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Reading to Learn

The Summarizing Sloth

Sarah Crawford

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Rationale: Every beginning reader's end goal is reading comprehension. This lesson will teach students strategies such as summarization, which will help them learn and understand text. Students will learn how to pick out information, summarize the text, and then demonstrate how they understand the text. This goal will be showcased by giving the students an article to read about sloths, then they will pick out the most important facts. Finally, students will write a summary about the article. 

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Materials: 

  • Class set of "Sloth" by National Geographic

  • Bookmarks for all students

  • Highlighters

  • Paper and pencil

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Procedures: 

  1. Say: "Today we are going to learn about summarizing. How many of you know what summarizing means? Well, summarizing means getting the main ideas from a passage or text. We need summarization so we can comprehend the text. Does anyone know what to comprehend means? Yes! It means to fully understand something. 

  2. (Pass out Summarization Checklist Bookmarks) Say: "Here I am passing out bookmarks that have a summarization checklist that I want you all to follow when reading articles or text. So first, when summarizing an article, I want you to carefully read the text. Start to think what is the author portraying in this article? Then, I want you to highlight any important or key facts in the article. Cross out any repeated or irrelevant information in the article. Finally, organize your main ideas into sentences that summarize the article. 

  3. Say: "Does anyone know any facts about sloths? [Wait for responses] Awesome, you all already know so much about sloths, and today we're going to learn even more through an article! How long do you think they sleep for? [Wait for responses] Yes, they sleep almost all day-- 20 hours! Now before we learn how to summarize, let's learn some new vocabulary words. Vocabulary list: drowsy, descend, herbivore, vertebrae, predator. 

  4. [Explain the vocabulary words in an easy to understand definition. Then, model how to use the word in a sentence. Provide sample questions on when to use the words and scaffold students in making a new sentence] â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹Say: "Our first word is 'descend'. 'Descend' just means to move downwards. An example is, the airplane began to 'descend'. Now, finish this sentence: The dog descended from the couch to the..." [Do this exercise with each vocabulary word]

  5. ​​Guided Practice: Read the first paragraph together and model how to gather information from the articles--

       It's a good thing sloths don't have to go to school. They'd never make it on time. These drowsy             tree-dwellers sleep up to 20 hours a day! And even when they are awake, they barely move at all.       In fact, they're so incredibly sluggish, algae actually grows on their fur.

  

      "What is this paragraph about? Yes, sloth's sleep patterns. Can you believe how long sloths                   actually sleep? They sound like very tired creatures. We might want to highlight the sentence that       says sloths sleep up to 20 hours a day. Also, we could highlight that sloths are sluggish even                 when they are awake. That's an important fact that we should remember. We don't really need           to know that "it's a good thing sloths don't go to school" so we could go ahead and cross that             sentence out. So how could we use this information to create a sentence that summarizes the           paragraph? Sloths are very sluggish animals even though they can sleep up to 20 hours a day." 

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 6.  Say: "Now I want you to finish reading the rest of the article and make a sentence after each              paragraph. After you finish, you should have a good summarization of the article. I want you to            ask yourself after each paragraph, What is the author trying to tell me? What is the main idea              from this paragraph? Still remember to use your summarization checklist if you need guidance."

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Assessment: 
When summarizing, did the student...

cross out any repeated or unrelated information? yes or no

highlight main ideas or important facts? yes or no

find the main idea? yes or no

summarize the article in 4-5 sentences? yes or no

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Quiz

1. Are sloths asleep or awake for most of the day?

2. Do sloths often leave their trees?

3. How can you tell the two types of sloths apart?

4. Why do scientist think sloths move so slow?

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Summarization Checklist

____ Read text carefully

____ Discover the main idea

____ Take notes on the main idea

____ Highlight main ideas or important facts

____ Cross out any repeated or fluff information 

____ Organize your thoughts into complete sentences

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References:

Harbinson, Chloe. Sippin' and Summarizing. https://harbisonn1221.wixsite.com/chloeharbison/reading-to-learn

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Murray, Bruce. Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea. https://murraba.wixsite.com/reading-lessons/rl

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Sloth. National Geographic Kids. 2019. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/sloth/

 

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