Jurassic Comprehension
A Ready to Learn Design
By Caroline Parsons
By Caroline Parsons
Rationale: As readers become more fluent, the goal is to round-up successful readers by encouraging students to master reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is the ability to comprehend what the text is saying as well as the message that the text conveys. To achieve this goal, a reader can use summarization to understand the overall message of a text. When summarizing, students will take the most important and basic information from the text and include only those pieces in a shortened version of the text that highlights the text’s main statement and purpose. An effective method of summarizing is the about point method, which asks two important questions: 1) What is the text about? and 2) What is the main point the article is saying about that topic? This method will help students locate the most important information in the text. In this lesson, students will learn to summarize a passage by highlighting and focusing on the important information while crossing out the irrelevant information and describing the text in a few sentences.
Materials:
Say: “Good morning class, today we are going to continue working on our reading skills. When we read a story is it more fun to understand what the story is about or to read without knowing what the text is saying? It’s more fun to understand what we’re reading right?! That way if it’s a funny story we can read it and laugh or if it’s a thrilling story we can read it and get excited! Understanding the main point and purpose of the story is practicing reading comprehension. Today we are going to work on our reading comprehension skills by learning how to summarize. Does anyone know what summarize means? That’s right! You break down the most important information from the story like the main point and purpose and form that into a smaller explanation. You summarize everyday without even realizing it! Like for example, when you tell your friends a cool story about something you did or that happened to you! Summarizing is going to help us improve our reading comprehension skills and our storytelling skills!”
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. [Write the questions on the board for students to reference]. You will answer a more surface-level question, “What is the text about?” and a harder question, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” When you answer the tough question, it will help you to identify the “umbrella term” that covers the important parts that the author has written. To find the important parts the author wrote, you must find and take away any trivial information. It helps to cross it out so you can’t see it. When you have the answers to these questions, it will later help you to formulate your sentences, especially your topic sentence!”
Say: “Today when we summarize, there are three rules that we must follow in order to summarize texts. The first rule is to mark out any information in the story that is not important. Second, highlight the important information and terms in the story. The third rule is to create a topic sentence based on the umbrella terms and the highlighted text. Now that we know these rules, we can use them for summarization.”
Say: “When we summarize a story, we only read a little bit of it at a time. After we are done reading each small part, we look back on it and determine the most important parts of the story. Remember, we cross out what we don’t need and highlight what is important which means we need to be very selective when highlighting.”
Say: “Now I am going to show you how to summarize. We are going to read an article about dinosaurs. In the article, we are given a lot of information about dinosaurs and the fascinating, yet different aspects of their life! So, let’s read this article to find out more about dinosaurs and why we no longer see them today! Do any of you know what a dinosaur is? (Let students raise their hands and answer). I am going to read the first two paragraphs of the article and we will see if we can find out:
"Dinosaurs were the main animals on Earth for more than 150 million years. They were lizardlike reptiles. Some of them
were the largest and scariest creatures that ever walked on land. The word dinosaur comes from Greek words meaning
terrible lizard.
The last dinosaurs became extinct, or died out, about 65.5 million years ago. Fossils of dinosaurs were first discovered
in the early 1800s. Fossils are remains or impressions of a plant or animal that have been preserved in rock. By studying
these fossils, scientists know that dinosaurs were the ancient cousins of today’s crocodiles, snakes, and lizards.
Scientists also believe that today’s birds descended from dinosaurs."
Say: “Before we go over how to summarize this paragraph, let’s look at some words in this paragraph that might not be familiar to you. The first word is “reptile”. A reptile is a cold-blooded, air-breathing, usually egg-laying vertebrate (has a backbone) that has scales to protect its bodies. So why is this article talking about reptiles? Because the subject of our story, dinosaurs, are reptiles! Now that we have gone over some vocabulary in the text that might be unfamiliar, let’s summariz
In this first paragraph, there is a lot of useful information. I will now use a highlighter to highlight the important parts of this paragraph. I am first going to highlight “Dinosaurs were the main animals on Earth for more than 150 million years” since this is key information about the origin of the dinosaurs. Next, I would also highlight “The word dinosaur comes from Greek words meaning terrible lizard.” because it gives a description of what dinosaurs looked like. Don’t forget, we will also use a pencil to mark out any information that is not needed.
Say: “Now that we have picked two pieces of information let’s see if we can find more! At this time I want y’all to help me summarize the rest of those two paragraphs. Do you think that The last dinosaurs became extinct, or died out, about 65.5 million years ago is important? (Allow students time to answer). I agree! This sentence is important because it tells us that dinosaurs went extinct, which further explains why we no longer see them roaming around today. (Give students time to work with a partner to decide what are the important parts of the paragraph).”
Say: “Now that I have shown you and we have summarized together; you will continue to summarize this article on your own. I want each of you to read the rest of the article on dinosaurs that I have printed for each of you. Once you are done reading, come to my desk and I will give you a Summarizing Checklist from me. This will help you write a summary of the article based on the highlighted information that you found. It is okay if your summary is short because it is supposed to be a brief version of the article. When you are done with the checklist, share your written summary with a partner and discuss your similarities and differences. The last thing we will do is take a quiz!”
Reading Checklist:
Did I….
___ Highlight the important details
___ Cross out what is not important
___ Write my topic sentence
___ Write a 6-8 sentence summary
Did my friend….
