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Sum It Up!

 

Rationale: Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore

irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what is read. Summarization strategies can be used in almost every content area. We use summarizing because it 1) helps students learn to determine essential ideas and consolidate important details that support them; 2) enables students to focus on key words and phrases of an assigned text that are worth noting and remembering; and 3) teaches students how to take a large selection of text and reduce it to the main points for more concise understanding.

 

Materials:

    •    Large display of a summary map outline (will use to introduce the concept & practice)

    •    Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco

    •    4 folders (1 folder & 1 story per group; about 4 students to a group recommended)

    •    Chicago Changer, Jane Addams (group #1)

    •    Gwendolyn Brooks, An African American Poet (group #2)

    •    The Amistad Sails Again (group #3)

    •    A Hero for the World (group #4)

    •    Large construction paper/poster paper (for the groups to write their summary maps on)

    •    How the Teddy Bear Got Its Name (1 per student)

    •    Summary map chart (1 per student)

 

Procedures:

    1    Review/Background Knowledge: “Have you ever seen a movie you liked so much that, the moment you saw your best friend, you just had to tell them about it? You didn't tell them every line of the entire movie, right? You probably gave a shortened version of the plot that included the most important parts. This is a summary. When we come up with a summary, we want to make sure we get rid of needless details and instead focus on the main points and overall idea.”

    2    Why: “Have you ever had someone ask you, ‘What was it about?’ This could be a book you just read, maybe a movie you just saw (like in the first example), etc. Sometimes it’s hard to give a short overview of something long, but summaries are supposed to be short because remember that the purpose is to communicate the main points and overall idea. This is why we are going to practice summarizing today. We need to show that we understand the main idea of a text and are able to communicate that to others.”

    3    How: “I am going to read this story to you, and we are going to complete what I call ‘a summary map.’ But before we can complete the summary map, we have to be able to answer each part. There are three parts that we’re going to look at from the story. We’re going to look at the main characters in the story. Next, we’re going to look at the problem that was in the story. Then, we’re going to look at the solution. We’re going to put those three things together and form a summary.”

    4    Model: (Read an excerpt of Pink and Say to the class.) “Ok. Let me look back at the summary map. I need to write down who the main characters were in the story. I also need to write down what the problem was in the story. After I write down the problem, I need to ask myself, ‘Ok, so how did this story end?’ I’ll write down the answer to this question under ‘solution.’ Let’s all work together to fill out our summary map for this book.”

    5    Practice: “You are going to practice forming a summary with your friends sitting at your table. You need to ensure that every person in your group can give me an answer for the ‘main characters,’ the ‘problem,’ and the ‘solution.’ You may begin to discuss.” (Give the students about 5 minutes to discuss with one another. Be sure to ask if the students need more time once the 5 minutes is up. However, do not let the students talk too long. They will get side-tracked, and we want to keep the lesson moving smoothly and efficiently.) “Who are the main characters? What is the problem? What is the solution?” (Call on three students from different tables for each answer. Scaffold when necessary. For example, a student might answer with only two of four main characters. Say something like, “That’s great! Thank you for sharing those main characters with us. Does anyone else think they know any characters that we can write on our summary map?”)

    6    Whole Texts: “At each one of your tables, there is a folder. Inside that folder, there’s a story that your table will read. Once you have read the whole story, I want you to indicate, from your story, who the main characters are, what the problem is, and how the problem is solved. Lastly, I need you to write a summary.” (These are short stories, so give the students about 10-15 minutes to discuss with one another and to prepare a summary map display that they will present to the class. Be sure to praise the students for their efforts.)

    7    Explain: “Let’s do some vocabulary review now. There may have been a word in your group’s reading that you all weren’t 100% confident in knowing its meaning. Let’s look at the word legacy in the last sentence of group #2’s reading. A legacy could be a gift that is handed down from one person to another. But a legacy doesn’t have to be something materialistic. Leaving behind a great legacy also means leaving a lasting contribution or impression; this is the definition the story is referring to when it says that Gwendolyn Brooks left a great legacy.”

    8    Model: “Let me show you how I’d use legacy in a sentence. ‘My father left us a legacy of a million dollars.’ I could also say, ‘The war left a legacy of pain and suffering.’”

    9    Sample Questions: Does it make sense to say that a father left his children a legacy of love and respect? Is it OK to say that George Washington left behind a legacy of strong leadership? Which one of these is more like a legacy: a million dollars or a soccer game that ended in a forfeit?

10. Sentence to Complete: “If you want to leave behind a legacy, you must...” (Possible answer: ...work hard to make an impact on the world/others/etc.) (Ask the students to share any words that they didn’t/don’t know from their reading. Address the vocabulary word(s) in this same format.)

11. Assess Students Individually: (Pass out a copy of How the Teddy Bear Got Its Name to each student. Along with the story, pass out a summary map chart to each student. Have the students read the story silently to themselves and fill out the entirety of the summary map individually. Have the students turn in their completed summary maps to you when finished.)

 

Resources:

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/summarizing http://teacher.depaul.edu/Documents/ChicagoChangerJaneAddams4thgrade.pdf http://teacher.depaul.edu/Documents/GwendolynBrooksTextandExtendedResponseGrade3-4.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar .org/22af/623995e84ba5f0ec2d5ebe0bdbd849f55198.pdf https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/reading-comp/4th-teddy-bear .pdf?up=1466923621 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legacy

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