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                                                                                The Importance of Summarization!

                                                   Reading to Learn Lesson Design

Rationale: To read fluently means you have mastered the goal of correctly comprehending texts. One of the most important skills to show full comprehension of a text is summarization. A method that helps us do that is the about-point method. The reader must ask two questions from the text. The first question is: what is the text about? This is usually an easier question and becomes the subject of the sentence. The second question is: what is the main point the author is trying to make about the topic? This is the more difficult one because the students must “subordinate” the points. This means they will find an umbrella term that identifies all of the main points the author is writing. This answer will then become the predicate of the topic sentence. With these two questions and their answers, the readers can then create a topic sentence from their text. Students will learn how to summarize their text by using the about-point method after reading an article.

Materials:

  • copies of Abraham Lincoln: The 16th President of the United States text

  • pencils

  • paper

  • summarization checklist for the teacher

  • comprehension quiz

Procedures:

1. Say: “Summarizing is when we can remember important points the author makes after we read a text. It can be hard for us to remember all of the story, so we will use summarization strategies to help us remember some important points. As we learn summarization, we will read a text and then be able to reduce the text into just a few sentences making it easier to remember what the text was about.”

2. Say: “One of the best ways to summarize is called about-point strategy. Using this strategy, each reader will ask themselves two questions, which are: What is the text about? What is the main point the writer is trying to make? You must think of an ‘umbrella term’ for the second question. An umbrella term is a way to combine all of the important points that the author talks about within the text. A good way to do this is to generalize all the information and make it all link together.”

 

3. Say: “In a little bit, we are going to use the about-point method on an article about Abraham Lincoln. Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States! Where did you hear about him? What do you know about him? Do you know why he is important to our country, the United States? The article that we will read will teach us all about him and what he did. We may even learn some facts you have never learned before! You will have to read to find out more about these facts.” [Pass out the article to each student.]

4. Say: “Before we get started, we’ll talk about a new vocabulary word you will read in this article. The vocabulary word is war. War means one group is against another group in a serious conflict. War involves battling for what is right between nations, groups, or states. Let’s look at this word in a sentence. ‘They went to war over justice for what is just/right for the citizens of the United States.’ This means people did not feel what was taking place was equal and fair, so the only way to stop this was to go to war over the issue with the other belief system, the other nation or states, for equality. Here are some questions for all of you to think about! ‘Would you go to war over someone stealing your pencil?’ ‘Would you go to war over someone giving you the wrong food at a restaurant?’ ‘Would you go to war over another country torturing citizens?’ Raise your hand and share your thoughts with me! [Wait for students to share and answer to discuss with the whole class.] Finish the sentence, ‘A nation feels the need to go to war when…’ [Wait for the students to give their answers.] [Allow more examples for the class by finisihing the questions with answers from you, the teacher.] I loved all of your answers and ideas. Here are some more possible answers, ‘A nation feels the need to go to war when…crimes/inequalities take place that affect millions of people without change.’ 'A nation feels the need to go to war when…another country is trying to harm your citizens and injure them severely.’ (Example: terrorist attack)

Here is a book talk: “This article explains every part of why Abraham Lincoln is important. It describes the events that took place to get us to where we are today as a nation. Do you know how we became the United States of America as we are today?”

5. Say: “Here is a paragraph from the article:

“When Lincoln first took office in 1861, the United States was not truly united. The nation had been arguing for more than a hundred years about enslaving people and each state’s right to allow it. Now Northerners and Southerners were close to war. When he became president, Lincoln allowed the enslavement of people to continue in southern states but he outlawed its spread to other existing states and states that might later join the Union.”

What is the main topic of this paragraph? What are some of the important points the writer is trying to make? The country was not united and agreeing. The North and the South had differing opinions and argued over enslavement for over 100 years. They were very close to war because of these disagreements. When I combine these ideas, I can make a topic sentence: “The United States, the North and South, argued for over 100 years about slaves without budging, so they were extremely close to a war because of this.”

6. Say: “Now, I want you to try using the about-point strategy on a paragraph:

“Through speeches such as the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln encouraged Northerners to keep fighting. In this famous dedication of the battlefield cemetery, he urged citizens to ensure "that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Earlier that same year Lincoln called for the end of the enslavement of people in his Emancipation Proclamation speech.”

What is this paragraph about? Yes, to keep trying and that there still can be a better day. What are the main points the author is trying to make? Exactly! The author gives examples of the harshness that has taken place and says the lives that have been lost can be mourned and of great change to stop slavery through the Gettysburg Address. Class, how can we combine all of these main points for an about-point strategy? [Wait for a response.] Through the Gettysburg Address, hope is inspired to not give up and to make sure the losses and harshness that has taken place are not useless to continue to fight to stop slavery”

7. Say: “Now, I want you to finish reading the article and use the about-point strategy to make your own topic sentences, one for each paragraph. When you are finished, you should have a good summary of the article. Now you will be able to remember the important facts about Abraham Lincoln and the events that are associated with him. Remember, you want to shorten the article, which means you only need to pick out meaningful information. Remember to write it in your own words, and we will have a quiz once everyone has finished writing.”

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

__ Contains important ideas from text

__ Asks about the important ideas

__ Includes key details

__ Questions bring ideas together

__ Captured main idea of text

Quiz:

1. What were some instances that happened to cause the Civil War?

2. Was going to war, the North and South, worth it?

3. Where would America be now if Abraham Lincoln had never become president and mandated what he did?

4. What lessons have you learned on how to treat a human from this text?

5. When did President Lincoln begin his presidency and when did he end it?

References:

Article: Abraham Lincoln: 16th president of the United States

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/us-presidents/abraham-lincoln/

Emily Rutledge, The Surprise of the Summarize!

https://sites.google.com/view/elr0018/reading-to-learn

Bruce Murray, Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea

http://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/reading-to-learn

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