Roaring and Summarizing with Lions
By: CallieBeth Stankunas
Rationale: The goal of reading comprehension is to close the gap between word recognition and comprehension. When students can fluently read, they are capable of summarizing texts, which is one of the most important skills for comprehending literature. In this lesson, students will learn to point out the most important pieces of text in order to summarize the information given. In this lesson, students will read the article “Lion Facts for Kids” and ask themselves “what is the author telling me in this article?”. By doing this, students are using tools to learn and summarize main ideas and key points from the text in their own words.
Materials:
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Lion facts for kids article
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Pencil and paper
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Dry erase board and markers
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Summarization checklist
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Comprehension quiz
Procedures:
1.Say: “Has there ever been a time that you have had something exciting happen, or have read a really good story and wanted to tell someone about it? You didn’t tell them every single detail of the story, right? You told them only the important bits and pieces so that they would see the big picture. That is a strategy called summarizing! When we summarize, we take a story or passage that we’re familiar with and condense it into only the things that we need to know”.
2. Say: “Now we are going to practice summarizing through a strategy called about-point. We can do this by asking ourselves two questions about the text after we finish reading our passage. Our first question can be answered easily, ‘what is this story about?’ while the other question involves more thinking; “what point is the author trying to make?” [write these two questions on the white board]. Say: “we will use our answers to compose a topic sentence. The word we use to describe the most important part that the author is trying to talk about is the umbrella term”.
3. Say: “Can anyone tell me something interesting about a Lion?” (Wait for responses). “Lions are often called the ‘king of the beasts’ and are used as symbols representing courage”. “Today we are going to read an article al about a lion’s iconic presence to help us work on our summarization skills”.
4. Say: “Let’s take a look at our article together and I will show you how to summarize”. The article states, ‘To avoid the dangerous heat of the mid-day sun, lions usually hunt at night when the dim light helps to keep them hidden from their prey. Lions have very good night vision so the darkness does not pose a problem for them. Animals that are active at night like lions are called nocturnal creatures. What does this paragraph talk about? Wait for responses. This paragraph talks about Lions hunting at night because they are nocturnal. “Now why is this an important characteristic of a lion’s life?” wait for responses. “Exactly! lions do not want to be seen by their prey so they hunt at night”. Now, if we combine these two ideas we can make our topic sentence, “Lions hunt at night because they are nocturnal and do not want to be seen by their prey”.
5. Say: “Now it is your turn. Try to summarize this ‘The lion's mane is the most recognizable feature of the species. The mane starts growing when lions are about a year old. Mane color varies and darkens with age. Research results indicate that environmental factors such as average ambient temperature influence the mane's color and size.’ “What is this article about?”. Wait for responses. “That’s correct! A mane is a lions most recognizable feature, what point do you think the author was trying to make?” Wait for responses. “Nice job, each mane is different because they grow and darken with age from temperature factors”. So now let’s put the two sentences together and create our topic sentence, A lion’s mane is the most recognizable feature because they grow and darken with age from temperature factors”.
6. Say: “Now I want you all to use the about-point method to summarize each paragraph. Make sure to summarize using your own words, not copying the article. Walk up to my desk and turn in your sentences to me when you have completed them and grab a quiz.”
7.I will read each student’s work of topic sentences, using the checklist, to see if they can correctly summarize.
Quiz:
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Up to how many years can a wild lion live for?
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Up to how many years can a captured lion live for?
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Where do most lions live?
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What does a lion’s mane length signify?
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How is a lion’s roar used for territorial making?
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Why do lions hunt in packs? What makes this different from other cat species?
Checklist:
Name: __________
Identified what the paragraph was about
Identified the point that the author was trying to make
Combined two about points
Wrote a topic sentence for each paragraph.
Sources:
Getting Healthy with Summarization by Sydney Grace Edge
Lion Facts for Kids
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