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Summarizing with Sea Otters

Reading to Learn Design by Chase Morrin

Rationale:

This lesson teaches students about reading to learn. Students need to be able to comprehend texts when learning to read which includes the ability to summarize. An effective method of summarizing is called about-point, which asks two critical questions about the text. Students can use the about-point method to help summarize larger texts. The about-point method has students ask themselves two questions after reading the text: “What is the text about?” and “What is the main point the author is trying to make about the topic?” The first question serves as the subject of the topic sentence which covers the general idea of what the text explains. The second question comes from analyzing the text at a deeper level by subordinating points from the passage. Readers must find an umbrella term that identifies the main points the author is writing about which will then become the predicate of the topic sentence. Students will learn how to summarize a specific text in this lesson by using the about-point method. The teacher will give tips and helpful strategies before to make sure the students are fully prepared.

 

Materials:​

  • Pencils

  • Projector

  • National Geographic Kids Sea Otter Article

  • Summarization checklist 

  • Comprehension quiz

 

Procedures:

1. Say: Has anyone ever read something they thought was interesting and told a friend about it? (class responds) I know I have! When you do this, do you usually tell your friend every detail of the book, or just the important parts? (class responds) Correct, we just tell them the important parts! This is called summarization! Summarization is when you just take all the important information from the passage, to make a quick understanding of what you read!

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2. Say: “There are many methods you can use to help become better at summarizing, today we are going to learn about the about-point method. When using this strategy, the reader asks themselves two questions: What is the text about? What is the main point the writer is trying to make? These questions are important to ask yourself while reading so you can pick out the important parts of the text. The second question is more complex and you will need to combine all the important and key parts together.”

 

3. Say: Today we are going to read an interesting article about Sea Otters! Does anyone know what these animals are or what they look like? Have you seen one, maybe at a zoo? Discuss with your shoulder partner what you think you know about this animal. [Give students time to discuss which will help them engage in the lesson]. We are going to read an article to see if what you know is right! 

 

4. Say: Before we start reading the article and summarizing, we need to learn about an unfamiliar word that we will find in the article. This word is extinction, can we say it together? Extinction means the dying out or disappearance of a certain species/type of animal. Once a species is extinct it is gone forever. For example: Dinosaurs are extinct. They are no longer alive. Can you come up with a sentence that uses the word extinction? 

 

5. Say: Since we have gone over a new word, we are now going to learn the about-point strategy of summarizing through reading this article. [Pass out the article to each student]. I will model how to summarize this strategy first, and then it will be your turn to try. [Project paragraph on board]. Let’s look at the first paragraph from the article:

 

“Sea otters are part of the weasel family. They have webbed feet, water-repellent fur to keep them dry and warm, and nostrils and ears that close in the water. Sea otters often float at the water's surface in forests of kelp, or giant seaweed, and entangle themselves to keep from moving in the rolling sea.”

 

What is this paragraph about? Yes, it’s about sea otters and some traits they have! What are some traits that sea otters have? Yes, they have webbed feet, water repellent fur, and nostrils and ears that can close. What do sea otters do to help them not drift far into the ocean? Yes, they float in large areas with kelp or seaweed. These are all main points the author is making from the paragraph, but can we make these points into a sentence? Putting these points together we can make a topic sentence: “Sea otters have webbed feet, water repellent fur, nostrils and ears that can close, and float in water with lots of seaweed or kelp to help keep them from floating too far.”

 

6. Say: Now you will finish reading the article and use the about-point strategy to make a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, you will have made a good summary of the article, which will help you remember important facts about Sea Otters. Remember: Try not to summarize examples in the text!  You are writing a short version of the article in your own words, including only the important ideas to remember. After you finish your summary you will turn it in and then we will all take a quiz to see what you remember about the article. 

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Assessment

Collect each student’s summary of the article, and evaluate the summarization using the following checklist:

__ Collected important information

__ Ignored trivia and examples in summary.

__ Significantly reduced the text from the original

__ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph

__ Sentences organized coherently into essay form.

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Quiz:

  1. How do sea otters keep themselves from floating into the rolling sea?

  2. What are some things sea otters eat?

  3. Where do sea otters give birth?

  4. How do sea otters clean themselves?

  5. Why did sea otters almost become extinct?

  6. Where can sea otters be found?

 

Resources: 

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

Kelly Aliamo, Swimming and Summarizing: https://alaimokelly9.wixsite.com/readinglessons/reading-to-learn

Hannah Peralo, Succeed in Summarizing with Mr. Fox: https://hperalo18.wixsite.com/lessonplandesignctrd/reading-to-learn

National Geographic Kids, Sea Otter: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/sea-otter

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