Miss Megan's Lesson Designs

Rationale: It is important that students begin to comprehend information while reading. During this lesson, students will learn to summarize. Summarization can reveal whether a student has fully grasped the importance of the reading they were given. Students will learn how to delete trivial and redundant information in an article about Cheetahs. They also will learn how to use important information to make a summary.

Materials: Class set of “Cheetah” by Kids National Geographic; poster with the rules of summarization on it; assessment chart for each student (for teachers use); marker set for each student; lined notebook paper for each student; projector

Procedures:

1. Teacher says: Have you ever read a book that was so good that you had to tell everyone about it? When you told a person about the book, did you read the whole book to them? (Call on student). That’s right! We don’t usually read them the whole book. We just tell them the important things from the book. When you give someone the important parts of a story, it is called a summary. Summarization is a helpful strategy good readers use to help comprehend or understand what you are reading. If you can summarize a book or article, it is a good indication that you are able to understand what you’ve read.

2. Before we continue learning about summarization, let’s review what we have already learned about Cheetahs this week. Yesterday we talked about where most cheetahs are found. Who remembers? (call on student). That’s right! Africa and Asia! How is the Cheetah able to run so fast without getting tired? (call on student) That’s right! They take thirty minute breaks in between runs. How Cheetahs find food? (Call on student.) Good job! They have amazing eyesight to spot animals from far away.

3. I’m so impressed with how much each of you remembered about Cheetahs! Now, let's talk more about summarization. Everybody take out a marker and a sheet of paper. Turn your paper horizontal, like a hot dog, and divide it into three different columns. Okay, now let's look at our "Rules of Summarizing" poster. Who can read me what the first rule of summarizing is? (Call on student). Yes, the first rule of summarizing is to delete the unimportant, or trivial information. We don’t want to keep any repeated information. Everybody write this rule at the top of the first column on your piece of paper. It can be very helpful to cross out important information if you can mark on the article you are reading, but you are reading in a book you will probably have to make a mental note that certain parts may not be as important as others. This will help you to understand the message the author is trying to tell you. Let's look at the second rule. The second rule is to find the important information. Everybody write this rule at the top of the second column. When you find something that is important in the book or article you are reading, underline or highlight the sentence so that you can go back and remember that it must be important. The final rule of summarization is to make a topic sentence. Everybody write this rule at the top of the third column on your paper. Making a topic sentence can be very challenging because most texts don't have topic sentences incorporated. A topic sentence combines all of the important information in a short, condensed way so that you are able to summarize and comprehend the paragraph you read.

4. Teacher says: Now we are going to practice summarizing with an article called "Cheetah". Have any of you seen a cheetah at a zoo before? Nope, they are becoming extinct and would also be bored in a zoo, where they cannot run! They are one of my favorite animals to read about in books and magazines though. According to this article, Cheetahs can run really fast! Have you ever wondered just how fast a Cheetah can run? Let’s look at the first paragraph of this article to find out.

“Cheetahs are the fastest mammal on land, the cheetah can reach speeds of 60 or perhaps even 70 miles (97 or 113 kilometers) an hour over short distances. It usually chases its prey at only about half that speed, however. After a chase, a cheetah needs half an hour to catch its breath before it can eat.”

5. Before we start to summarize this paragraph let’s go over some vocabulary.  What does “prey” mean? It means the animals that Cheetahs like to chase and eat. Here is a sentence: Cheetahs’ favorite thing to _____ on is the antelope. That’s right! Prey! Okay let’s get started.  Everybody watch me as I use my rules to summarize this paragraph. (Pull out a pre-made copy of the 3 columns on paper). Let's look at the first sentence: “Cheetahs are the fastest mammal on land, the cheetah can reach speeds of 60 or perhaps even 70 miles an hour over short distances.” Do we think it is important that cheetahs are very fast? I would say yes, because it helps them catch food. It is also important for them to escape dangerous situations. I am going to write that part of sentence one under my second column of important information.   However, I don’t think it’s very important to this paragraph that Cheetahs need to catch their breath. Let’s put that in our first column of unimportant information.

6. Now that we have finished the first paragraph let's try and see if we can come up with a topic sentence. Remember, a topic sentence is one sentence that explains what the whole paragraph is talking about. I am going to look at the parts I have in my column 2 for the important information I wrote down. Look at your second column to see what important information that we wrote down. I have that “Cheetahs run fast to catch their prey and that they take breaks before they eat."  I would make this a topic sentence by saying: Running fast is the Cheetah’s way to get food and hide from predators.   Now I have all my important information in one sentence, and this is a summary of the paragraph I was reading. Does anybody have any questions?

7. Now, I am going to let you summarize each of the remaining paragraphs. Remember to use your paper with the columns to help you break up the information. You can also look at our summarizing poster as well if you need help! Come up with one topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, I want you to staple the article to your paper with your columns, and turn it in to me.

8. Assessment: I will review each student's column chart to determine if they could successfully summarize the different paragraphs. I will use the assessment checklist to record each child's grade. Topic sentences may vary slightly, but I will be looking to see if they child included the important information in each.

Comprehension Questions:

1. Where do Cheetahs live?

2. What do Cheetahs do when threatened?

3. What are some dangers a Cheetah may face?

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:

Katherine Hope Youngblood

http://khyoungblood.wix.com/khyoungblood#!reading-to-learn/mbwa8

National Geographic Kids

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/cheetah/

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