Rationale:

After mastering reading correctly and fluently, children must precede to the next step of mastering reading comprehension. This requires them to understand the message of the text, so instead of learning to read, they start reading to learn. This lesson aims at teaching students how to summarize something that they have read. Effective summarization is done by eliminating less important information and learning to decipher what facts are most important. 

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Materials:

-TimeForKids article for each student-The Best Medicine

            -pencils          

            -summarization checklist

            -comprehension quizzes

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Procedures:

1. Say: Today, we are going to learn about how to summarize an article! When we summarize something, we condense and shorter it, making sure that we only talk about what is most important. We throw away everything that is repeated or less important to the main idea. We are going to practice doing this by reading an article and focusing on the main idea by creating a topic sentence for each paragraph!

2. Say: The best way that we can come up with a topic sentence is by asking ourselves the question, “What is the text about?” or “what is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” To answer these questions, we have to summarize the information by picking out what is the most important in the text. Once you form your answer, you can use it to write a topic sentence.

3. Say: The article that we are going to be summarizing is about how important it is to participate in physical activity! Do you all know why physical activity is beneficial? What are the consequences of not doing physical activity? These are the kind of things we are going to learn about from reading this article.

4. Say: Let’s talk about an important vocabulary word that you might come across when reading: sedentary. Sedentary means inactive or describes someone that is not moving. People that work at desk jobs all day are usually pretty sedentary, but someone that is training for a marathon is definitely not sedentary because they are constantly running or walking around. For example, “She is very sedentary because she sits on the couch all day and watches TV.” This person is not very active because they not moving around much all day. Answer this question: Do you think that we are sedentary when we are in school? (Let children answer) I would say that some of the day, we are sedentary because we are inactive and are sitting in desk but when we go on the playground or have P.E. we are not sedentary.

5. Pass out the articles. Say: I am going to read the first paragraph of the article with you and we are going to figure out the topic sentence together. (Read excerpt aloud to class).​​

   • Excerpt: Doctors have long known that diet and exercise are the best ways to stay healthy. But few people get enough exercise. Only 20% of Americans get the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week. More than 80 million Americans over age 6 are entirely inactive.

   • Say: What point is the writer trying to make here? He is trying to make the point that so many people today are not getting enough exercise, even though doctors have known for a long time that it is important. So from this answer, I can create a topic sentence: Many people today are not getting enough exercise in their daily routines. Remember trivia or number facts are not always necessary when you are summarizing.

6. Say: Now it is your turn! I want you to read the rest of the article and come up with one topic sentence for each paragraph. By the time you have read the whole thing, you will have a great summary of the article. After everyone finishes we will have a little quiz to check our understanding.

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Assessment:

Collect each student’s summary of the article. Evaluate the responses using the following checklist:

___collected important information

___ignored trivia and examples from summary

___text is significantly shorter than the original

___topic sentences brought together ideas from each paragraph

___topic sentences are organized into essay form

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Comprehension Quiz:

1. What are some serious health problems that sedentary people might face from not being active?

2. What are some of the benefits of exercise?

3. What are some of the examples of physical activity that we do as part of our daily routine without even realizing it is exercise?

4. What is the best medicine for staying healthy, according to doctors?

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Resources:

TimeForKids Article:

https://www.timeforkids.com/g34/the-best-medicine-2/

 

Elyssa Hicks-Swinging into Summariziation

http://erh0014.wixsite.com/elyssahicks/reading-to-learn-lesson-design