A Reading to Learn Design
By: Laney Leavins
Rationale: One of the two most powerful strategies a student can use for comprehending a text is summarization. About-point is an effective strategy of summarizing. It asks two very specific questions about the text. Those questions are, “What is the text about?”, and “What is the main point that the writer is making about that topic?”. The first question is the easy part, and it identifies the topic that becomes the subject of the main, or topic sentence. Since the author usually makes several key points, it is smart for the reader to omit information that is not important, and in turn underline important information. The reader should then find an “umbrella” term that covers all the main points the author is making. The main point becomes the subject of the topic sentence. This Reading to Learn design will assist the teacher in modeling how to detect important information that is needed to write a summary.
Materials:
- White board & marker (for teacher)
- Items for each student :
- Pencil
- Paper
- Individual copies of Stegosaurus article
- Summarization checklist
- Comprehension quiz
- Rubrics for assessment
Procedures:
- Say- “Today we are going to learn how to summarize. Have you ever read a really interesting article or a book?! Did you tell a friend about it after you read it? If so, what did you do? Did you read the whole thing to them, or did you only tell them about the important parts? (Wait for student engagement/answers) Usually, when we are telling our friends about a book or article, we only tell them about the most important parts of the story. When you do that, you are summarizing. To summarize means to find the most important information in anything in what you are reading. Good readers don’t try to remember every little detail of the book. Smart readers use summarization strategies to remember only the key points the author is making about the topic. In doing that, they shorten a text that may have many words to a compact summary that is easy to remember. Summarization also makes it easier for us to comprehend and remember what we read."
- Say- “The most efficient method to summarize is called about-point. When using about-point, you ask yourself a simple question and a question that is a little more challenging, and you use the answers to make a topic sentence. The easy question is "What is the text about?". The challenging question is "What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?". To answer this question, you have to brainstorm an umbrella term for all the important points that the writer is trying to tell you.”. (Write the two questions on the board for the students to refer to)
- Say- “Today, we are going to learn how to about-point a paragraph together. First, we need to talk about two main vocabulary words that you’ll be reading in the article and become familiar with them. The first word we are going to go over is herbivore. Herbivore is used to describe the diet of a living thing that is made up of only plants. Now I want you to pull out a piece of paper and answer the question, ‘Can you name an animal that is a herbivore?’ The second word is habitat. Habitat is another word for where an animal, or living thing lives. For example, a bear’s habitat is the forest and/or a cave. On your paper, write what your habitat is.”
- Say- “Now that we are a little more familiar with the words herbivore and habitat, we will look at a paragraph from the article together about this dinosaur’s diet: ‘The Stegosaurus was a plant eater, which we call a herbivore. It is believed to have eaten plants such as mosses, ferns, horsetails, cycads and conifers or fruits. No grass though, because there was no grass at this time.The Stegosaurus didn't have many teeth. It only had a toothless beak at the front of its mouth, and small teeth in its cheeks (no front teeth). This wouldn't have let it chew its food properly! To help it digest its food, it probably swallowed stones. The stones (gastroliths) would have moved about inside its stomach and the rough edges would help to break up the plants the dinosaur had eaten. This is similar to what crocodiles do today.’ This paragraph is about the Stegosaurus species and it’s diet, but what important points does the author make? They are plant eaters, and they didn’t have many teeth, so they wouldn't chew their food all that well.The author also tells us what they do to help them digest their food. They swallow rocks! Wow!”
- Say- “ Now, It’s your turn to try about-point! Read this paragraph: ‘The dinosaur would have lived among the undergrowth of a subtropical Cretaceous forest, which was suited for the Stegosaurus’ diet. The Stegosaurus was not very well designed for walking, and would have looked odd as it shambled through the undergrowth looking for a tasty bite to eat.’”
- Say- “What is this paragraph about? Yes, the Stegosaurus species. What are the main points that the author makes about them? Yes! They lived in undergrowth of the prehistoric forests. What is another point that the author makes? Right, they aren’t great walkers, so they would tend to look a little funny when finding plants to eat outside of their habitat. To make a topic sentence, you will combine these two points! Let’s try: Stegosaurus habitats…? Stegosaurus habitats were located in the undergrowth of the prehistoric forests, which suited their diet because they wouldn’t have to go very far to find food!.”
- Say- “Now it’s your turn. I want you to finish reading the article and write a topic sentence for each paragraph using about-point like we learned. After you have completed your sentences I want you to combine them into paragraph form. This will create your very own strong summary of the whole article. Your summary will help you be able to recall the most important facts about the Stegosaurus. Remember to answer both questions using the about-point method to help you form a topic sentence. You can refer to my board for the questions if you need help. Remember to ONLY pick out the most important points that the author is making in each paragraph, and put it in your own words. When you have completed this, attach your topic sentence page to the article I gave you and turn it in.”
- Review each student’s topic sentence page to determine if they successfully used summarization for the paragraphs of the article. Student grades will be recorded using the assessment checklist. Following the lesson, and individual summarization activity, the students will also take a brief comprehension quiz.
Summary Checklist:
Did I…
__ Write my topic sentence?
__ Find supporting details to help answer the question?
__ Remove unimportant information by marking it out?
__ Remove repeated ideas?
__ Create a 3-5 sentence summary?
Assessment:
Did the student…
__ Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph
__ Collected important information/ deleted unimportant or repetitive information
__ Significantly reduced the text from the original
__ Successfully conjoined the important points to form a topic sentence
Quiz:
- In what state was the first Stegosaurus fossil found?
- What word describes this dino’s diet?
- What helps a Stegosaurus digest its food?
- What is the meaning of the word Stegosaurus?
- How much does a Stegosaurus weigh?
- True or False: Does a Stegosaurus have front teeth?
Resources:
Article: Stegosaurus Dinosaur
https://www.kids-dinosaurs.com/stegosaurus-dinosaur.html
Murray, Bruce. Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea
https://murraba.wixsite.com/reading-lessons/rl
https://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/classroom/awakenings/