Rhiannon Akins

Scuba Diving with Sharks and Summarization

Rhiannon Akins

Rationale: 

One way to check and see if students understand what they have read is to test their comprehension. A great way to test a student’s comprehension is to get them to summarize a book they have read.

Summarizing a story is simply picking out the main ideas and emphasizing the fundamental facts. It helps students understand it better because they focus on the main ideas that the author intended rather than every little detail.

This lesson will help students acquire the knowledge to summarize a story in order to understand the deeper meaning. Students will use the following summarization rules: delete and mark out unimportant or repeated information, find and highlight important information, and form a topic sentence from the important information.

Materials:

• Paper for students

• Pencils for students

• Highlighter

• Assessment checklist (teacher use)

• Class set of article, “Great White Shark” by Kids National Geographic

• Summarizing Rules Poster:

  • 1) Delete and mark out unimportant or repeated information.

  • 2) Find and highlight important information.

  • 3) Form a topic sentence from the important information.

Procedures:      

1. Say: Can anyone tell me if they have ever read a book that you found interesting, so you told your friend about it? Did you tell them every little detail, or did you tell them the important parts that you read? (Wait for student response). Yes, you only tell them the important parts of the story! This is called summarizing, and this particular skill can help us better understand the books we read, therefore making us better readers! If you can summarize a book or an article, then that let’s me know you understand the material that you have read.

2. Say: Before we practice summarization, let’s review what we have learned about Great White Sharks so far this week.  What classification of animal is it?  (Ask a student whose hand is raised to answer.)  That’s right! It is classified as a fish.  Does anyone remember how long a Great White Shark tends to live? (Ask a student whose hand is raised to answer.) Very good! Great White Sharks have a lifespan up to 70 years. Last question, what type of diet do Great White Sharks have? (Ask a student whose hand is raised to answer.) That’s right! These fish are carnivores.  A carnivore is an animal that eats other meat. 

3. Say: Ok friends I am very proud that you all have kept the important information about Great White Sharks in your brilliant brains!  Now we are going to read the first paragraph of our new article about Great White Sharks. Before we begin reading, let’s go over a few short rules about summarization:

   1. Delete and mark out unimportant or repeated information.

   2. Find and highlight important information.

   3. Form a topic sentence from the important information.   

***I will create a summarization rules poster and hang it where everyone can refer back to it while working. ***

Say: Students, be sure to look at the rules if you forget anything. Also, be sure that this summary is in your own words and not your neighbors or the authors. Summarization works best when you read the article slowly, read the important parts at least two times, and take notes as you go. Taking notes will help you point out the main ideas more easily.

4.  Say: Before we begin reading our article, let’s go over our vocabulary words. Being familiar with new vocabulary words will help you have a better understanding of the meaning of the article.

• Vocabulary list:

  • prey—an animal that is hunted or killed by another animal for food (Example Sentence:  The lion quietly watched its prey waiting for the perfect time to run after it.)

  • pup—another name for a baby shark  

  • predator—an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals (Example Sentence:  When an owl is hunting for mice to eat, the owl is the predator.)

  • breach—rise and break through the surface of the water (Example Sentence: When I was standing on the beach, I saw two dolphins breach for air.)

5.  Teacher says, “Now we are going to practice summarizing with an article called "Great White Shark." This article tells us about a great white shark’s life, it points out information about a great white shark’s body, and it also describes how a great white shark hunts for food.  Let’s read the article to find out what is so interesting about the great white shark. We are going to read the first couple of sentences together. “

READING MATERIAL

“When a great white shark is born, along with up to a dozen siblings, it immediately swims away from its mother. Baby sharks are on their own right from the start, and their mother may see them only as prey. At birth the baby shark is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long already; as it grows it may reach a length three times that. The pup (which is what a baby shark is called) will live its life at the top of the ocean's food chain. But before it grows larger, the pup must avoid predators bigger than it is—including other great white sharks. Many baby sharks do not survive their first year.”

6.  Say: Can someone raise their hand and tell me what rule number one for summarization is? (Call on student with raised hand to answer.) That’s right! Delete and mark out unimportant or repeated information.  So, the first thing I want to do is pick out any information in the article that is not important. I don't think we really need to know, “When a great white shark is born, along with up to a dozen siblings, it immediately swims away from its mother. Baby sharks are on their own right from the starts, and their mother may see them only as prey.” I also don’t think we really need to know, “Many baby sharks do not survive their first year.” Let's all take our pencil and cross those sentences out. Can someone raise their hand and tell me what rule number two for summarization is? (Call on student with hand raised to answer.) That’s right! Find and highlight important information! Next, we need to highlight and locate important pieces of information in the text we just read. For example, when it says, “At birth the baby shark is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long already; as it grows it may reach a length three times that. The pup (which is what a baby shark is called) will live its life at the top of the ocean’s food chain.” I also think we need to know, “But before it grows larger, the pup must avoid predators bigger than it is—including other great white sharks.”    Let’s all take our highlighter and highlight those sentences.  Okay class we are on the last rule.  Can someone raise their hand and tell me what rule number three for summarization is please? (Again call on someone with their hand raised to answer.) That’s right! Form a topic sentence from the important information. So, we need to create our topic sentence. We know that the article is about great white sharks are small at first but once they grow they become the top of the food chain, so maybe our topic sentence could be “A great white shark is small at first but once it grows bigger, it lives at the top of the ocean’s food chain.”  Now we can use our topic sentence and the information that we have left to write our summary. On your own paper, write the topic sentence and the rest of the information that we have left in your own words. (Walk around to scaffold the writing.) Another idea would be to use the main point to create the topic sentence. Ask the students, "What is it about?" and "What is the main point?"

7.  Now I want you all to follow the same steps to summarize the rest of the article. Remember to write down important and non-important information under each correct side of your paper to help you create a topic sentence. Feel free to look at our summarizing poster if you need help. Create a topic sentence for each paragraph and when you have finished, staple the article to your paper with your important/unimportant idea scratch sheet, and turn it in to me.

Assessment:

I will review each student's idea 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. When a great white shark is born, where does it go?

2. How long is a baby shark when it is born?

3. What is the difference between predator and prey?

4. What is a great white shark’s favorite prey?

5. How long can great white sharks last without another meal?

Assessment Checklist: Y (Yes) or N (No)

Student Name: ___________________________

• Did the student fill out the chart on his/her paper?_____

• Did the students come up with topic sentences for the remaining paragraphs?_____

• Did the student successfully delete unimportant/redundant information?_____

• Did the student successfully identify important parts?_____

• Did the student use the important information to come up with topic sentences?_____

References:

• http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/great-white-shark/#great-white-shark-swimming-blue.jpg

• http://madisonwolanek.wix.com/lesson-designs#!readingtolearn/c4xp

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