Swimming into Summarization
Rationale:
Once a student has mastered fluent reading, they are ready to move onto the next step, summarization. An effective way to summarize is a method called “about-point,” which asks two questions. 1. What is this text about? 2. What is the main point the writer is making about this topic? This question is more difficult, as there could be several points the author is making. However, it is up to the student to generalize the points into an umbrella point. This umbrella point will be the predicate of the sentence. We will be reading a book in order to review this method.
Materials:
Student copies of Destination Reading's “Sea Animals” (URL linked below), paper and pencil per student, summarization assessment, comprehension quiz.
Procedure:
-
“When you tell a story, do you know how you like to tell everrrry detail? Well, summarization helps us with that! Instead of sharing every small part of the book, you can tell everyone the main idea of the book. This is called summarization. When we summarize, we take all the details of a book and squish it into something easy to remember.”
-
“One way to summarize, probably the best way, is by asking yourself two questions. First, ‘what is this text about?’ That’s pretty easy, huh? But it gets a little trickier because next, you have to ask, ‘what is the main point the writer is making about this topic?’ Once you have answered both of these questions, you can summarize the text with this method called about-point.”
-
“I am going to show you guys how we use this summarization method by reading some of our "Sea Animal" article today. Have you ever been to the ocean? Did you like the sand and the water? Have you ever swam in the water or jumped the huge waves? Can you guys name any ocean animals? Have you ever swam with the animals? We’ll be answering these questions today.”
-
Before we read our article, we are going to discuss a word in the book that we may not know yet. Our word is "rest." Rest means to take a break and relax, kind of like a nap! For example, 'My cat will rest on my window sill.' Now, everyone get out a piece of paper and answer this question, 'Where do you like to rest?' Since we now know this word, we can read a part of our article!"
-
“Here is a part of our story: [shown on the smartboard] We will be reading about all the animals in the ocean that you guys may have seen on some of your trips to the ocean or water theme parks! Let’s read this section of the book to find out more! ‘Some animals must be in the water to live. This sea slug can rest on rocks in the water. Some animals can live in water and on land. This crab can run and dig in the sand.’ What is this text about? This text is about sea slugs and crabs. But what is the main point the writer is trying to make? He mentions animals in the ocean and where they live. The article talks about a sea slug and a crab. It says what activities they do in the water, like rest and run and dig. I can combine all of this information to figure out the main point! The main point the writer is making about this topic is what a sea slug and crab can do.”
-
“Now, you guys get to try using about-point on a paragraph: ‘Penguins can live where it is cold. They just had a cold swim. Brrr! Sea lions can live where it is warm. They will nap on rocks in the sun. A turtle is not fast on land, It can swim fast in water. It has flippers that help it swim fast. It can swim far. Sea stars are not fast. They take little steps on sand and rocks.’ What are these pages about? [children answer]. Yes! It is about penguins, turtles, and sea stars. What is the main point the author is trying to make about these sea animals? [children answer]. Yes! The author is comparing the differences between these three animals!”
-
“You guys finish reading the article and use the “about-point” method to make a topic sentence for each page. Write them on your paper given. These will help you remember the important facts about sea animals. After we have completed this, we will take a quiz about the book.”
Assessment: Gather each child’s summary and evaluate based on the following criteria:
____ Collected important information
____ Reduced the original text
____ Choose key points
____ Organized into clear sentences
Quiz: Circle One
-
Which animal hangs out on rocks in the water? Sea Slug or Sea Lion
-
Penguins live where it is cold. True or False
-
What helps a turtle swim faster? Fins or Flippers
-
How do sea stars move? Step or Swim?
-
All animals eat fish. True or False
References:
Sea Animals by Norbert Wu:
Bruce Murray’s Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea:
https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/reading-to-learn
Jordyn Maggio’s Surfing into Summarization: