Rationale: As students begin reading with proficiency, they transition from learning to read into a stage of reading to learn. During this stage students will inevitably come across new words which they can pronounce but do not know the meaning of. Students need strategies as they read to obtain knowledge to help them learn and remember the meanings of words. This lesson aims to model, explain, and help students use strategies that will help them retain new vocabulary.

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Materials:

• White board or smart board

• Highlighters and pencils for the whole class

• Enough exit slips and rubrics for each student

• Enough copies of the Big Cat article for the whole class

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Procedure:

1. Say: “Okay class, all of you have become very good readers and can even pronounce new words you have never seen! I want us to start taking the next step in our reading journey, and that step is learning to summarize what we read! Have any of you ever told a story to your friends at lunch? Do you tell every tiny detail, or do you give them a big picture of what happened? [wait for students to answer] That’s right! We usually cannot remember every tiny detail, just the important parts! Today we will practice some strategies that will help us summarize what we read.”

 

2. Say: “summarizing means taking the most important details of a story and putting them in your own words. Important details would be things such as main ideas, important characters, important facts, or a character’s actions, depending on what you are reading. Summarizing is retelling a story in a short way that is in your own words and gives only the most important details or ideas from the text.”

 

3. Booktalk: “Tigers are huge cats, if any of you are Auburn fans, you may already know a little bit about tigers! Tigers are hunters and they have to track down all of their food. They live far away in Africa, or nearby in a zoo! Let’s read this article to find out more about how tigers live!” [Read aloud the first two paragraphs of the National Geographic article.]

 

4. Say: “Wow! We just read a lot of information about tigers! Can anyone tell me what you think the main idea is from that reading? [write student answers on the board] Good ideas, class! Now let’s look at this article again together. I am going to highlight the parts with important information and cross out the information we do not need with our pencils. This is going to be my strategy that helps me remember all the main ideas.”

 

5.  Explain: “To review, the first sentence usually tells us what the paragraph will be about, but when it doesn’t, we can use the rest of the information in the passage to create our own topic sentence. The first sentence happens to tell us the main idea: tigers are huge animals! This is our topic sentence. In the first paragraph we read a lot of interesting facts about tigers: tiger tails are three feet long, and they have claws as long as house keys. These facts contribute to the main idea but are not all necessary to know in the future. The main point from this paragraph is: “the tiger is the largest wild cat in the world”. See where I highlighted this part? [show highlighted article] In the next paragraph we read about tiger cubs—they grow very fast! I will highlight the sentence “These cubs quadruple in size during their first month!” Now can anyone tell me what the main ideas are from this passage? [listen for student responses] Good! Tigers are the biggest cats who live in the wild, and they grow fast even as cubs!! When they are full-grown, they weigh 450 pounds! See how we summarized using our own words?”

 

6. Say: “Now it’s your turn to try summarizing on your own. We just learned some facts about wild tigers, now I am going to pass out an article about tigers in captivity, and I only want you to summarize the last paragraph. It is circled on your paper. I am going to give you a pencil and a highlighter. As you read, highlight the details you think are important and contribute to the main idea of the text. You should use the pencil to cross out any information you don’t think is as important to the main idea. Remember, the main idea of the story is to tell you facts about tigers who live in captivity. For example, what are they types of tigers, why are they in captivity, or how long do they live in captivity versus in the wild. There might be some parts of the passage that are interesting, but that does not necessarily mean they are important for the main idea.” [pass out Big Cat rescue article with last paragraph circled, pencils, and highlighters]

 

7. Say: “Before you read, I want to review what a few of the words in the passage mean because you might not have seen them before.” [Write the word extinct and endangered with example sentences.]

6. Say: “When you’ve finished reading and marking the article, I want you to summarize it in 3 to 5 sentences. Remember to begin your summary with a topic sentence, a sentence that tells the reader what the main idea is. Only include important ideas and details in your summary. Don’t include anything you crossed out, only the parts you have highlighted. Write in complete sentences and use correct punctuation. The most important thing to remember is to write in your own words, you should not copy what the author said word-for-word.

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8. Say: “Okay, let’s get started reading our articles and summarizing them.” [Allow 20-25 minutes for students to mark article and write a summary.]

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9. Say: “When you’ve finished reading and marking the article, I want you to summarize it in 3 to 5 sentences. Remember to begin your summary with a topic sentence, a sentence that tells the reader what the main idea is. Only include important ideas and details in your summary. Don’t include anything you crossed out, only the parts you have highlighted. Write in complete sentences and use correct punctuation. The most important thing to remember is to write in your own words, you should not copy what the author said word-for-word.

 

10. Say: “Okay, let’s get started reading our articles and summarizing them.” [Allow 20-25 minutes for students to mark article and write a summary.]

 

11. At the end of class, give each student a comprehension exit slip to test the knowledge gained from their summaries. (slip questions below and summary checklist below)

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Name: ______________________

Date: _______________

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Comprehension question exit slip:

1. Are there more tigers in captivity or in the wild?

2. Name one type of tiger that is extinct.

3. How do humans make the problem of extinction worse?

4. Tigers usually live longer in captivity. (true or false)

5. How do humans take care of tigers in captivity?

6. Why do you think the author wrote this article?

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Checklist:

Did the student highlight important ideas? ____yes ____no

Did the student cross out unnecessary details? ____yes ____no

Did the student use at least three complete sentences in their summary? ____yes ____no

Did the student identify topics accurately in the summary? ____yes ____no

Did the student include key ideas in the summary? ____yes ____no

 

 

 

References:

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Tiger article: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/tiger/

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Tigers in captivity article: https://bigcatrescue.org/tigers-grade-3-to-5-science/

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Manning, Elizabeth, Stomping into Summarization; https://eam0079.wixsite.com/4brucee/reading-to-learn

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Pilcher, Cassidy, Out of this World Summarization! https://sites.google.com/view/lessondesignscassiepilcher/reading-to-learn