top of page

Reading to Learn

Buzzing with Summarizing
Madelyn Brown
Reading to Learn Design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale:The main goal of reading is reading comprehension which is the ability to understand the message of a text. Subordination is finding an umbrella term for the events that happen in a text. A reader can use summarization to be able to read and understand the message of a text. In this lesson design, students will learn how to summarize a text by learning to distinguish the important and relevant information out of the unnecessary details of a story. Then, they will be able to write the important information down in a few sentences.

 

Materials:

  • Poster with summarization steps

  • Poster with paragraph 1 of the article typed out

  • Thick marker (for teacher)

  • Highlighter (for teacher and students)

  • Notebook paper

  • Pencils

  • Individual copies of National Geographic Kids article about honeybees (article)

  • Summarization checklist

  • Comprehension Quiz

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: “When a good reader is reading a passage, they do not try to remember every necessary and unnecessary detail of the passage. Instead, a good reader summarizes the main points when they read. Summarization is when someone reads a passage and picks out the important and relevant parts of it. The important and relevant parts are the characters and main points. The summarization strategy is used by good readers to remember the important details and ignore the unnecessary details that may slow down a reader.”

  2. Say: “Let’s look at this poster I created that has the three things to do when summarizing a text. The first step is to cross out any unimportant or unnecessary details that is not important to the overall message of the text. The second step is to highlight the information that has an impact on the overall meaning of the text. The third and final step is to form a sentence from the main, key information that was highlighted from step two.”

  3. Say: “Now I’m going to show you how to do these three steps to summarize a paragraph on honeybees from an article that everyone will read today. Who has ever been stung by a bee? (students will raise hands) Does anyone know anything about what honeybees do every day? Does anyone know the jobs of honeybees? Well, today we are going to learn the answers to these questions by the end of the lesson.”

  4. Say: “It’s important to understand the vocabulary in a passage so that we can comprehend the message of a text. As a class, we are going to go over a few vocabulary words that you will see while reading the article on honeybees.” (For each word, explain in simple language, model how to use the vocabulary word in a sentence, provide sample questions using the word, and scaffold by making a sentence using the vocabulary word for the students to complete.)

  5. Say: “Some vocabulary words we see are hive, pollinators, cooperative. So, hive is one of the words in the passage so let’s look at what it means. A hive is a place where people or animals are usually busily occupied. Bees live in a hive. Which of these is an example of when hive would be used? A dog was chasing a cat or if a bee was returning home from pollinating flowers? (the second option is correct). Now finish this sentence. In a colony of bees, there is only one queen bee that lives in a ___. What word goes in the blank? (students answer hive). Good job!

  6. Hang the poster with the first paragraph from the honeybee article beside the poster with the three summarization rules. The teacher needs a thick marker and highlighter for this. The teacher should pass out the honeybee article (in print), highlighter, and pencil to each student. Say: “here’s a paragraph from the honeybee article. I am going to summarize this text to show you what to do. As I work, follow along with me on your own paper. First, let’s review our summarization rules. The first rule is to cross out unimportant and unnecessary details that do not affect the main point of the text. The second rule is to highlight the important and relevant information that impacts the meaning of the text. The third rule is to create a sentence using the information that was highlighted in step two. Now looking at the paragraph written on the poster, I need to cross out any information that is irrelevant to the main idea. I can cross out sentence 2 because it is not important to the main idea of the paragraph. Next, I need to highlight the information that is important. I think sentences 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 are important to the main idea of the paragraph, so I will highlight those sentences. The last thing I need to do is form a sentence from the information that I have highlighted. I think a sentence that can be formed is honeybees are constantly working in the hive taking care of each individual’s job that goes towards the formation of honey.

Students summarize:

Say: “It is now your turn to use the three rules of summarization.” Read together the 2ndparagraph from the article. “The first step we need to take is cross out any information that isn’t important. Can anyone tell me what that information is? (wait for students to raise their hand and answer). Yes, we can cross out that sentence. So what information is left? (wait for students to raise their hands and answer). Yes, we are left with the remaining sentences. Let’s read those sentences together to see what the main point is and if we can make a topic sentence from them. (Read the sentences together and come up with a topic sentence). 

 

Students write their own topic sentence:

Pass out notebook paper to each student for them to write topic sentences. Say: “Now, I want you to finish reading the article by yourself. Then, use the three rules of summarization to make a topic sentence for each paragraph that you read. When you are finished, read over the topic sentences you wrote down. These sentences will provide you with a summary of the article on honeybees. When reading each paragraph, remember to cross out unnecessary information and to highlight the important information. When everyone finishes writing topic sentences for each paragraph, turn in your sheets to me so I can complete a summarization checklist. Once everyone is done, we will take a comprehension quiz to test your knowledge on the lesson.

 

Summarization Checklist:

  • Didn’t include unnecessary information

  • Collected important information

  • Topic sentences brought together the main idea from the paragraph

  • Sentences are grammatically correct

 

Comprehension Quiz:

  1. Where do honeybees live?

  2. Have you ever seen a hive? If so, what do they look like?

  3. Is there a queen or king in charge of the hive?

  4. Why do you think every bee has a job?

  5. How many queens are allowed to live in one hive?

  6. What are male bees called?

  7. Can you recall something that you have eaten that has been created by bees?

 

References:

Honeybee text: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/insects/honeybee/

Hannah Hardin, Summarizing with Silky the Snake

https://hanhardin1020.wixsite.com/readinglessondesigns/reading-to-learn-design

Click here for the Communications Index

Click here to go back to the Home Page

bee.gif
bottom of page