important details that tell us about the main idea.”

 

2. Say: “I’m going to pass around a stack of paper, and I want everyone to get one sheet. Watch me as I model how to fold this paper to make it into a trifold. First, take the paper and fold it over 1/3 of the page. Then with the remaining part of the paper, fold it behind the two parts. Your paper should be split into three sections: a title page, two middle pages, and a back page. Now you try, and I’ll come around and help you if you need. Now that everyone has made their trifold let’s talk about why we made our sheets of paper like this. We will be using this paper as a study card to help us make a summary. First, we need to know the steps to make a summary.”

• The 1st step in summarization is picking out the most important details and underlining or highlighting them.

• The 2nd step is finding the repeated details that are unimportant and crossing them out.

• The 3rd step is organizing the information you found in step one.

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4. Say: “Now, I want you to write these steps on the front page of your trifold. (Ask students to recall the steps to you as you have them write the steps out.) I want you to turn to the back page of your trifold and write down helpful tips to remember about summarizing. Here’s a tip: summaries should always be shorter in length than the information you are summarizing.”

 

5. Say: “To continue our learning on animals, I’m going to pass out an article now called “Hummingbirds for Kids.” Everyone should get a copy. This book is about the smallest and one of the fastest birds in the animal kingdom. Now, as we read the first section, ‘Where do hummingbirds live?’, let’s pick out any unimportant information in the article. For example, we don't have to know that Ornithologists group birds into families. Let’s cross that out. We also need to identify and locate important pieces of information. When it says, “They only live in North, South and Central America. We see them in our gardens and at our feeders.” we need to highlight the name of the countries that they live in. Let’s write this information on the left middle page of our trifold. The last thing we need to do is write our topic sentence. We know that this section is about where in the world hummingbirds live, so our topic sentence should be “Hummingbirds live in North, South, and Central America, and we always see them in gardens or at feeders.” Once we have written that, we can continue to write our summary using the rest of the information we found and putting it into our own words. The two middle pages will write the main ideas on the left side and supporting details on the right side. Ask the students, “What is it about?” and “What is the main point?”

 

6. Say: “Now we are going to practice our summarizing skills when reading on our own. Before we practice our summarization, let’s look at a few vocabulary words. Does anyone know what the word metabolism means? Metabolism is the speed at which our bodies process food. Some people and animals have a very fast metabolism, and they eat a lot, but others have a not so slow metabolism. Do you think you have a slow or fast metabolism? Another word we need to know is Nectar. Nectar is a super sweet sticky syrup that can come from flowers. Butterflies and bees also east Nectar. It sounds very yummy, but it is not for humans to eat. Finish my sentence about Nectar! Two insects that eat Nectar are... Right! Bees and Butterflies are two insects that eat Nectar! Now, we will see the rest of the article. After each section, I want you to stop and use your trifold to organize the information. Remember to highlight important information, cross-out unimportant information, cross-out repeated information, and write a topic sentence.”

 

7. Say: “Everyone’s trifold is looking great so far! Once you’ve read the whole article and gotten the main ideas and supporting details highlighted, I want you to write down a one-paragraph summary of the article. At the bottom of your article, write five new vocabulary words you learned from the article and what they mean.”

 

Assessment

For assessment, I will review each student's topic sentences and look over each article for proper markings.  Students will be assessed on how well they did on their summaries. I will use this scoring rubric to grade their summaries for the correct information: 

In their summary, did the student...

• Delete important information?  YES / NO

• Write a topic sentence?  YES / NO

• Write 3-5 good, concise sentences?  YES / NO

• Select critical information from the article?  YES / NO

• Choose the correct main topic for this article?  YES / NO

• List five new vocabulary words/definitions at the end?  YES / NO

 

After this, I will also ask each student a series of comprehension questions as a reading comprehension check for the end of the lesson. The questions will include:

1. How many different types of hummingbirds live in North America?

2. What do hummingbirds eat?

3. How do hummingbirds eat?

4. What do hummingbirds do that is useful to the ecosystem?

5. Do hummingbirds hum, and how?

 

ANSWERS:

1. 17

2. Sugar/Nectar from flowers

3. They use their long tongue to stick into flowers to get the Nectar

4. They pollinate like bees.

5. Yes, it is the sound their wings make when they are flying.

 

Resources

“Hummingbirds for Kids”

https://www.hummingbird-guide.com/hummingbirds-for-kids.html

 

Swimming into Summarization, Nicole Holmes

https://vnholmes1322.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn-design