Sweet Summarization
Reading to Learn Design
Rationale: Summarization is one of the two most powerful strategies for comprehending text. An effective method of summarizing is called the about-point method, which asks two critical questions about the text: a) What is the text about? This is usually an easy question, and it identifies the topic that becomes the subject of the topic sentence. b) What is the main point the writer is making about that topic? This is question is more difficult. Since the author usually makes several points, the reader must “superordinate” the points, which means to find an umbrella term that covers all the main points the author is making. For example, you would superordinate the words sucker, lollipop, gum, chocolate into candy. The main point becomes the predicate of the topic sentence.
Materials:
1. Individual copies of an article from KidsHealth.org (URL below).
2. Pencil and paper for each student
3. Summarization checklist and comprehension quiz (below).
Procedures:
1. Explain to children why summarization is important: When we read a text, it would take all day trying to remember all the words and every detail. Good readers don’t try to remember everything. They use certain summarization strategies to remember the important points the author is making about the topic. In that way, they reduce a text that may have hundreds of words to a compact gist that is easy to remember.
2. The best way to summarize is called about-point. In about-point, you ask yourself first an easy question and then a tough question, and you use your answers to make a topic sentence. The easy question is, "What is the text about?" The tough question is, "What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?" To answer this question, you have to think of an umbrella term, or the superordinate, for all the important points the writer is telling you.
3. In just a minute, I’m going to show you how I would do about-point with a paragraph on cavities, which is the article you are going to be reading today. Have you ever had a cavity in your tooth? What do they feel like? How can we fix them? How do you get a cavity and how can they be prevented? These are some of the questions you will be learning to answer today.
4. Let’s talk about an important vocabulary word you’ll be reading: enamel. Enamel is the outermost layer of a tooth. We could practice using it in a sentence. For example, we could say, “The enamel on my tooth has been eaten away by a cavity.” Would your enamel on your teeth be thick or thin if you have a cavity? Finish this sentence: The dentist told me my enamel was weak because….”
5. Here is a paragraph from the story:
A cavity develops when a tooth decays, or breaks down. A cavity is a hole that can grow bigger and deeper over time. Cavities are also called dental caries and if you have a cavity, it's important to get it repaired. But why would your tooth develop a hole? Blame plaque. That's a sticky, slimy substance made up mostly of the germs that cause tooth decay. The bacteria in your mouth make acids and when plaque clings to your teeth, the acids can eat away at the outermost layer of the tooth, called the enamel.
This paragraph is about cavities in teeth, but what important points is the writer making? There are reasons why someone develops a cavity: they have too much plaque, which causes tooth decay. The enamel eats away the enamel, causing a hole or cavity in your teeth. Putting these points together, I can make a topic sentence: Tooth decay is caused by too much plaque, and the plaque eats away the enamel, which causes a cavity.
6. Now I want you to use about-point on a paragraph:
If you don't go to the dentist, the acids can continue to make their way through the enamel, and the inside parts of your tooth can begin to decay. If you've ever had a toothache or heard an adult complain about one, it may have been because there was a cavity that reached all the way inside a tooth, where the nerve endings are. Ouch!
What’s this paragraph about? Yes, toothaches. What are the main points the author is making about sleepwalkers? Correct, if you do not go to the dentist, your tooth will continue to decay. Yes, another point is that toothaches can be caused by a cavity. How could we combine those ideas in one sentence beginning: Cavities…? Cavities will continue to decay if you do not go to the dentist and they will give you a toothache.
7. Now I’d like you to finish reading the article and use about-point to make a topic sentence for each paragraph. When you are finished, you will have made a good summary of the article, which will help you remember important facts about cavities. Don’t summarize examples or trivia; they are written only to help you understand the main ideas. You are writing a short version of the article in your own words, including only the important ideas to remember. And to make sure you remember, we will have a quiz after everyone finishes writing.
Assessment: 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:
1. How does a cavity develop?
2. If you looked at a tooth that has a cavity, what do you think it would look like?
3. What might happen if you never visit the dentist and you have a cavity?
4. What does plaque do to your teeth?
References:
Murray, Bruce. Summarization Lesson Design. (word doc)
Rupal Christine Gupta, MD (reviewer), What’s a Cavity?
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/cavity.html?tracking=K_RelatedArticle#
Reading Genie Website: www.readinggenie.com
Travels Index:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/travels.html
