Sliding into Summarization

Rationale: Reading is a very important aspect of learning. In order to really comprehend long texts, students need to practice their abilities to summarize. Readers need to be able to differentiate between important information in a text and less important details. This is important for recalling the main ideas of passages. The goal of this lesson is to teach students how to pick out important information in a text, summarize the text, and then demonstrate their understanding of the text. They will do this by reading two short articles, picking out the important information, deleting the trivial information, and writing a summary. While teaching this lesson, it's important to keep in mind the heart of summarization which is subordinating predicate-terms. Subordinating predicate, in other terms, means finding an umbrella term for the events that happen in the text.

Materials:

o  Smart board/white board

o  Highlighters for students

o  Pencils for students

o  Copy of Emperor Penguins article for each student

o  Copy of Sloth article for each student

o  Paper for students

o  Assessment Summary Checklist for each student (for teacher use)

Procedures:

1.     Say:“Today we are going to learn about summarization. Does anybody know what summarization means?” Allow students a few seconds to answer. “Good. Summarization means reading a text and then picking out the most important details. Then, you put those details into your own words. What kinds of details can be important?” Allow students time to answer. “Right. Some examples of important details are main characters, important events, setting, topics, etc. When we summarize, we can leave out unimportant details that do not really matter in the text. When we read long texts, we can summarize so that it is simpler and easier to remember. Today we are going to practicing summarizing with animal articles.”

2.     Say:“Let’s learn some good tips for summarizing. I am going to write each tip on the board. Take out a piece of paper and write down the tips too so you can look at them when you need them.” Write rules on the board. Read them as you right them. 

Tip 1: Read the text carefully.

Tip 2: Find the main idea

Tip 3: Use a pencil or highlighter to mark any important points/details

Tip 4: Cross out any details that are not important or relevant

Tip 5: Organize your important points/details into sentences.

“Now remember that your summarization should always be shorter than the actual text.”

3.     Say:“Can anyone tell me anything they know about penguins?” Give students a few minutes to share any information that they know. “Great! Today we are going to learn even more and read an article about penguins. Penguins are very common in Antarctica, where it is freezing cold all day every day. There are no people living in Antarctica, just penguins and other animals. Some scientists travel to Antarctica to live for a while in order to study penguins. Isn't that crazy? Has anyone ever seen a penguin before?” Allow students time to answer if they had ever seen a penguin and share what they were like. Pass out article Emperor Penguins to students. “This article talks about what Emperor Penguins look like, what they do, where they live, etc. Now, we are going to read this article together as group. We will highlight and/or underline anything that we think is important as we go along. We will also cross out any details that are not super important. Then, we will organize what we have highlighted/underlined into sentences to create our summary.”

4.     Read the article out loud to the class, while having them follow along. Stop after every paragraph to mark any important details by highlighting/underlining. Cross out any information that does not seem necessary. Go over any vocabulary words that they do not know (ex: “Does anybody know what the word breeding means?" Give students time to think of definition. "Breeding is what happens when two people or animals have a baby. This way, animals do not become extinct. I am going to use breeding in a sentence- The man on the farm is breeding cows so that he can have more cows for milk. Would somebody else like to try to use breeding in a sentence?” Allow students time to think, and then take 1 or 2 volunteers to share their sentences.) Let's look at the first two paragraphs. What is an important word, or main idea, in the first paragraph? The first paragraph talks about Antarctica. That is our main idea. So all of our important information will be about Antarctica. What is something important that is says about Antarctica? Yes, it is covered in ice an water. How do they survive in Antarctica since it is made of ice? Yes, they rely on adaptations. What does the next paragraph talk about? What is the key umbrella term, or main idea? Yes, the main idea is breeding. So, everything important in this paragraph will be about breeding. Is it important that the birds are flightless? No, this does not have anything to do with breeding, so this is trivial information, so we can cross it out. When do the penguins breed? Yes, they breed in the winter, this is important and it has to do with breeding, so we will highlight this. How do the penguins breed? The female lays one egg. Then the male balances it on his feet and covers it. The males stand like this for a very long time. This is all important information that has to do with the main idea of the paragraph- breeding. Therefore, we will highlight this information, and cross out the information that is not as important." Below is an example of the highlighted text for the first two paragraphs. 

Emperor penguins spend their entire lives on Antarctic ice and in its waters. They survive—breeding, raising young, and eating—by relying on a number of clever adaptations. 
          These flightless birds breed in the winter. After a courtship of several weeks, a female emperor penguin lays one single egg then leaves! Each penguin egg's father balances it on his feet and covers it with his brood pouch, a very warm layer of feathered skin designed to keep the egg cozy. There the males stand, for about 65 days, through icy temperatures, cruel winds, and blinding storms.

5.     Discuss the rest of the article with the students, going over the main ideas. “What is the main topic of this article? Right, it’s about Emperor Penguins. I would like for you all to write 4 or 5 sentences that summarize the article. The main idea of the article should be your topic sentence (ex. Emperor penguins are birds that live in Antarctica).” Give students time to write down their summaries on a piece of paper. “Let’s go over some of the things you wrote.” Call on students to read off one of their sentences. Write their sentences on the board. This way, you are creating a summary with the class. “Good job class! We just wrote a summary!” Below is an example summary. 

Emperor penguins are birds that live in Antarctica. The mother lays an egg and then leaves, while the father balances the egg on its feet and covers it with his warm skin. The mother comes back from fishing when the penguin is hatched in order to feed it. When the baby penguin is older, it goes with a group of penguins to fish for their own food.

6.     “Now I am going to let you write a summary on your own. I will give you another article to read.” Hand out article Sloth. “This article is about animals called sloths. This article describes what sloths do, where they live, what they look like, etc. Has anybody ever seen a sloth? Can you share with the class what they were like?" Allow students time to share with the class. "Some people say that they wish they were sloths so they could sleep very often. Would you all like to sleep almost all day? Remember to highlight any main points and cross out anything that is not important that may become distracting. After you read the article, write 4 or 5 sentences to summarize.” Walk around to monitor students and help any that may need your assistance. Take up their summaries and articles when they are done. This is their assessment.

Comprehension Questions

1. What continent do emperor penguins live on? (answer: Antarctica)

2. Who lays the egg? (answer: the mother)

3. Who sits on the egg while the mother is away? (answer: the father)

4. What food do emperor penguins eat? (answer: fish)

5. What kind of weather conditions do emperor penguins live in? (answer: winter, cold, icy)

Assessment:

When summarizing, did the student…?

1. Underline/highlight important information    YES/NO

2. Cross out unimportant information               YES/NO

3. Find main idea or topic                                 YES/NO

4. Write a summary (4 to 5 sentences)             YES/NO

Resources:

Mack, Katherine; Sliding into Summarization. 2017. https://ktmack895.wixsite.com/reading/reading-to-learn

Penguin article: “Emperor Penguin.” National Geographic Kids. 2017. https://ykids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/emperor-penguin/#emperor-penguin-group-snow.jpg

Sloth Article: “Sloth.” National Geographic Kids. 2017. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/sloth/#sloth-beach-upside-down.jpg

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Email me: tnh0015@auburn.edu