Summarization with Polar Bears

Reading to Learn Lesson Design

Caroline Kaiser

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale: Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. Students who are at this level are ready to learn strategies better understand a text. This lesson introduces a strategy called about-point to help students learn to form a topic sentence about a paragraph by asking two questions. The first question asks “What is the text about?” and the second question asks “What is the main point the writer is making about the topic?” By finding the most important points that the author is making, students are learning to summarize a piece of text.

 

Materials:

• Individual copies of “Polar Bear” article for each student

• Pencil and paper for each student

• Dry erase board and marker

• Summarization checklist

• Comprehension quiz

 

Procedures:

1. *Say* Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that you loved so much and wanted to tell your friends about it? When you explained the book or movie to them, did you tell them every single detail, or did you only mention the most important parts? If you have ever shortened a story like this by telling a friend the most important parts of a book or movie, you have practiced summarization! Summarization is a strategy that expert readers use to comprehend a book or article by only telling the most important parts through a summary. Summaries are important because you can’t remember everything, so you should know how to reduce what you read to remember the most important points that the author made about a topic.

2. *Say* One way we can summarize is by using a strategy called about-point. When we use about-point, you will ask yourself 2 different questions about your reading. You will answer an easy question, “What is the text about?” and a tough question, “What is the main point the writer is making about that topic?” {Write these two questions on the whiteboard for students to have as reference}. When you answer the tough question, it will help you to identify an “umbrella” term that covers the important parts that the author has written. The answer to both of these questions will help you make a topic sentence.

3. *Say* Later in this lesson, I will model how to practice the about-point strategy with a paragraph in an article called “Polar Bear.” You will read this article today while you practice summarization. Can anyone tell me what they think Polar Bears eat? According to the article, they eat seals! Polar Bears live in the icy Arctic where it is extremely cold. In a few minutes, we will read the article to learn more about Polar Bears.

4. *Say* You need to know what the word scavenge means to understand the paragraph that we will read together. Let’s look at scavenge. To scavenge means to search for, collect, or eat discarded waste. You would not say that you scavenge off of fresh fruit and produce. However, you could say my dog scavenges through our old fruit that has gone bad. Which one of these sentences uses scavenge correctly? “I scavenge for seashells when we go to the beach” or “I scavenge to tie my shoes”. Right! The first sentence is correct because you can scavenge for seashells at the beach! The second sentence is incorrect because you do not search, collect, or eat shoelaces! Try to finish this sentence: I love to scavenge for…{Have students come up with possible answers, write them on the board, and discuss as a class which answers work and which may not}

5. *Say* Now that we understand the word scavenge, we will look at a paragraph from the article together. “But climate change is making it harder for polar bears to hunt. Ice melts earlier and re-forms later than it has in the past. Without the sea ice, the polar bear must scavenge for other, less nutritious food.” This paragraph is about Polar Bears, but what important point does the author make? Global warming, also known as climate change, is causing the Polar Bears hunting space to disappear. Polar Bears need sea ice to catch their food to survive, they hunt the seals that live under the sea ice. I can form a topic sentence by joining these two points: Polar bears need sea ice to survive.

6. *Say* It is now your turn to try about-point! Read this paragraph: “Polar bears roam the Arctic ice sheets and swim in that region's coastal waters. They are very strong swimmers, and their large front paws, which they use to paddle, are slightly webbed. Some polar bears have been seen swimming hundreds of miles from land—though they probably cover most of that distance by floating on sheets of ice.”

7. What is this paragraph about? Correct! Polar Bears. What are the main points the author makes about Polar bears in this paragraph? Yes! Polar Bears are very strong swimmers, their paws help them swim so well. What is another point the author makes? Awesome! Yes, Polar Bears travel very far from land by swimming or floating on large pieces of sea ice. To make a topic sentence, you will put these two points together! Let's try together: Polar Bears…? Polar Bears are very good swimmers and can travel really far from land by swimming and floating on sheets of sea ice.

8. Now, I want you to finish reading the article and write a topic sentence for each paragraph on your own using about-point. This will allow you to have a strong summary of the whole article once you are finished. Your summary will help you remember the most important facts about Polar Bears. Remember to answer both questions in about-point to help you form a topic sentence. You can look at the board for the questions if you need guidance. Do not forget to pick out the most important points the author makes in each paragraph, and to summarize it in your own words. When you are finished, staple your topic sentence page to the article and turn it in to me.

9. I will review each student’s topic sentence page to determine if they successfully summarized the paragraphs of the article. I will use the assessment checklist to record student grades. The students will also take a brief comprehension quiz.

 

Checklist:

Students Name:                                                                                  Date:

 

Criteria:                                                            YES, student did this.                   NO, student did not do this.

Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph.

 

Deleted unimportant or repetitive

information.

 

Significantly reduced the text from

 original article to form summary.

Identified important points.

 

Successfully conjoined the important

points to form a topic sentence.

 

Quiz:

1. Why do Polar Bears live in the freezing Arctic?

2. What do Polar Bears primarily eat?

3. How do Polar Bears hunt?

4. How is the weather making it harder for Polar Bears to hunt?

5. How are Polar Bears such strong swimmers?

6. How do Polar Bears travel?

7. How do female Polar Bears prepare to give birth to their cubs?

8. How many cubs can a Polar Bear have?

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