Reading to Learn

Storming into Summarization

Maggie Boles

Rationale: Once your students have mastered reading fluently, they will then need to learn how to summarize texts that they have read. Summarization uses an effective method called about-point. In the about-point method, there are two critical questions that are being asked about a particular text. Number 1: What is this text about? And Number 2: What is the main point that this writer is making about that topic? The first question is used to help identify the topic, which is typically the subject in the topic sentence. In the second question, students can pull out the main “umbrella point” from the points that the author makes. The “umbrella point” is typically the predicate in the topic sentence.

Materials: A copy of Earth Science for Kids article Weather - Hurricanes (URL listed with sources), pencils, paper, summarization checklist, comprehension quiz, and rubrics for assessment.

Procedures:

Say: “You know that feeling when you read a new book, and you can’t wait to share every detail that you just read? (give students time to answer) Well, sometimes that can take too much time, so today we are going to learn about this process called summarization. This process will help us all to become awesome readers! Summarization is used for us to remember the important details or points the author makes about the topic in the text that we are reading. Good readers don’t have to remember every little thing. In this way, readers such as our selves can reduce a text that may have thousands of words and make it small enough to get the important key points as an easy way to remember what we have just read.
Say: “One of the very best ways to summarize is called about-point. In the about-point method, you ask yourself a fairly easy question and then a question that is a bit harder. The easy question is “What is the text about?” The tough question is “What is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” To answer these questions, you need to think of the umbrella term for all of the important points that the writer is trying to tell you.
Say: “Today we are going to learn how to about-point a paragraph. First we will need to discuss some important vocabulary words that you will read: hurricane and the eye. A hurricane is a large rotating storm with high speed winds that forms over warm water in tropical areas. The second term is eye. The eye of a storm is an area of low pressure in the center of the storm.”
Say: “Now that we know the words hurricane and eye, let’s look at a section from the article together! (show paragraph from article on projector) ‘A hurricane is a large rotating storm with high speed winds that forms over warm waters in tropical areas. Hurricanes have sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour and an area of low pressure in the center called the eye.’ This paragraph is about what a hurricane is, but what important points does the author make? Hurricanes form over warm water and tropical areas. Hurricanes have to have winds of at least 74 miles per hour to be considered hurricanes. I can form a topic sentence by joining these two points: Hurricanes form in warm waters, and have winds of at least 74 miles per hour.
Say: “Now you get to try about-point! Read this paragraph (project paragraph onto screen): ‘The scientific name for a hurricane is tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones go by different names in different places. In North America and the Caribbean they are called “hurricanes”, in the Indian they are called “cyclones”, and in Southeast Asia they are called “typhoons”.’
Say: “What is the paragraph about? (Give your students time to answer) Correct, this paragraph is about the different names for hurricanes! What is the main point the author makes about the different names? Nice work! The names are different for different regions of the world. What is another main point from the paragraph? Good job, the scientific name for a hurricane is a tropical cyclone. To make a topic sentence you will put these two together. Let’s try: Hurricanes…? Hurricanes have different names in different parts of the world and are scientifically known as tropical cyclones.”
Say: “Now I want you to finish reading this article and write a topic sentence for each paragraph using the about-point method. After you have written your sentences I want you to combine them into a paragraph. When you have finished, you will have completed your first article summary! Your summary will help you remember the most important facts about hurricanes. 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. Make sure to pick the most important points that the author makes in each paragraph and to summarize in your own words. When you complete your first summarization, staple your topic sentence page to the top of the article, and turn it in to me.”
After students turn in their assignments, I will review each student’s topic sentence page to make sure that they successfully summarized each paragraph from the article. I will then use the assessment checklist to record the students grades. The students will then take a brief comprehension quiz.

Assessment:

In the student’s summary did they…

___ Delete unimportant information?

___ Delete repeated ideas?

___ Create a topic sentence?

___ Create 3-5 good, clear sentences?

___ Choose important key points?

___ Choose the correct main idea?

Comprehension quiz?

What is the scientific name for a hurricane?
What is the minimum sustained wind speed a tropical storm must have to be called a hurricane?
What is a storm surge?
How many categories of hurricanes are there?
Where do hurricanes form?

References:

Aspen Zaloga, “Sailing into Summarization”

https://aspenzaloga.wixsite.com/education/reading-to-learn-design

Jordyn Maggio, “Surfing into Summarization”

https://jzm0160.wixsite.com/mysite/reading-to-learn-design

Earth Science for Kids. (2020). Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://www.ducksters.com/science/earth_science/hurricanes.php