Rationale:
Comprehension is a very important final step in a student’s reading development. When a student reads for comprehension, they are no longer spending time decoding words, instead, they are focused on understanding the message of the text. A great way to test a student’s comprehension is to get them to summarize a book they have read. In this lesson, students will practice summarization as a comprehension strategy. The students will summarize text by selecting important information and eliminating unnecessary details. Students will use the following summarization rules: detect and mark out unimportant or repeated information, find and highlight important information, and form a topic sentence from the important information. The teacher will model how students detect important information that is needed to write an effective summary.
​
Materials:
• Paper for each student
• Pencils for each student
• Highlighters for each student
• Sample passage on board (from National Geographic Kids: Blue Marlin)
• Copies of article: National Geographic Kids: Blue Marlin (one for every child)
• Dry-erase board and markers for teacher use
• Poster of Summarizing Rules:
1. Delete and mark out unimportant or repeated information
2. Find and highlight important information
3. Form a topic sentence from the important information
• Assessment Checklist
• Comprehension Quiz
​
Procedures:
1. Say: Can anyone tell me if they have ever read a book that you found interesting, so you told your friend about it? Did you tell them every little detail, or did you just tell them the important parts that you read? [Call on a student who has their hand raised.] Yes, that’s right, you only told them the important parts of the story! This is called summarizing. Summarizing is a skill that can help us to better understand the books we read, therefore making us better readers! If you can summarize a book or an article, then that lets me know you understand the material that you have read.
2. Say: When using summarization skills, we have a few guidelines to follow. [Hold up poster with summarizing rules and hang somewhere in the classroom for students to refer back to.] First, we need to get rid of any unimportant information in the text. To do that, we read through the entire article and then we go delete any information that is unnecessary or is repeated anywhere in the text. Then, we highlight, underline, or circle the things that seem really important to us! Finally, we take all of those important parts of the article or story and we create a topic sentence to begin our summary.
3. Say: A really good way to summarize and create topic sentences is to find an “umbrella term” that all of the ideas in a passage can fall under! An example of this would be if I was reading a passage that told me about different types of fish, sharks, and jellyfish that live in the ocean, my umbrella term could be sea creatures, because fish and sharks and jellyfish are all sea creatures and that’s what the passage is about!
4. Say: Now lets practice! I’ve given you all an article from National Geographic about blue marlins. A blue marlin is a type of fish and there’s a lot of really cool things about them that make them special. We’re going to read the first paragraph together, and I’ll show you how to summarize. Then I want you to summarize the rest of the article on your own! We’re going to be investigative scientists as we read this article and see what all we can learn about blue marlins. Follow along with me as I read the first paragraph out loud.
5. Say: Okay, who can give me a brief summary of what you read? (Give students a chance to show their summaries, offer help when they need it. Also, write down some of their ideas on the whiteboard.) Let’s take a look at my copy of this paragraph on the white board. Do you see how I highlighted some important details and crossed out those details that were not important to the story. (Model the sample below).
“Just how big is a blue marlin? Female blue marlins can grow up to 14 feet (4.3 meters) in length and can weigh more than 1,985 pounds (900 kilograms)!”
​
6.Say: Remember- our first sentence will tell us what the paragraph will be about. In this instance, it’s a question, but we know that this paragraph will tell us about how big a blue marlin is. I highlighted that they can grow up to 14 feet and weigh up to 1,985 pounds, but I crossed out what that is equal to in meters and kilograms because we don’t need to know that. In summarizing, some information is more important than others, and by practicing we can get better at knowing which information that is. There isn’t always one right answer, so just try and do your best.
7.Say: Before you read the rest of the article, let’s go over some of our vocabulary words. Being familiar with new vocabulary words will help you have a better understanding of the meaning of the article.
Vocabulary List:
​Solitary – a recluse or hermit. (Example from the passage: This incredible predator lives a solitary life from the time it is born.)
Vulnerable – susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm
(Example from the passage: This species endangered status is vulnerable.)
Prey – an animal that is hunted or killed by another animal for food (Example Sentence: The lion quietly watched its prey, waiting for the perfect time to run after it.)
Predator – an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals (Example phase from the passage: This incredible predator…)
Victim - a person or animal harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a accident, or other event or action. (Example sentence for the passage: They go back to the school to eat their stunned victims.)
[The following is an example of a vocabulary review for the word predator: First, define the word and read the example sentence above. Then ask sample questions using the word and have students complete sentence fragments.]
i. What is an example of an animal that is a predator?
ii. Are animals that mostly eat plants predators?
iii. Animals that run away or hide from predators might be...
9.Say: Now I want you to practice summarizing with the rest of the article. Let’s read the rest of the article to learn more about blue marlins and practice summarizing. I want you to delete and highlight things from the passage, create a topic sentence, and then write a paragraph summarizing the main points of the article. Be sure to look at our summarizing rules if you forget anything. Also, be sure that this summary is in your own words and not your neighbor’s or the author’s. Summarization works best when you read the article slow, read the important parts at least two times, and take notes and highlight as you go. Taking notes will help you point out the main ideas easier. Be sure to ask questions if anything is confusing about the article and we will discuss it! The main idea of this article is blue marlins, so look for facts about blue marlins that would help us get to know them better; we want to know things like where they live and what they eat! We’ll be having a quiz once everyone is done writing and you’ll turn all of your work into me! [Walk around to be sure students are following the summarization rules and answer any questions they may have about the article and assignment.]
​
Assessment Checklist:
Collect each student’s summary of the article and evaluate the summarization using the following checklist.
________ Highlighted important information
________ Significantly reduced (by crossing out) original text
________ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph
________ Sentences organized coherently into essay form
Comprehension Quiz:
Name: _________________________
1. Where can you find a blue marlin?
2. Where do blue marlins eat/feed?
3. What do blue marlins eat?
References:
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/blue-marlin/#blue-marlin-closeup.jpg, National Geographic Society, 1998.
Runya, Haylee. Swimming into Summarization. https://hayrunyan.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn .
Huckaby, Madison. Buzzing to Summarization. https://mrh0057.wixsite.com/mysite-4/reading-to-learn .
