'so to sum it up’
Rationale:
Rationale: Summarization is one of the most important skills for comprehending text. An efficient method of summarization is called the about-point method. The reader asks two questions: what is the text about and what is the main point the author wants you to know. The first question is quick and easy to answer, but the second requires the reader to “superordinate” all of the points made in a text and create an “umbrella” point that covers them all.
Materials:
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Paper
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Pencils
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Set of “eagles are back” articles
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Set of comprehension questions
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Summarization Checklist
Procedures:
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Say: After we read a text, its hard to remember every detail we read. It can also take a very long time. Instead, good readers use a technique called summarization to remember only the most important points of a text.
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Say: One of the best ways to summarize is called about-point. When you use this strategy, you ask yourself two questions while reading a text. The first question is “what is the text about?”, and the second question is “what is the main point that the author is making?”. The first question is usually easier to figure out, but the second question really makes you think about the whole text. You have to think of a superordinate, also called an “umbrella term”, for all the important points that the author talks about in the text.
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Say: We are going to use the about-point method on an article about Eagles. Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen an eagle. They are sometimes hard to find because theyare hard to spot in the sky. The article on your desk tells us more about why eagles used to be on the endangered species list but now have really made their way off of that scary list.
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First, we’ll talk about a new word you will see in this article: endangered: This means an animal is at risk for going extinct forever. When an animal is endangered that means there is a low population that is left on the earth. In the article it talks about how eagles have been on the endangered species list for over 30 years but recently have gotten off of the list. We can practice using it in a sentence: “The white tiger is also endangered because there are very few left in the world.
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Say: Here is the first paragraph from the article:
For more than 30 years, the American bald eagle has been perched atop the list of Endangered Species. But the stately birds have made a magnificent comeback. Government officials announced Thursday that the eagle is no longer a threatened species.
What is the main point of this paragraph? (wait for student responses) Right, it’s talking about how eagles are no longer a threatened creature. Does this paragraph have a topic sentence or do we need to make one? (wait for student responses) Right, the last sentence is the topic sentence because the entire paragraph is talking about how eagles are no longer endangered.
6. Now I want you to use about-point on a paragraph:
Today, there are at least 10,000 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states—up from just 417 in 1963. Still, the population remains scattered throughout the U.S.—from just one pair in states like Vermont and Rhode Island to more than 1,300 in Minnesota.
What is this paragraph about? Yes, about the rising population of eagles. What are the main points that the author makes about this? (There are 10,000 breeding pairs in the US. It has risen a lot since 1963).
7. Now, I want you to read the rest of the article and use your about-point skills to make (or find) a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are done, you will have a summary of the whole article if you put the sentences together! Don’t summarize examples of things or information that is not important, which we call trivia. These things are only in the article to help you understand the main ideas. You are writing a shorter version of this article in your own words, but only including the most important ideas. To make sure you work hard to read, because we will have a quiz when everyone finishes writing.
Comprehension Questions:
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How long were eagles on the endangered species list?
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Is it illegal to hunt eagles?
Assessment:
Student Name: ___________________________
1. Did the student fill out the chart on his/her paper?
2. Did the students come up with topic sentences for the remaining paragraphs?
3. Did the student successfully delete unimportant/redundant information?
4. Did the student successfully identify important parts?
5. Did the student use the important information to come up with topic sentence?
Resources:
Article:
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3746724
Davis, Emily. Fun in the sun with summarizing. 2015
http://ead0026.wixsite.com/miss-davis-reading
