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Reading to Learn Design (RL)

The goal for readers is to understand what they are reading so the material can be learned. Upon students learning to read accurately as well as effortlessly, students can move to the next level. The next step is learning to read comprehensively to understand the meaning of a passage. Students need to learn how to read to understand. The crucial factor of reading to learn is the ability to summarize. Summarizing teaches students how to remove the information that is not necessary and use a graphic organizer. The author of the article is discussing the topic of tigers being endangered species and their different behaviors.

Tony%20the%20Tiger_edited.jpg

Summarizing with Stripes

Reading to Learn Design 
BY: AC Palmer

Rationale:

The goal for readers is to understand what they are reading so the material can be learned. Upon students learning to read accurately as well as effortlessly, students can move to the next level. The next step is learning to read comprehensively to understand the meaning of a passage. Students need to learn how to read to understand. The crucial factor of reading to learn is the ability to summarize. Summarizing teaches students how to remove the information that is not necessary and use a graphic organizer. The author of the article is discussing the topic of tigers being endangered species and their different behaviors.


Materials:

  • Pencil (1 per child)

  • Paper (1 per child)

  • Highlighter (1 per child)

  • Sheets of blank paper for pamphlet

  • Sheets of lined paper for summarizing articles

  • Copies of the article, “Bengal Tiger” by: National Geographic

  • Rubric for grading summaries


Procedures:

  1. Okay students, in today’s lesson we will be learning how to summarize an article! Summarization is when you condense the information down to only what is important. One accomplishes this by deleting all of the unimportant or repeated information. We will practice this skill with one article. Our focus will be on the main idea, the facts that support the main idea, and what information is removable to ensure a more clear and concise meaning.

  2. I will be passing you out each of you one piece of paper for your pamphlet. Watch how I model how to fold your paper into a pamphlet. First, take the paper and fold it over 1/3 of the page like this. Then with the remaining part of the paper, fold it behind the two parts. Your paper should be split into three sections: a title page, two middle pages, and a back page. It is your turn to begin and I will be walking around the room if you run into trouble.

  3. Since everyone has made their pamphlet, let us discuss why we creased our sheets of paper this way. This paper will be used as a study card to help us construct a summary. First, we must know the steps taken to create a summary:

    1. Step 1 in summarization: picking out the most important details and highlighting them.

    2. Step 2 in summarization: finding the repeated details that are unimportant and crossing them out.

    3. Step 3 in summarization: organizing the information you found in step one.

After hearing and seeing these steps, you need to copy these steps onto the front page of your pamphlet. If you forget the steps, you may refer to the board. Flip to the back/last page of your pamphlet and write down helpful tips about summarizing. Here is a tip: summaries should always be shorter in length than the information you are summarizing.

  1.  To continue our learning on animals, I’m going to pass out an article now, called “Bengal Tiger” Everyone should receive a copy. This article is about a species of tiger. How could this species of tiger be different from others? As we read, we must pick out any information in the article that is insignificant. For example, it is not important that we know their scientific name “Panthera tigris tigris”. Let’s cross that out. We also should identify and locate important pieces of information. When the article states, “Tigers are the largest members of the cat family and are renowned for their power and strength.” We should highlight that the tigers are the largest member of the cat family and write this fact on the left middle page of our pamphlet. The final task we need to complete is write our topic sentence. We know that the article is about the species of tiger, so our topic sentence should be, “The Bengal Tiger, once a predator now a prey.” Once we have written that, we should continue to write our summary using the rest of the information we found and rewording it into our own words. The two middle pages, the left side will be for writing the main ideas and supporting details on the right side. Ask the students questions like, “What is it about?” and “What is the main point?”

    1. Now we are going to practice our summarizing skills when reading on our own. Before we practice our summarization, let’s look at a few vocabulary words. Does anyone know what the word mammal means? Mammals are warm-blooded animals with hair that feed their young with milk. Examples of mammals are humans, dogs, and tigers. This is how I would use mammals in a sentence, “My favorite mammal at the zoo would have to be the buffalo.” Another word we need to know is carnivore. A carnivore is a meat eating being. The way I would use carnivore in a sentence would be, “The carnivore’s favorite meat was chicken fingers.” Tigers eat a lot of other animals that they hunt themselves. Now we are going to read about the Bengal Tiger and learn facts about them. We get to learn about their behavior and current population! After each paragraph, I want you to stop and use your pamphlet to organize your thoughts on the information. Remember to highlight important information, cross-out unimportant information, cross-out repeated information, and write a topic sentence. An example of what we should highlight could lie in this passage,

“Bengal tigers live in India and are sometimes called Indian tigers. They are the most common tiger and number about half of all wild tigers. Over many centuries they have become an important part of Indian tradition and lore.”

As we can see, we should highlight the second sentence because knowing that they are the most common tiger is important to the points of this article.

  1. I see all of your pamphlets are looking amazing so far! Once you have read the entire article and understand the main ideas and supporting details highlighted, I would like for you to write down a one-paragraph brief summary on the article. At the bottom of your article, write five new vocabulary words you learned from the article and their meaning.


Assessment:

For assessment I will review every student's topic sentences as well as look over each article for the correct markings.  Students will be assessed on the quality of their summaries for their level. I will use this scoring rubric to grade their summaries for the correct information:


In the student’s summary, did they...

  • Delete significant information?  YES / NO

  • Write a topic sentence?  YES / NO

  • Write 3-5 good, concise sentences?  YES / NO

  • Select key information from the article?  YES / NO

  • Choose the correct main topic for this article?  YES / NO

  • List 5 new vocabulary words/definitions at the end?  YES / NO



After this, I will also ask each student a series of comprehension questions as a reading comprehension check for the end of the lesson. The questions will include:

  • What kind of diet do tigers eat?

  • Do tigers live in large groups or alone?

  • Is a carnivore a plant eating animal?

  • How do tigers mark their territory?

  • Do the male tigers offer much support to the female tigers in raising cubs?

  • What are three animals that are considered mammals?

References:

 “Bengal Tiger” by: National Geographic

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/b/bengal-tiger/#close

“Summarizing with Sea Turtles” by: Sarah Kowal

https://sak0032.wixsite.com/website-2/rl-design

Insights – Bruce Murray, College of Education

wp.auburn.edu

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