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Reading to Learn Lesson Design

Orca-strating Summarization

Reading to Learn Lesson Design

Kelly MacLachlan

Rationale: One of the best things we can do as readers is read a book and be able to pull out the important information. This is called summarization. It allows us to delete trivia and redundancies, superordinate items and events, and compose a topic sentence. We are able to comprehend the story better when we know what to focus on, and then we can organize our thoughts better when we go back to answer questions about the text. This lesson will help show students how to use the strategy of summarization.

Materials:

Transparent copy of the “Sea Otter” page on National Geographic KiDS website (see references for web address)

Overhead Projector

Class set of printed off copies of the “Orca” page on the National Geographic KiDS website (see references for web address)

White Board

Markers

Pencils

Paper

Highlighters

Assessment Checklist for each child (see attached)

Comprehension Questions

Procedures:

Say: “Alright friends, do you all remember when we worked on fluency to become better readers last week? We read and reread those books to gain the ability to read quickly and expressively. As we go through today’s lesson, lets remember the importance of rereading to gain better and better understanding of the text! We need to remember that the most important job of a reader is to understand what he or she is reading and gain knowledge from it! That is why today we are going to build our ability to take out the important information and not focus on the less important things! This is called summarization, being able to read a text and pull out the main, important points from it! Can anyone think of how summarizing would make reading easier? (Make a list on the whiteboard of what their reasons were). As we work today, we will have this list to remind us how important and helpful summarization is.
Say: There are three key steps to summarize correctly. First, we must read the text and pick out the most important main ideas. Then, you can reread through the parts you have chosen as important and double check that you have all the parts you need. Finally, you should be able to write one or a couple sentences summarizing the story!
Say: Now, I am going to read this article on Sea Otters aloud to all of you, and I will show you how I can find the important points throughout the article to build a summary! (Read the following text. When finished, go back through it with a highlighter and highlight on the overhead projector transparent sheet the most important parts. Finally, ask the class if they think that you have found the most important parts in the text. Write a brief summary on the whiteboard.)

Sea otters are part of the weasel family. They have webbed feet, water-repellent fur to keep them dry and warm, and nostrils and ears that close in the water.

Sea otters often float at the water's surface in forests of kelp, or giant seaweed, and entangle themselves to keep from moving in the rolling sea.

While floating on their backs, sea otters not only nap, but also use rocks to help them open mussels or other shellfish. Otters place a rock on their chests and smash the shellfish against it until it breaks open to reveal the tasty meat inside. They also snack on such aquatic creatures as sea urchins, crabs, squid, octopuses, and fish.

Sea otters are the only otters to give birth in the water. Mothers cuddle their young while floating on their backs and hold infants on their chests to nurse them. They quickly teach them to swim and hunt for themselves.

Sea otters wash themselves after a meal, cleaning their coat with their teeth and paws. They need to keep their fur coat clean so it stays waterproof. Sea otters have thick underfur that traps air to form an insulating layer against chilly waters (they have no insulating fat).

Sea otters were hunted for their fur to the point of near extinction. Early in the 20th century only 1,000 to 2,000 animals remained. They can be found along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia.

Say: In that reading, we decided one of the important parts we needed in our summary was that otters have water-repellent fur. Do any of you know what repellent means? Repellent means that it can fight or block something off. For example, we wear rain jackets when it is raining because our rain jackets are water repellent, meaning they block the water and keep us dry! Another example would be bug spray! We put on bug spray because it is a bug repellent, and we don’t get bitten. Can you guys think of anything else that is a repellent? I would like for everyone to write a sentence that uses the word repellent. In our text, we could’ve figured out what water-repellent meant since the rest of the sentence said that it kept the otter dry and warm! Whenever we don’t know a word, it usually helps to look at our context clues.

Now the students will practice what they have just learned individually. Pass out a copy of the Orca article to each student to mark and highlight on. “I am passing out a text about an Orca, which is a whale, for you to read and highlight the important things, just like we did as a class with the Sea Otter! Have any of you ever been to the beach? What about on a boat and seen a whale or dolphin? When you go to the beach with your families and put your toes in the water, I doubt you are thinking of the massive whales that are swimming not to far away from you! This is a really interesting text that will make you think of the beach in a whole different way. If I were you, I would read the story once through and then go back to highlight what I remember was really important. Once you have narrowed the text down, you can double check your work and write a short summary.

Assessment: I will call each student back one at a time once they have had time to read and highlight. I will see what they highlighted, along with the summary that they wrote. I will make a note of this on the checklist (see below), and ask them a couple of comprehension questions. Once the students have met with me, they will get in small groups to discuss the article and their summaries.

Summarization Assessment Checklist

Did the student…

Read the article?

Find the most important information?

Delete unnecessary information?

Understand the article?

Write an accurate summary?

Comprehension Questions

What are some of the main ideas you pulled from the text?

What is something you learned and found interesting about orcas?

Why is the orca also called a killer whale?

Does it seem like orcas are picky about what they eat?