Rationale: The ultimate goal of reading is comprehension, and students at this level are ready to learn how to read not just for accuracy, but for meaning. This lesson introduces summarization as a useful strategy for reading comprehension and understanding. Students will learn to find the main ideas and sort out trivial details and repeated information in an article for kids about tigers.

 

Materials: 
•    Class set of the article “Tiger” by National Geographic Kids
•    Steps for summarization to show over projector
•    Assessment chart for each student (for teacher use)
•    Marker for each student
•    Pencil
•    White paper
•    Lined paper
•    Projector

 

Procedures: 
1.)    Teacher says: Who has ever read a really fantastic story? When you go and tell your friends, do you have to remember every single detail or just explain the important parts? Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to leave out details and pick out the most important parts of a story. If you’re raising your hand, then you’ve already practiced what we’re going to learn today- it’s called summarization. Summarization is a strategy great readers use to mentally note the most important parts of what they’re ready in order to get the big idea. This means that you can show that you understand what you’re reading. Now it’s time to learn how we do it!
2.)    Teacher says: We’re going to practice our summarizing skills on an article about tigers. First, I want to know what you already know about tigers. Can anybody tell me something they know about tigers? (waits and takes 2-3 student responses) Okay, great! Now we need to use our background knowledge to get us ready to read and understand our article.
3.)    Teacher says: Now I want each student to take out the white sheet of paper I passes out to each of you and lay it on its side, like a hot dog. Now, using your pencil, make three columns like this. (draws two lines to create three vertical columns across the paper) Each column is going to have a step we need to summarize. (puts teacher copy of steps on projector to model process for students) What does the first step say? (calls on student) Correct, “Delete Extra Details” is our first step. We have to recognize which details are most important to the story. Just because a detail is somewhat important does 
not mean that it is most important to the main idea, so we have to sort through all the information. Let’s write, “Delete Extra Details” in our first column to remind us of our first step to remember. Now, our second step is “Find Important Information.” We have to look for the information that is essential to our story to find the main ideas. Lastly, write our final step in the last column, which says, “Create a Topic Sentence.” This means we’re going to use our important information without extra details to write one sentence that tells us about what you just read. This is the tricky part because you have to decide what is most important and what you have to leave out, but I know you can do it!
4.)    Teacher says: Now we’re finally going to practice with our article called “Tiger.” Has anyone ever seen a real tiger before? You won’t find them in your backyard, the woods of Alabama, or even in another state except in zoos because they’re native to places all the way on the other side of the world! There’s so much to learn about such gorgeous creatures, but we’re going to have to read our article to find out more. Let’s read our first paragraph together: (teacher reads aloud) “Easily recognized by its coat of reddish-orange with dark stripes, the tiger is the largest wild cat in the world. The big cat's tail is three feet long. On average the big cat weighs 450 pounds, about the same as eight ten-year-old kids. It stands three feet tall with teeth four inches long and claws as long as house keys.”
5.)    Teacher says: Before we summarize, let’s see if there are any unfamiliar words. What does coat mean in this sentence? Is the tiger wearing a jacket? No? Then what does “coat” mean here? (Takes responses) Yes, it means the tiger’s fur is red and orange with stipes! Are there any more unfamiliar words to anyone? (waits for response) Okay, now we can start summarizing, so let’s look at the first sentence. “Easily recognized by its coat of reddish-orange with dark stripes, the tiger is the largest wild cat in the world.” Using our first two steps, can anyone tell me something that seems really important? How about, “the tiger is the largest wild cat in the world?” Let’s put that in our second column with important information. In our next sentence, we learn how much tigers weigh, but do you think that we have to know those details to tell the main idea? I don’t think so, so we can write those facts in the first column, so we know to delete that from our topic sentence we’re going to create. The last sentence also has a lot of specific numbers that we don’t need in order to know what the article’s about, so let’s put those in the first column, too. “It stands three feet tall with teeth four inches long and claws as long as house keys.” 
6.)    Teacher says: Now that we’ve sorted through some details, let’s put the most important information into a topic sentence to tell people what this paragraph is about. Let’s see, the tiger being the largest wildcat is important, and so is the fact that tigers have dark, recognizable stripes and large claws and tails. However, the specific numbers aren’t as important, so we need to delete them from the topic sentence. Let’s see, with what we have, let’s write, “With huge claws and long tails, the striped, reddish-brown tigers are the largest wildcats in the world.” That tells us how we can recognize them and that the paragraph is going to tell us how large tigers are. Let’s write that down in the third column like this.
7.)    Teacher says: Now, I want you each to work with the partner sitting next to you and sort through details to find what’s important and what you would delete, then use your charts to make a topic sentence for each remaining paragraph to write in the third column. When you finish, each person turn in their charts to me, with a line underneath your notes for each paragraph to separate them. Then, pick up a sheet with questions to check how well you and your partner understood the article. You may work together, but each person needs to turn in their own answers on a separate sheet of paper.
8.)    To assess, review column charts that show each topic sentence as well as details to delete and keep, so that a relationship can be seen between what information is sorted where and which details end up in the topic sentences. Also, grade comprehension questions to see how students understood the article and how their answers correlated to summarizing ability. 

 

Comprehension Questions:
1.)    What time of day do tigers hunt for their food?
2.)    What is a noticeable difference between tigers and other big cats?
3.)    Why are tigers endangered across the world?

 

Assessment Checklist:
Student Name: ___________________________
1.    Did the student fill out the chart on his/her paper?
2.    Did the students come up with topic sentences for the remaining paragraphs?
3.    Did the student successfully delete unimportant/redundant information?
4.    Did the student successfully identify important parts?
5.    Did the student use the important information to come up with topic sentence?

 

 

References:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/tiger/#photoark-tiger.png
adapted from: Amber Glass
http://ang0018.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn

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