___ Find important and basic information
___ Create a topic sentence based on the highlighted information
___ Include a 6-8 sentence summary
___ Include key ideas in the summary
Quiz:
References:
Dinosaur Article: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/dinosaur/353055
Rigdon, Madeline. Reading Comprehension Round Up https://madelinerigdon.wixsite.com/website/rc-round-up
Clich here to return to Awakening Index
Materials:
- Article about Dinasours from Britannica Kids
- Highlighters
- Pencil and paper
- Reading checklist
- Reading comprehension quiz
Say: “Good morning class, today we are going to continue working on our reading skills. When we read a story is it more fun to understand what the story is about or to read without knowing what the text is saying? It’s more fun to understand what we’re reading right?! That way if it’s a funny story we can read it and laugh or if it’s a thrilling story we can read it and get excited! Understanding the main point and purpose of the story is practicing reading comprehension. Today we are going to work on our reading comprehension skills by learning how to summarize. Does anyone know what summarize means? That’s right! You break down the most important information from the story like the main point and purpose and form that into a smaller explanation. You summarize everyday without even realizing it! Like for example, when you tell your friends a cool story about something you did or that happened to you! Summarizing is going to help us improve our reading comprehension skills and our storytelling skills!”
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. [Write the questions on the board for students to reference]. You will answer a more surface-level question, “What is the text about?” and a harder question, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” When you answer the tough question, it will help you to identify the “umbrella term” that covers the important parts that the author has written. To find the important parts the author wrote, you must find and take away any trivial information. It helps to cross it out so you can’t see it. When you have the answers to these questions, it will later help you to formulate your sentences, especially your topic sentence!”
Say: “Today when we summarize, there are three rules that we must follow in order to summarize texts. The first rule is to mark out any information in the story that is not important. Second, highlight the important information and terms in the story. The third rule is to create a topic sentence based on the umbrella terms and the highlighted text. Now that we know these rules, we can use them for summarization.”
Say: “When we summarize a story, we only read a little bit of it at a time. After we are done reading each small part, we look back on it and determine the most important parts of the story. Remember, we cross out what we don’t need and highlight what is important which means we need to be very selective when highlighting.”
Say: “Now I am going to show you how to summarize. We are going to read an article about dinosaurs. In the article, we are given a lot of information about dinosaurs and the fascinating, yet different aspects of their life! So, let’s read this article to find out more about dinosaurs and why we no longer see them today! Do any of you know what a dinosaur is? (Let students raise their hands and answer). I am going to read the first two paragraphs of the article and we will see if we can find out:
"Dinosaurs were the main animals on Earth for more than 150 million years. They were lizardlike reptiles. Some of them
were the largest and scariest creatures that ever walked on land. The word dinosaur comes from Greek words meaning
terrible lizard.
The last dinosaurs became extinct, or died out, about 65.5 million years ago. Fossils of dinosaurs were first discovered
in the early 1800s. Fossils are remains or impressions of a plant or animal that have been preserved in rock. By studying
these fossils, scientists know that dinosaurs were the ancient cousins of today’s crocodiles, snakes, and lizards.
Scientists also believe that today’s birds descended from dinosaurs."
Say: “Before we go over how to summarize this paragraph, let’s look at some words in this paragraph that might not be familiar to you. The first word is “reptile”. A reptile is a cold-blooded, air-breathing, usually egg-laying vertebrate (has a backbone) that has scales to protect its bodies. So why is this article talking about reptiles? Because the subject of our story, dinosaurs, are reptiles! Now that we have gone over some vocabulary in the text that might be unfamiliar, let’s summariz
In this first paragraph, there is a lot of useful information. I will now use a highlighter to highlight the important parts of this paragraph. I am first going to highlight “Dinosaurs were the main animals on Earth for more than 150 million years” since this is key information about the origin of the dinosaurs. Next, I would also highlight “The word dinosaur comes from Greek words meaning terrible lizard.” because it gives a description of what dinosaurs looked like. Don’t forget, we will also use a pencil to mark out any information that is not needed.
Say: “Now that we have picked two pieces of information let’s see if we can find more! At this time I want y’all to help me summarize the rest of those two paragraphs. Do you think that The last dinosaurs became extinct, or died out, about 65.5 million years ago is important? (Allow students time to answer). I agree! This sentence is important because it tells us that dinosaurs went extinct, which further explains why we no longer see them roaming around today. (Give students time to work with a partner to decide what are the important parts of the paragraph).”
Say: “Now that I have shown you and we have summarized together; you will continue to summarize this article on your own. I want each of you to read the rest of the article on dinosaurs that I have printed for each of you. Once you are done reading, come to my desk and I will give you a Summarizing Checklist from me. This will help you write a summary of the article based on the highlighted information that you found. It is okay if your summary is short because it is supposed to be a brief version of the article. When you are done with the checklist, share your written summary with a partner and discuss your similarities and differences. The last thing we will do is take a quiz!”
Reading Checklist:
Did I….
___ Highlight the important details
___ Cross out what is not important
___ Write my topic sentence
___ Write a 6-8 sentence summary
Did my friend….
___ Find important and basic information
___ Create a topic sentence based on the highlighted information
___ Include a 6-8 sentence summary
___ Include key ideas in the summary
Quiz:
- What type of animal is a dinosaur?
- How do we know that dinosaurs use to live on every continent?
- Scientists divided dinosaurs into two large groups. What are they?
- Who would win in a boxing match: A Tyrannosaurus rex or a Brachiosaurus?
- Explain one theory as to why dinosaurs went extinct?
References:
Dinosaur Article: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/dinosaur/353055
Rigdon, Madeline. Reading Comprehension Round Up https://madelinerigdon.wixsite.com/website/rc-round-up
Clich here to return to Awakening Index