Reading to Learn Design

Cool Cat Summarizing

Rationale: It is a wonderful accomplishment when students learn to read words and become fluent readers, but this is not the final step. Now that students can automatically identify words, they must use their minds to focus on the meaning of texts. Students must be able to get the gist of texts and learn from them. They must have comprehension. Fluent readers can improve their language comprehension through learning research-supported strategies for reading comprehension such as summarization. This lesson will show an effective way to teach summarization through 3 rules so that students can reduce a text to a compact and memorable gist. The teacher will model the rules. Then, students will receive their own article and delete unimportant or repeated information, superordinate items and events by using an umbrella term, and find or create a topic sentence that covers everything the writer is saying about the topic. This will allow them to create effective summaries, and comprehension will be tested through a set of questions.

Materials:

Paper and pencil for each student for summary and answers
Highlighter for each student
Summarization rules on board
Teacher pencil and highlighter
Projector for modeling
Individual copies of the article Mountain Lion by National Geographic Kids
Individual copies of the article Cheetah by National Geographic Kids
Summarization checklist
Assessment checklist
Comprehension questions

Procedures:

1. Say “Raise your hand if you have ever read an article or a book and then told a friend about it! Did you tell them every word in the book, or did you just tell them about the most important parts? [Students answer.] Right! When we are telling someone about a book or article, we only tell them about the most important parts of the story that we remember. This strategy is called summarizing. Skilled readers use summarization to help them comprehend or understand what they have read. If you are able to summarize a story or a book, you likely understand what you read!”

2. Say: “First let’s look at our 3 rules of summarization on the board. These along with a checklist you will get later will help you write a great summary of the text you read!

Cross out any unimportant or repeated information that isn’t essential to the message of the text. Find and highlight the important information that is essential to the text and that you need to remember.
Superordinate items and events. This means to find an “umbrella term” or terms for the events that happen in the text. (ex- general term such as sports for football, basketball, and baseball or animals for cats, dogs, and horses)
Form a topic sentence from your umbrella terms and the important information you highlighted that covers what the writer says about the topic.”

3. Say: “Now, before we dive into summarizing, we are going to go over some vocabulary because we have to understand what words mean before we can comprehend the text’s message. We are going to learn the words prey and predator. First, let’s take a look at the word prey which means an animal that is hunted by another animal for food. Let’s think of some examples. Prey might hide because it does not want to be eaten. Prey might run really fast to try to get away from an animal that wants to eat it. Prey might be an animal like a rabbit or a pig that cannot defend itself. Would prey try to eat a tiger, chase after a tiger, or stay quiet when a tiger is around? [Let students answer and explain why they think this. Ask students what else prey might do.] Now I want you to finish this sentence: When the prey felt like he was being watched, he… [Let students read their answers and discuss.]

Now I want us to look at the word predator. A predator kills others animals for food. So it is kind of the opposite of prey! Some examples are the predator snuck up on the animal it wanted to eat. Predators might run really fast to try to catch the animal it wants to eat. Predators might use big claws or big teeth to catch the animals they want to eat. Predators might be tigers or mountain lions or cheetahs like we will learn about later. Would predators hide from a rabbit, run away from a rabbit, or try to eat a rabbit? [Let students answer and explain why they think this. Ask students what else prey might do.] Now I want you to finish this sentence: When the predator saw a hurt animal that could not run well, it… [Let students read their answers and discuss.]

Now I want you to think about both new words together. Finish these sentences: When the prey saw the predator, it… and When the predator saw its prey, it…” [Let students read their finished sentences to each other.]

4. Say: “Now I am going to pass out an article, and we are going to practice summarizing one paragraph at a time. We are going to highlight the important parts. We must be very selective in choosing what information is the most important. We will also cross out information that is repeated or unimportant that we do not need to remember. Booktalk: How many of you know what a big cat is? Did you know some live in the U.S.? This article is about mountain lions which are very interesting animals, and you can see them in some parts of the United States! We are going to read many cool facts like what they eat, what their babies are like, and where they live. Let’s see what all we can learn about the mountain lion! [Hand out copy of article to each student.] Watch how I summarize the first paragraph and find the important parts. First, let’s read the paragraph.

