The purpose of reading is to understand and be able to summarize the text. This lesson will use graphic organizers to help students organize parts of the text to find important details for a summarization.
- Is Pluto No Longer a Planet? article (one for each student)
- Is Pluto No Longer a Planet? article transparency
- Highlighters (one for each student)
- Poster with summarization rules (pick out a topic sentence, pick out important facts from the passage, remove information that is not very useful or that does not back up the topic sentences, pick out repeated ideas and delete them)
1. “Today we are going to talk about how to summarize something that you have read. Who knows what you do when you summarize? Exactly! You take out all the unimportant things that are not needed in a story so that you can focus on what is important.”
2. [Show the summarization rules] “First, we need to pick out a topic sentence, or what the story is about. Next, we pick out the information that is not useful or unimportant. Also, make sure that nothing is repeated.”
3. “We are going to read this story and then summarize it.” [Pass out the article] “Read it to yourself.”
4. [Show transparency] “We are going to look at the passage together and decide what is important. What is the topic sentence? What is important in the first paragraph? Good! Use your highlighter to highlight those sentences. What is not important? Cross it out with your pencil.” [Continue with the rest of the passage]
5. “Take out your paper and write a summarization about the article. Make it four sentences long.”
Have the students choose their own article from National Geographic Kids. Have them summarize the article on their own and turn it in or show it to you.
- Norman, Laura Ashley: Summing It Up
- Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?
- National Geographic Kids
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