Reading to Learn: Summarizing Small Sunflower Seed Reptile!
Rationale: One of the most powerful strategies to understand the meaning of the text is summarization. An effective method to summarize is called about-point. About-point summarization serves to address two critical questions about the text that you are reading. The first is: “What is this text about?” This question is usually very easy, and the answer will help you identify the topic that is the subject of the topic sentence. The second question addressed is: “What is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” This question is a little harder to answer. Since the author usually makes several points throughout a piece of text, the reader must “superordinate” the points, i.e., find an umbrella term that covers all the main points the author is making. The main point then becomes the predicate of the topic sentence. After students have answered both of these questions, they can make a topic sentence for the text. Students will learn to use about-point summarization to summarize an article on the life of Dr. Suess.
Materials:
Individual copies of the article for students: URL below
Pencils
Papers
Summarization checklist: below
Quiz: below
Procedures
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.”
Say: “One of the best ways to summarize is called about-point strategy. Using this strategy, each reader will ask themselves two questions: 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.”
Say: “In a little bit, we are going to use the about-point method on an article about THE WORLD’S SMALLEST-KNOWN REPTILE! Raise your hand if you know what a reptile is? A reptile is a group of species, such as turtles, snakes, crocodiles, and this reptile is a CHAMELEON! This chameleon is as small as a sunflower seed! Who knows how small sunflower seeds are? The article that we will read will tell us all about this reptile! You will have to read to find out more about these facts.” [Pass out the article to each student]
Say: “Before we get started, we’ll talk about a new vocabulary word you will read in this article. The vocabulary word is exotic. Exotic means unique or not native, meaning not from the original place. When something is exotic, it is maybe from a different country or fascinating in appearance. Let’s look at this word in a sentence. “I ate exotic foods from Africa called jollof rice. Have you ever had something to eat that was exotic or traveled to an exotic place? If so, I want you to tell me about it. Raise your hand to finish the sentence: ‘I traveled to an exotic place called”
Say: “Here is a paragraph from the article:
Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa, is home to some of the world's most exciting and unique animal species — about 75 percent of which cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. These include the long-necked giraffe weevil, the colorful, cat-sized panther chameleon, and the bright orange-red tomato frog! The latest to join this impressive list of exotic creatures is a new reptile species small enough to perch on the tip of a finger!
This paragraph is about the place Madagascar and introduces us to what species live there. What are some of the important points the writer is trying to make? 75 percent of unique animal species cannot be found except for Madagascar. There are many different species, like a giraffe weevil, cat-sized panther chameleon, and a tomato frog. Recently, a new reptile has been found that is extremely small. When I combine these ideas, I can make a topic sentence. “Madagascar is home to many unique species, and recently an extremely small reptile species have been found there.
Say: “Now I want you to try using the about-point strategy on a paragraph:
The scientists are not sure how the species became so small. In most cases, miniature size is attributed to the “island effect,” where animals trapped on small islands tend to evolve smaller body sizes. However, the nano-chameleons were found in the high-altitude rainforests, which have ample space and natural resources for animals to flourish. "The reptiles' home at around 1,300 meters above sea level… is quite unusual for this group of miniaturized chameleons,” says Dr. Glaw. What is this paragraph about? Yes, scientists do not have a clear answer to why the species are smaller than normal. What are the main points that the author makes about this? You’re right! The origin of these small chameleons is unusual because the “island effect” does not make sense of why they are miniature. t Class, how could we combine all of these main points into one topic sentence [wait for a response]. Yes, that’s great! Scientists are unsure about the reasoning behind these reptiles being so small because they have availability of a lot of high-altitude lands.
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 the new small reptile species. 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:
Checklist: 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.
Quiz:
What are the three animal species mentioned at the beginning of the article that lives in Madagascar?
What is the total length of the male nano-chameleon?
What is the overall length of the female nano-chameleon?
Do the blotchy brown lizards change color?
Where do the blotchy brown lizards prefer to live?
What do the blotchy brown lizards hunt?
References:
Article: “The World's Smallest-Known Reptile Is About The Size Of A Sunflower Seed!”
By: Ariel Kim
Murray, Bruce: Using About-Point to Awaken the Main Idea-Reading to Learn
https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/reading-to-learn
Caroline Dean, Surprise! Let’s Summarize!
https://deancaroline4.wixsite.com/teachingfluency/reading-to-learn