Rational: Reading is the initial step for students to learn new information. In order to become better readers, we must truly understand what we are reading. One way for beginning readers to improve comprehension is to learn how to summarize. To summarize is to take all of the important details and main ideas out of a text and combine them in a way that explains the story to someone who has not read it. This lesson helps students learn how to find those main ideas and key details in a text by having the teacher model summarization and then by summarizing themselves. The teacher will show the strategy of summarizing by explicitly modeling how to pick out important details and eliminate unimportant ones, and then guide students through summarizing their own passages. The students will be assessed on their summarization skills through comprehension questions.

 Materials: 

Pencils

Paper

Highlighter 

Color pencil to mark the passage

Dye-erase board, and dry-erase markers

Passage sample on SmartBoard from “Highlights Kids: Saving a Butterfly” The entire article.

Classroom copies of full article “Highlights Kids: Saving a Butterfly”

Rubric for summarization

Procedures:

Say: “Today we are going to talk about summarization. What do you think it means to summarize a story? Summarizing means taking the most important details of a story and putting it in your own words. Important details would be things such as main ideas, important characters, important statics, or really important things that a character does depending on what you are reading. When you summarize, you are retelling the story or passage but leaving out all the more unimportant information. We use summarization with long books and articles especially, it helps you break it down into something more simple and easier to remember.”

Say: “I’ve given you all an article from Highlights Kids about a butterfly named Survivor. Butterflies begin their lives as caterpillars and develop into beautiful creatures! We’re going to read the first part of the story together, and I’ll show you how to summarize/ Then you’ll get to summarize the rest of the story on your own! We are going to read the story very closely, pretending as if we are there, in the story! We are going to learn about things we may have never before, so let’s read and investigate closely! Follow along with me as I read the first part of the story!”

Say: “Okay, who can give me a summary of what we just read?” *Give different students a chance to give their summaries and assist as needed. Jot down some of their summaries on the board* Let’s take a look at my copy of this paragraph on the SmartBoard. Notice how I highlighted important details and crossed out details that were not important. That helps me keep facts straight and the main idea in mind. * Model sample below on board *

One summer morning, I went for a walk. My neighbor had pulled some plants and left them by the road. I recognized the tall stalks with oval leaves. They were milkweed. These plants are poisonous to cows, sheep, and horses. But milkweed is food for the larvae—or caterpillars—of the monarch butterfly. These insects can’t live without milkweed.

Explain: “To review, the main topic or fourth sentence tells us what the story will be about. The fourth sentence talks about caterpillars and tells us that they are the monarch butterfly. I highlighted that sentence because its helpful to see that it is an important sentence and one of the more important parts of the paragraph. Some of the information is more important than others and highlighting the information helps you summarize more effectively. Now I’m going to give you all a chance to try this on your own. Remember that the answer could be anything so just do your best!”

Say: “Let’s read about our friend Survivor, the butterfly! I will also give you a color pencil and a highlighter. As you read the story, highlight details that you think are important and contribute to the main idea of the story. Take the colored pencil and cross out the details that you do not think are important. The main idea of this story is to show you the process of how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. There is a lot of information in the story, so pick facts that are main ideas.”

Say: “When you’ve finished reading and marking the story, I want you to summarize it in 6 sentences or less. Remember to only include main ideas and details. Don’t include any of the details that you cross out, only the ones that you have highlighted. Write in complete sentences and use correct punctuation. The most important thing is not to copy the text just like it is but put it in your own words.”

Say: “Before you read, let’s go over a little vocabulary that you’ll see in the passage so you’ll know what it means. * Write these on the board as well, with an example sentence so students may reference back *

Milkweed- an American plant with milky sap. Some kinds attract butterflies; some are useful.

When you’ve finished reading and summarizing, I want you to come put your papers in the basket on my desk. Okay, now everyone start reading and begin to summarize. * Allow 20-25 minutes for students to summarize* 

After the students turn in their summarizations, hand out the comprehension questions and have them answer those on their own. Grade those for accuracy to access their comprehension.