Platypus Pals Playing With Summarization

Reading to Learn Design

Rationale: Summarization is a strategy to help readers focus on the most important parts of the text.

This helps readers better comprehend what they read. An effective summarization strategy is called about-point. When using this method, two questions should be asked: 1) What is the text about? Usually, this is an easy question that helps identify the topic sentence. 2) What is the main point that the writer is making about the topic? This question can be a little more challenging. Often, several points are made; the reader must decide on the overall most important message of the text. The main point will become the predicate of the topic sentence.

Materials:

Individual copies of the National Geographic Kids article about giraffes:
Pencil and paper for each student
Summarization checklist and comprehension quiz (see below)

Procedures:

1. Explain to children why summarization is an important skill to learn: “Whenever we read a text, we won’t be able to memorize every single word because there are just too many details. Good readers don’t try to remember every word; instead, they focus on summarizing the most important points that the author is trying to make about the topic. When we break large texts into smaller chunks, the main ideas become easier to remember.

2. The best way to summarize is to use the about-point method. You must ask yourself two questions. The first question, which is also the easiest, 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 a way to summarize all of the important points in the text. Once you form your answers, you can use them to create a topic sentence.

3. In a few minutes, I am going to model how I would do the about-point method with a paragraph on giraffes, which is what your article is about today. Have you ever seen a giraffe? How tall are they? What do they eat? How much do they weigh? These are just a few of the questions that you will learn how to answer.

4. Let’s talk about an important vocabulary word that you’ll be reading: consumption. Consumption means using up a resource. This could be seen by someone eating food, a car using up all the gas in the tank, or even wood being completely burned by fire. Consuming doesn’t mean that anything has been left behind, but that everything that has been used has been used completely. For example, “The dog was so hungry that he quickly consumed all of his food.” That means that the dog ate his food very quickly. Which one of these situations has an example of consumption: A person spending all their money at the store or a person only spending a dollar out of 20? A man finishing his meal or refusing to eat all of the food? What is something else that one could consume? Finish this sentence: The woman made _________ for consumption later. (Example answers: broccoli, cake, pizza, etc.).

5. Here is a paragraph from the article:

“Their most remarkable feature is their amazing snout. It looks like a duck's bill, but is actually quite soft and covered with thousands of receptors that help the platypus detect prey.”

This paragraph is about the platypus’s snout, but what important point is the writer making? The platypus’s snout is very different than it looks. Even though it looks like a ducks bill, the snout is very soft and even helps them detect pray. If I put these points together, I can create a topic sentence: Although a platypus’s snout looks like a duck’s bill, it is very soft and helps them detect prey.

6. Here is another paragraph from the article:

“Duck-billed platypuses are small, shy animals. They have a flattened head and body to help them glide through the water. Their fur, dark brown on top and tan on their bellies, is thick and repels water to keep them warm and dry even after hours of swimming.”

Let’s practice summarization with this paragraph. If you need help remember the steps I used. You can always look up at the board or raise your hand if you’re confused! (Have students summarize and when the students are done call on students to come up to the board and write answers.)

7.Now it’s your turn! 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 should have a good summary of the article. This will help you remember the important facts about platypuses. Remember, we shouldn’t summarize examples or trivia; these are only written to help you understand the main ideas. Your job is to write a short version of the article by summarizing in your own words. After everyone finishes, we will have a quiz to check for our understanding.

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

_____ Collected important information

_____ Ignored trivia and examples in summary

_____ Text is significantly reduced from the original

_____ Sentences brought ideas together from each paragraph

_____ Sentences are organized coherently into essay form

Quiz:

1. What is the purpose of the platypuses’ snout?

2. What is on the bottom of male platypuses feet?

3. What does bottom feeder mean? What do platypuses eat?

4. Where to platypuses store food?

5. What are platypuses missing in their mouth?