Rationale: In order for a child to read clearly and with confidence, they must understand what it means to be a comprehensive reader. A comprehensive reader maintains the ability to summarize information within a text. Summarization is a strategy where children are able to decide what is important within a group of words and what is less important in the overall understanding of the text. Within this lesson, the child will understand how to summarize so that they can be successful in their comprehensive reading.

Materials:

• Pencil, paper, and highlighters for each student

• Summarization checklist for each student and the teacher

• Comprehension Quiz

• Individual copies of the book titled, “Amazing Me Music!” By: Carol Thompson

Procedures:

1. Say: “Everyone gather around and pay close attention because today is a very special day! We are going to be reading and learning how to summarize a story. Does anyone know what the word summarize means? (Allow children to answer). That’s right, it means to read a story and make a shorter version in your own words of the main idea. This is a very helpful strategy because sometimes stories are just too long to tell every single detail. We are going to learn how to decide which details are the most important or in other words, the main idea. Now in order to do this I am going to need everyone’s full attention and participation today. Raise your hand if you are excited to learn how to summarize!”

2. Say: “Now there are two very important rules that we need to review before we begin summarizing. The first rule is that we need to determine “What exactly is this story about?”. Now the next thing we need to do is a little bit more tricky. We are going to need to decide what parts of the whole entire story are the most important and make up the main ideas. Now that you know the two steps to follow, you will be able to come up with your summarization. I want us to give it a practice try.”

3. Say: “Once you have followed these two very important first steps, you are ready to begin forming your summarization. In order to summarize something, you must follow the three rules of summarization. The first rule is to put a line with your pencil through information that is not important to the overall main idea. Now that you have crossed out the unimportant information, it is time for the second rule which is to discover and highlight the important information. When you highlight, it allows the most important things to stand out brightly for you to go back and review when coming up with your summary. The last step is to write a sentence that explains the main idea in the shortest way that you can. This sentence will help you gather your thoughts around the main point when writing the summarization paragraph.”

4. Say: “Now, who can give me examples of things that you can summarize? (Let the class answer). Yes, very good. Books, magazines, songs, articles, and even an event that happened to you! I have chosen a paragraph from an article that will tell you some information about singing. Now there are some words I would first like to review with you from this paragraph. One word that you might not know is ‘professional’. The word ‘professional’ means that the person has done a lot of practice and studying to have a specific job. Another word you may not know is ‘accompanied’. This word means to join in and work together. Let’s take a look up at the board and read over a paragraph that I have already written down. I will show everyone how I would summarize this paragraph by following the steps that I just talked about.

“A singer is a person who sings. Anyone who is singing is a singer. Some people do it as a job (professional singer), others may sing without being paid (amateur singer). Singers may sing anything: songs, opera etc. They may be accompanied by an instrument or an orchestra. Some singers also play a musical instrument such as piano, guitar or harp while they sing (they accompany themselves). Singing is important in movies and in the theatre” ( Kids Encyclopedia Facts).

1. Say: The first thing we are going to do is step 1: Cross out any information that is not important. I will cross out the second sentence because it is just repeating the first sentence. I will now do the second step and take out my highlighter. I will highlight all of the important information. Now that we have done this, we can look at the highlighted words and read them over. Now for step three: write a sentence with the main point of the paragraph. The sentence I could say is the main point of the paragraph is, ‘A person who sings for a living, whether it is with an instrument or not, is called a singer’. Now we have just summarized the paragraph.”

2. Say: “Today, I am going to have each of you practice summarizing on your own just like I have modeled. We will be reading and summarizing a book titled, “Amazing Me Music!” By: Carol Thompson. I am going to give each of you a copy of this book. I want you to pull out your favorite color highlighter and sharpest pencil. Everyone show me your highlighter and pencil. (Have the children raise their highlighter and pencil high in the air) We are going to be reading the story once, then rereading it to highlight the parts that we found to be the most important in the overall message of the story. (Hand out copies of the book to each child). When you are done turn to the person next to you and talk about your summarization.”

Assessment:

I will now walk around the room and listen to each child talk about their

summarizations. I walk to the front of the room and say, “When you are done sharing

with your partner, return to your desk and I will be calling on each of you to come to my desk and share your summarization with me!” I will ask them to come up to my desk and share with me and I will also ask them comprehension questions.

Comprehension Questions:

1. What did the children do with the bells?

2. How round did the little boy say his drum is?

3. What did the little girl say at the end of the story to show she was confident in her singing and dancing?

 

 

References:

• “Amazing Me Music!” By: Carol Thompson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfyTXKxmAV0

• Article: “Singer Facts for Kids.” Wikt:Accordingly, kids.kiddle.co/Singer.

• “Let’s Get Kraken” by Brandy Baugh

https://sites.google.com/view/brandyb/literacy-designs/reading-to-learn