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Summarizing with Sharks!

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Rationale:

Reading comprehension is the overall goal of reading and an important part of reading. Comprehension means that the reader is getting the overall message of a passage. Summarization is an important literacy goal because it helps students to understand what has been read. This lesson will teach students to comprehend text by introducing the summarization strategy. Students will discard unnecessary and redundant information, summarize multiple items and events under umbrella terms, and write a topic sentence that covers the information. Taking these steps, students will attain comprehension through the summarization strategy.

 

Materials:

  1. Copy of the National Geographic, Great White Shark passage for each student https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/facts/great-white-shark 

  2. Summarization Checklist for each student

  3. Comprehension quiz for each student 

  4. Poster with summarization steps

  5. Poster with passage on it

  6. Two sheets of notebook paper for each student

  7. Pencil for each student

  8. Highlighter for each student

  9. Sharpie for each student

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: “When we read a text, we could spend all day trying to remember all the words and details of that text. Good readers do not try to remember every little detail that they read. Instead, they use summarization strategies to remember only the important points the author is making about the topic. Today we are going to learn and practice three steps that will help us remember the important information we need to understand the text.”

  2. Say: “When we summarize, we need to know some important rules. First, we need to delete any unimportant information. Next, we need to read through and delete any repeated information. Then, select or invent a topic sentence to begin our summary.”   [Display poster with three steps and explain] Say: “First, we cross out any unimportant or repeated information (fluff) that isn’t essential to the message of the text. [Point to first step] Second, we find and highlight the important information that is essential to the text and write any umbrella terms on paper for any items and ideas that are connected. [Point to second step] And third, we form a topic sentence from the important information we highlighted” 

  3. Say: “In a few minutes I’m going to show you how I’d do these steps of summary with an article on sharks which is what you are going to be reading about. Book talk: Did you know great white sharks are 5 feet long when they’re born? Think about how tall you were when you were born, probably teeny tiny! They just keep growing and growing and can get up to four times that! What do you think sharks are like when they get really big? Let’s read and find out!”

  4. Say: “Another important strategy in reading comprehension is understanding the important vocabulary in the passage. To do this, we are going to go over a few words we will find in this article before we read it [for each word: explain the word in simple language, model how to use the word (What does it mean? What doesn’t it mean?), provide sample questions using the word and scaffold by making a sentence using the word for students to complete].

 

                 WORDS: prey, breach

                 Say: “One of the words in our passage is ‘prey.’ Let’s see what this word means!”

  • Prey is an animal that is hunted and killed by another animal for food.

  • The smaller animals became prey to the larger animals. The larger animals are too big and can not be prey to the smaller animals.

  • Which of these is an example of prey: horses eating the grass or a bear eating a fish? 

  • As a predator, the cat’s favorite prey is…(the mice in the attic because they are small enough for it to catch).

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     5. [Hang a poster with the paragraph from the passage next to the poster with the summarization rules. Give each student a           pencil, highlighter, two sheets of notebook paper, and a copy of the passage.] Say: “Here is a paragraph from our passage.           am going to show you how I summarize this paragraph and you can follow along and do it with me on your paper. Before             we start, let’s review our summarization steps. First, cross out any unimportant or repeated information that isn’t                         essential to the message of the text. Second, find and highlight the important information that is essential to the text and             write any umbrella terms on paper for any items and ideas that are connected Third, form a topic sentence from the                     important information you highlighted. [Read the paragraph out loud] Say: First, I need to cross out any unimportant or                 repeated information. I can cross out the second part of the first sentence, it’s just extra details that don’t help me with the           main idea. I can also cross out the first part of the second sentence. This sentence is not important to the main idea of the           paragraph. Next, I need to highlight the important information and write my umbrella terms on paper for any items and               ideas that are connected. I think the rest of the paragraph is important and helps us with the main idea, so I am going to               highlight the rest. [Read sentences as highlighted]

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        Say: I think born, swims away, and on their own are my umbrella terms that give the main idea. 

     

        Say: Lastly, I am going to form a topic sentence from my highlighted information. By looking at my highlighted information          I can come up with this as my topic sentence [write the topic sentence below the paragraph on the poster so students can            see]: When sharks are born, they swim away from their mother and grow up on their own.”

 

       6. Say: “Now I want you to try the summarization rules we talked about in a paragraph!”

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          Say: “What unimportant information can we cross out? Yes, we can cross out the third, fourth, and last sentences, they do            not help us with the main idea. Now, what are we left with? Right, we are left with the first, second, and fifth sentences.                Don’t forget to write three or four umbrella terms that give the main idea. Let’s read these two sentences and try to                      combine them into one sentence to create a topic sentence. We can combine them and make this topic sentence: When                sharks see a seal on the surface of the water, they breach out of the water, catch it while swallowing the chunks whole,                and fall back into the water.”

 

       7. [Pass out 2 pieces of paper to each student for them to write their topic sentences on.] Say: “Now I’d like you to finish                   reading the article and use your summarizing rules to make a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished,             you will have a good summary of the article. This will help you remember important facts about great white sharks!                     Don't summarize the unimportant or repeated information. This ‘fluff’ is only written to help you understand the main                   ideas. When you summarize you are writing a short version of the article in your own words while including only the                     important information. We will have a short quiz after everyone finishes their topic sentences.”

 

Assessment: [Collect each student’s summary of the article and evaluate the summarization using the following checklist:]

 

______ Collected important information

______ Ignored trivia and examples in summary

______ Significantly reduced the text from the original

______ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph

______ Sentences organized coherently into essay form


 

Quiz: [Pass out a quiz to each student]

  1. Why do many baby great white sharks not survive their first year of life? (Until they grow, they may become prey to predators larger than them) 

  2. Do great white sharks have to avoid predators once they grow larger? Why or why not? (No, they will live at the top of the food chain once they are larger)

  3. What do great white sharks eat when they are younger and then when they are older? (They eat fish and rays when they are younger and sea lions and seals when they are older)

  4. How do great white sharks eat their food? (They rip off chunks of meat and swallow them whole)

  5. Why don’t great white sharks eat every day? (They can last a month or two without another big meal)



 

References:

Caroline Colley, Turtle-lly Awesome Summarization 

https://mcc0052.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn

Paula Anderson, Let’s Sea how to Summarize 

https://pea0002.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn

Great White Shark Passage from National Geographic

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/facts/great-white-shark 

Shark image 

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsupersimple.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F11%2Fsongs_babyshark_thumbnail_supersimpleapp_en-1200w-blog.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsupersimple.com%2Fsong%2Fbaby-shark%2F&tbnid=xvxJO10H00cAhM&vet=12ahUKEwie_dCf9on0AhXRKFMKHTceDt4QMygEegUIARDcAQ..i&docid=Mlfj1wCG9hgmHM&w=1200&h=675&q=baby%20shark&ved=2ahUKEwie_dCf9on0AhXRKFMKHTceDt4QMygEegUIARDcAQ 

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