Reading to Learn

Sea-ing Summarization

Hannah Locklear

Rationale: Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. Students who are at this level are ready to learn strategies better understand a text. This lesson introduces a strategy called about-point to help students learn to form a topic sentence about a paragraph by asking two questions. The first question asks “What is the text about?” and the second question asks “What is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” By finding the most important points that the author is making, students are learning to summarize a piece of text.

Materials:

Individual copies of “Green Sea Turtle” article for each student
Pencil and paper for each student
Summarization checklist
Comprehension quiz
Dry erase board and marker

Procedures:

Say: Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that you loved so much and wanted to tell your friends about it? When you explained the book or movie to them, did you tell them every single detail, or did you only mention the most important parts? If you have ever shortened a story like this by telling a friend the most important parts of a book or movie, you have practiced summarization! Summarization is a strategy that expert readers use to comprehend a book or article by only telling the most important parts through a summary. Summaries are important because you can’t remember everything, so you should know how to reduce what you read to remember the most important points that the author made about a topic.
Say: One way we can summarize is by using a strategy called about-point. When we use about-point, you will ask yourself 2 different questions about your reading. You will answer an easy question, “What is the text about?” and a tough question, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” [Write these two questions on the white board for students to have as reference.] When you answer the tough question, it will help you to identify an “umbrella” term that covers the important parts that the author has written. The answer to both of these questions will help you make a topic sentence.
Say: Later in this lesson, I will model how to practice the about-point strategy with a paragraph in an article called “Green Sea Turtle.” You will read this article today while you practice summarization. Have you ever seen a Sea Turtle in real life? According to the article, green sea turtles can weigh up to 440 pounds! They are very heavy animals, and they have a very interesting way of life in the sea! In a few minutes, we will read the article to learn more about the Green Sea Turtle.
Say: You need to know what the word alternate means to understand the paragraph that we will read together. Let’s look at alternate. To alternate means to occur in turn, back-and-forth. Alternating doesn’t mean to stay the same way over time, it means something changes in turn repeatedly. You wouldn’t say that you alternate wearing shoes each day because you wear shoes every single day. However, you could say that you alternate between two different pairs of shoes everyday if you switch back and forth between wearing 2 different pairs of shoes. Which one of these uses alternate correctly? “When we watch movies in the car, we alternate between Finding Nemo and Despicable Me.” or “I alternate going to school every day.” Right, the first sentence is correct because you are switching back-and-forth between two different movies. The second sentence in incorrect because you go to school for the same amount of days each week, and you are not switching back-and-forth between anything in that sentence. Try finishing this sentence: Each week, my teacher will alternate between… [Possible answers: writing on the board with a red marker or a blue marker, reading the class a book in the morning or in the afternoon, etc.
Say: Now that we understand the word alternate, we will look at a paragraph from the article together: “Green sea turtles spend most of their lives underwater, where they can rest for up to five hours at a time before coming up for air. When active, they typically alternate between being underwater for a few minutes and coming up to the surface to breathe air for a few seconds. Green sea turtles are also known to sunbathe on land.” This paragraph is about green sea turtles, but what important points does the author make? Green sea turtles come up from the water briefly so they can breathe air. Sea turtles spend most of their time underwater. I can form a topic sentence by joining these two points: Green sea turtles only briefly come up for air since they spend most of their life underwater.
Say: It’s your turn to try about-point! Read this paragraph: “Unlike most other sea turtles, adult green sea turtles eat a primarily plant-based diet consisting of seaweed and sea grass. Scientists believe these green foods give the sea turtle’s fat its green color. The shell of the green sea turtle is usually shades of a brown or olive color.”
What is this paragraph about? Correct, green sea turtles. What are the main points that the author makes about green sea turtles? Yes! Green sea turtles mostly eat plants. What is another point that the author makes? Right, Scientists think the plants give the turtles their green color. To make a topic sentence, you will put these points together! Let’s try: Green sea turtles…? Green sea turtles have a plant-based diet which is the reason for their green colored fat.
Now, I want you to finish reading the article and write a topic sentence for each paragraph using about-point. This will allow you to have a strong summary of the whole article once you are finished. Your summary will help you remember the most important facts about green sea turtles. Remember to answer both questions in about-point to help you form a topic sentence. You can look at the board for the questions if you need help. Don’t forget to only pick out the most important points that the author is making in each paragraph, and to summarize in your own words. When you are finished, staple your topic sentence page to the article and turn it in to me.
I will review each student’s topic sentence page to determine if they successfully summarized the paragraphs of the article. I will use the assessment checklist to record student grades. The students will also take a brief comprehension quiz.