“The mountain lion goes by many names, including cougar, catamount, panther, red tiger, deer tiger, and puma. This cat can be found throughout much of South and North America.”

This first paragraph is very interesting! I am going to highlight the parts I think are important which are “many names” and “South and North America.” Do you think all the different names listed are important? Do we need to remember them? [Students answer.] No, I don’t think so either so we can cross them out. We can place them all under the umbrella term names. Are the words “found throughout much of” important? No, not really. We mainly just need to remember they live in the Americas. This paragraph gave us information about the names of mountain lions and where they live. Our topic sentence would be “Mountain lions have many names and live in North and South America.”

5. Say: “Now that you have a good idea of how to summarize, let’s summarize the next paragraph together.
“The mountain lion used to be found all over the United States, but now is primarily seen in the western U.S. An endangered subspecies of mountain lion also remains in Florida. These felines are comfortable in many different habitats and, aside from humans, have the widest geographic range of any land mammal in the Western Hemisphere.”

6. Say: “Let’s start by underlining the important parts of the paragraph. Do you think the sentence “An endangered subspecies of mountain lion also remains in Florida” is important? [Listen to student answers.] No, I don’t think so either because we already know most of the remaining U.S. mountain lions live in the west.” [Let students discuss which parts they think are important enough to highlight and which are trivial enough to cross out. Continue to guide students with this activity picking apart different paragraphs and writing topic sentences until a concise and memorable summary is formed.]

7. Say: “Now that we have practiced summarizing, I want you to try on your own. I will pass out a summary checklist that you can use while you summarize along with our rules on the board. I will also pass out comprehension questions and an article titled Cheetahs that you will be reading. Booktalk: Do you know what the fastest mammal on land is? Do you know what animal can run up to 70mph? It's the cheetah! I think cheetahs are one of the coolest looking and most interesting big cats to learn about. This awesome article will tell you all about cheetahs like where they live and and how they hunt. I bet some facts will surprise you! When you finish reading and writing your summary, answer the comprehension questions. Once everyone is done, share your summary with your neighbor. See if your summaries are similar. Then, turn in your summary and comprehension answers.”

Summary Checklist:
Did I…..
____ Write a topic sentence for each paragraph?
____ Did I remove unimportant information and repeated ideas by crossing them out?

____ Did I highlight the most important information?
____ Did I come up with an umbrella term or terms before I wrote each topic sentence?
____ Is my summary for the passage about 3-5 sentences? About one sentence for each

paragraph.

Assessment Materials:

Comprehension Questions:

1. How do the cheetah’s spots help it? (Answer: they blend into the grass making it hard for prey to see them)

2. What are some factors mentioned in the article that help cheetahs catch prey? (Answer: their speed, eyesight, and spotted coats)

3. Why do you think cheetahs hunt in grasslands and bushy areas? (Answer: this allows them to remain hidden from prey and chase them down)

4. Why are cheetahs at risk for becoming extinct? (Answer: habitat loss and declining numbers of prey)

5. Why might a cheetah take a break before eating? (Answer: they need to catch their breath after running down prey)

Assessment Checklist:

___ Student underlined important ideas.
___ Did not underline trivia.
___ Summary used 1+ complete sentences.
___ Identified topic accurately.

___ Included key details.

___ Omitted trivia.

___ Captured main idea of text.

References:

Griffin, Emily. Bear-y Good Summarization.

https://emily-marie-griffin.weebly.com/reading-to-learn-design.html

Kirkpatrick, Emma. Storming into Summarization.

https://emk0029.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn

National Geographic Kids. Cheetah.

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/cheetah/#cheetah-running.jpg

National Geographic Kids. Mountain Lion.

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mountain-lion/#mountain-lion-on-rock.jpg

Murray, Bruce. Making Sight Words. Linus Publications, Inc., 2012. Print.

Tschetter, Ellie. Busy Bee’s Summarizing.

https://ellietschetter.wixsite.com/ellieslessons/reading-to-learn

Cheetah Animation: http://bestanimations.com

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