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Summarization Sleepover!

Reading to Learn Lesson Design

By: Caroline Hall

Rationale: The next step after learning to read fluently is comprehending what you are reading. Reading comprehension is an important literacy goal because understanding the message is the reason we read in the first place! By teaching children how to delete useless information and finding or creating a topic sentence that covers the main idea of the text, we can help readers recall information and gain reading comprehension. This lesson is designed to test comprehension skills and help students summarize text without thinking about unimportant details.

Materials:

Pencil and paper for each student
Individual copies of an article written for kids on dogonews.com (URL below)
Summarization checklist and comprehension quiz (below)

Procedures:

Explain to children why summarization is important. Say: “Today we are going to work on summarizing a passage! Great readers use summarization skills to understand the meaning of what they are reading. Since you are all fluent readers, you are all capable of learning this important comprehension skill. Readers with comprehension skills don’t try to remember everything, but use summarization strategies to recall the important points of the story.”
Say: “When using summarization skills, we have a few guidelines to follow. First, we need to get rid of any unimportant information in the text. Next, we need to read through and delete any information that is repeated anywhere in the text. Lastly, we need to choose or create a topic sentence to begin our summary.”
Say: “In a few minutes, I’m going to model how I’d use these summarization guidelines with a paragraph about having a sleepover with sharks, which is the article you are going to be reading today. Have you ever heard of someone sleeping underwater? Do you think it would be safe to have an underwater sleepover with sharks? How much does it cost? These are some of the questions you will be learning to answer today.”
“Let’s talk about an important vocabulary word you’ll be reading: submerged. For something to be submerged means that it is under the surface of water or any other liquid. For example, ‘Shortly after Titanic hit the iceberg, the ship was submerged.’ Can you think of something that can be submerged? Finish this sentence: When I go swimming in the pool, I submerge…”
“Here is a paragraph from the story:”

Here is some good news for those that are looking for adventure in their lives. Peer-to-peer rental site Airbnb is accepting applications for people that want to experience a sleepover with the 35 sharks that reside at France's Aquarium de Paris.

This paragraph is about the company, Airbnb, that is used to rent an underwater room in Paris. Did you see any information that is unnecessary in this passage? Is the first sentence important to understand the message of the passage? No, so this sentence can be deleted. I am now left with, ‘Peer-to-peer rental site Airbnb is accepting applications for people that want to experience a sleepover with the 35 sharks that reside at France’s Aquarium de Paris.’ Using this information, I can make a topic sentence: Airbnb, a rental site, is accepting applications to sleep in an underwater room surrounded by sharks.”

“Now I want you to use the summarizing rules we discussed on the next paragraph:

While the guests will not be swimming with the fish, they will be eerily close — In an underwater bedroom that has been submerged 33-ft into the large shark exhibit that contains 3 million liters of water. The circular room features floor to ceiling windows allowing guests to enjoy a 360° view of the surroundings as they relax, or as is more likely, clutch on to the edges of their comfortable bed. For those worried that the glass walls may rupture, Airbnb says the room was extensively tested in the Mediterranean Sea before being installed in the aquarium's shark tank and is perfectly safe.

What information is unnecessary? The details and facts about the room can be deleted. What are we left with? ‘For those worried that the glass walls may rupture, Airbnb says the room was extensively tested in the Mediterranean Sea before being installed in the aquarium’s shark tank and is perfectly safe.’ Now we can use this information to create a topic sentence: The underwater room has been thoroughly tested and is completely safe.”

Say: “Now I’d like you to finish reading the article and use your summarizing skills to create a topic sentence for the remaining paragraphs. When you are finished, you will have a good summary of the article, which will help you remember the important information. Don’t summarize examples or trivia; they are only given to help you understand the main ideas. You will be writing a short version of the article in your own words, including only the important ideas to remember. Be sure to ask questions if anything is confusing about the article, we will be having a quiz after everyone finishes writing!”

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: