Slithery Summarizing!
Reading to Learn Design
Spencer Downs
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:
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Individual copies of “Boa Constrictor” article for each student
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Pencil and paper for each student
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Summarization checklist
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Comprehension quiz
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Dry erase board and marker
Procedures:
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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 reduce what you read to remember the most important points that the author made about a topic.
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Say: One way we can summarize is by using a strategy called about-point. When we use about-point, you will ask yourself two 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.
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Say: Later in this lesson, I will model how to practice the about-point strategy with a paragraph in an article called “Boa Constrictor.” You will read this article today while you practice summarization. Has anyone ever seen a boa constrictor in real life? According to the article, boa constrictors can grow up to 13 feet long! They are very big reptiles, and they have a very interesting way of life in tropical climates! In a few minutes, we will read the article to learn more about the boa constrictor.
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Say: You need to know what the word instinct means to understand the paragraph that we will read together. Let’s look at instinct. Instinct is built in knowledge. This means an animal knows how to hunt without being taught. Instinct is not the ability to hunt after being taught. You wouldn’t say you have instinct on swimming because you have to be taught how to swim. However, you could say a snake has an instinct to hunt because they are born with that instinct! Which one of these uses instinct correctly? “My brother was born with the instinct to swim.” or “The cat was born with the instinct to meow.” Right, the second sentence is correct because cats are born knowing how to meow. The first sentence is incorrect because humans are taught to swim and are not born with an instinct to swim. Try finishing this sentence: The dog can bark because he was born … [Possible answers: with an instinct to bark, knowing how to bark, etc.]
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Say: Now that we understand the word instinct, we will look at a paragraph from the article together: “A baby boa is on its own from the start. It is born with the instinct, or built-in knowledge, of how to hunt. It also has an instinct to hide to stay safe from predators.” ​This paragraph is about boa constrictors, but what important points does the author make? Boa constrictors know how to hunt when they are born. Boa constrictors know how to protect themselves from predators. I can form a topic sentence by joining these two points: Boa constrictors are born to know how to hunt and hide from their predators.
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Say: It’s your turn to try about-point! Read these sentences:​ “Boa constrictors are powerful snakes and stealthy hunters. They live in tropical climates throughout most of Central and South America, where they hunt at night.”
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Say: What is this paragraph about? Correct, boa constrictors. What are the main points that the author makes about boa constrictors? Yes! Boa constrictors live in tropical climates. What is another point that the author makes? Right, they hunt at night. To make a topic sentence, you will put these points together! Let’s try: Boa constrictors…? Boa constrictors live in tropical climates where they hunt at night.
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Say: 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 boa constrictors. 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.
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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.
Checklist:
Student Name: ________________
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____ Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph
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____ Deleted unimportant or repetitive information
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____ Significantly reduced the text from original to form summary
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____ Identified important points
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____ Successfully conjoined the important points to form a topic sentence
Quiz:
1. Where do boa constrictors live?
2.How many feet does a boa constrictor grow?
3. Do boa constrictors chew their food?
4. Do boa constrictors grow their whole life?
5. How long is a boa constrictor’s life?
6. How many babies do mother boa constrictors have at one time?
7.Do boa constrictors prey on other snakes?
8.Are boa constrictors born with an instinct to hide from their prey?
References:
“Boa Constrictor” https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/facts/boa-constrictor
Sea-ing Summarazation by Hannah Locklear https://hml0013.wixsite.com/literacydesigns/reading-to-learn
