Stomping into Summarization

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Reading to Learn

Alley Sizemore

 

Rationale: When students begin reading to learn, one of the most important factors is summarization. Summarization allows readers to comprehend what they are reading. This lesson introduces the strategy of summarization. An effective summarization strategy is called about-point. When using this method, two questions are presented. 1) What is the text about? This question easily helps student target what the topic sentence is. 2) What is the main point that the writer is making about the topic? When working through this question, the student must evaluate which information is important. In summarizing, the most important parts of the text are highlighted. When readers have the ability to summarize, they begin to ask higher level thinking questions and have stronger comprehension skills. 

 

Materials: 

• Individual copies of the National Geographic Kids article about African elephants 

• Pencil and paper for each student 

• Summarization checklist and comprehension quiz (see below) 

 

Procedures: 

1. Discuss with students the importance of summarization. Say: “When we read, there is no way we can remember every word and every piece of information. That’s why good readers focus on the important parts of the text that highlight the main idea or topic!”

2. The best way to summarize is to use the about-point method. When we perform this method, we ask ourselves two questions. The first question we should ask is, “What is the text about?” The second question, that is a little trickier, is “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” When we are considering these questions, we think of the ways to summarize the important aspects of what we are reading. Once we have these important parts, we can easily access the topic sentence. 

3. In just a little bit, I am going to model how I would use the about-point method with a paragraph about African elephants. Have you ever seen an elephant before? If you have, where did you see the elephant? What’s something you noticed about the elephant? What do elephants use their trunks for? These are some things we are going to learn about in our article today! 

4. Let’s talk about important vocabulary that you will be reading in our article today: maneuver. Maneuver means a clever or skillful action or movement. For example, acrobats perform dangerous maneuvers. Another example is when elephants use the tips of their trunks to perform delicate maneuvers such as picking up a berry from the ground or plucking a leaf from a tree. Let’s practice using the word maneuver. Which sentence uses maneuver correctly? The children maneuvered through the obstacle course. We will maneuver the new book. [Call on students to share]. Correct! The children maneuvered through the obstacle course is the right choice. 

5. Here is a paragraph from the story: 

“ Elephants are social creatures. They sometimes hug by wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting and affection. Elephants also use their trunks to help lift or nudge an elephant calf over an obstacle, to rescue a fellow elephant stuck in mud, or to gently raise a newborn elephant to its feet. And just as a human baby sucks its thumb, an elephant calf often sucks its trunk for comfort. One elephant can eat 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food in one day.” 

 

This paragraph is about elephant trunks, but what important point is the writer making? Elephants sometimes use their trunks socially, but in what ways? If I put these points together, I can create a topic sentence: Elephants can use their trunks socially to hug, help another elephant, or for comfort.

 

1. Now it’s your turn! Everyone will finish reading the article and use about-point to make a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, you will have a summary of the entire article. This will help you remember the important facts about elephants and their trunks. Remember, this is to help us understand the main ideas. Your job is to write a short version of the article by summarizing everything into  your own words. After everyone finishes, we will have a quiz to check for our understanding. 

 

Assessment: 

Student Name: ___________________ 

1. _____ Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph 

2. _____ Deleted unimportant or repetitive information 

3. _____ Significantly reduced the text from original to form summary 

4. _____ Identified important points 

5. _____ Successfully conjoined the important points to form a topic sentence 

 

Quiz: 

1. What type of environment do African elephants live in? 

2. An African elephant’s trunk is controlled by many ______? 

3. What are African elephant’s tusks made of? 

4. Adult females typically travel in _______? 

5. African elephants can typically live up to ____ years?