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Soaking Up Summarization

Reading to Learn

Rationale: Summarization is a powerful tool for comprehending a text. An effective and useful advice to summarizing is called about-point. About-point uses the text to ask two important questions: What is the text about? What is the main point the writer is making about the topic? The first question is often the easiest. It reveals the focus that will become the subject of the topic sentence. On the other hand, the second question is harder. This is because the author makes multiple points throughout the text; so, readers must prioritize the points, ie., find an overall term that will cover the many main points the author is making. This main point will be the predicate of the topic sentence.

Materials:

Pencils
Paper

Copies of an article written for kids called,
Summarization Assessment Checklist
Comprehension Quiz

Procedures:

To explain to students why summarizing is important, Say: “It would take hours for us to read a text and remember every single world and every single detail. However, good readers don't try to remember everything they read; but, instead they use summarization methods that help them focus on the main points the author is trying to make. This process helps reduce the large amount of information in one text to make it easier to remember.
Say: “The best way to summarize is called about-point. In about-point, readers ask themselves one easy question and one harder question, and they use these answers from the questions to make a topic sentence. The easier question is, “What is the text about?” The harder question is, “What is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” To answer this harder question, you will need to think of an overall term that will cover all the important points the writing is trying to reveal throughout the text.”
Say: “In a few minutes, I am going to model how I would do an about-point with a paragraph about the sun. Do you know how big the sun is? Or how hot it is? Is the sun a hot ball of gases? These are some questions you will be learning to answer today.”
Before we begin, let’s discuss an important vocabulary word you will be reading: gravity. Gravity is the force that attracts a body towards the center of earth. For example, “Gravity keeps our chairs and desks on the ground.” Without gravity, everything would be floating around. Where else is there gravitational pull? You try to finish the sentence: “The sun keeps the planets in orbit because of…”
Say: “Here is a paragraph from the article:
- “Our solar system began around 4.5 billion years ago as a huge cloud of gas and dust called a solar nebula. This solar nebula rotated and created a gravity that was so intense that it collapsed.
- It continued to spin fast and faster and then flattened into a disk-shape. A majority of the material was pulled into the center to form the sun and its mass accounts for 99.8% of the mass of our entire solar system. Most of the sun is made up of helium and hydrogen.”
- This paragraph is about how the solar system began. What important points is the writer making? The solar system was created by a large cloud of gas and dust, which is called a solar nebula. The solar nebula spun very fast until it eventually flattened into a disk-shape. Putting these points together, I can make a topic sentence: The solar system was a cloud of gas and dust until it spun out into a disk-shape form.”
Say: “Now, I want you to try about-point on this paragraph:
- “The sun does have a kind of thin solar atmosphere. This is the area above the photosphere where we find the tenuous chromosphere and the crown or “corona.” Through the use of specialized equipment we can view this area to see solar flares and sunspots.”
- “What is this paragraph about? Yes, the sun’s atmosphere. What are the main points the author is trying to reveal about the sun’s atmosphere? Exactly! The sun has a thin atmosphere that we can see with solar flares and sunspots. So, how could we make a topic sentence from these ideas? The sun’s atmosphere…? The sun’s atmosphere is thin due to the area above the photosphere.”
“Now I would like you to finish reading the article and use about-point to make a topic sentence for each header. When you’re finished, you will have this fabulous summary of the article that will help you remember the important facts about the sun. Make sure you don’t summarize examples and specific details; they are to help you understand the main ideas. You are writing a short version of the article in your own words that will be made up of the important ideas you need to remember. To double check your memory, we will have a quiz after everyone is finished.”

Summarization Assessment Checklist: Gather each students’ summaries of “The Sun” article and evaluate their summaries using the following checklist:

___ Student collected important information for their main point.

___ Student ignored examples and minute details throughout the summary.

___ Students meaningfully reduced the text from the original article.

___ Students created sentences that brought ideas together from each paragraph.

___ Students created sentences that were organized reasonably into essay form.

Comprehension Quiz:

The gravity of the ___ keeps all of the planets, moons, and bodies within the system together.
Our sun is the ____ of our solar system?
Who thought the sun was a handsome god? And what did they name it?
What is the sun made up of?
The sun has how many distinct regions?
What gives us our weather, climate, and seasons?
Can life exist on the sun? Why not?
How fast does the sun move?
How long does it take the sun’s light to get to Earth?
How long does it take the sun to orbit around the Milky Way galaxy?

Resources:

Mallory Kelley, Soaking Up Summarization https://rollmal97.wixsite.com/ctrd/reading-to-learn

Kayla Tucker, Sun Summarization https://sites.google.com/view/kaylatuckerctrd-3000/literacy-designs/reading-to-learn

“The Sun” Article https://www.planetsforkids.org/star-sun.html

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