Summarization
It is important to be able to summarize appropriately, however many students struggle with this task. The strategy of summarization involves students taking a reading or a paragraph and restating it in as few words as possible (Moore, Moore, Cunningham, Cunningham, 2011). This condensed version should include the main idea of the text, but not all of the minor details. Often times students get caught up in a catchy or funny detail, but fail to recognize the big picture of what is going. That's why there are several different ways to helps students improve their summarization skills.
Strategies to incorporate summarization:
Benefits of Summarization (Adler, n.d.)
Sample Lesson
1. Assign students a reading, for example an article on Fall of the Roman Empire.
2. Hand-out the Sum it up worksheet.
3. Explain to students that they need to take this article and sum up the main idea of what they read. They are then going to put this in the newspaper to inform everyone else. The only problem is they only have $2.00 and it costs 10 cents per word, therefore limiting them to 20 words.
4. After students have created their summary have students pair up and review each others.
5. As a class now discuss the main causes that led to the Fall of the Roman Empire. Have each partner check to see if they included all of the correct information.
Strategies to incorporate summarization:
- GIST - involves having students practice summarizing a passage in 20 words. Students summarize the first part in 20 words, until the teachers add another section. Then students must rework their summary in 20 words to incorporate both parts. Students are given a third passage, and again they must work to get the total summary down to 20 words (Moore, et al, 2011)
- Caveman talk - Students work on paraphrasing by talking like cavemen to a partner as they read each paragraph.
- Shrinking notes - Assign students a reading. Afterwards give them a post-it note to stick into their notebook. In that space, students must summarize what they have read. Then students are given a smaller post-it note, and in the space provided the must condense it some more. Lastly, students are given an even smaller post-it note, to condense the main idea even more.
- Sum it up! - Students write an advertisement or summary for the newspaper, but they are given a total amount they can spend, and each word costs them 10 cents.
Benefits of Summarization (Adler, n.d.)
- helps students remember what they read
- helps students determine what is important
- helps students eliminate information that is not important
- helps students to be more concise
- helps students to discover the main idea
Sample Lesson
1. Assign students a reading, for example an article on Fall of the Roman Empire.
2. Hand-out the Sum it up worksheet.
3. Explain to students that they need to take this article and sum up the main idea of what they read. They are then going to put this in the newspaper to inform everyone else. The only problem is they only have $2.00 and it costs 10 cents per word, therefore limiting them to 20 words.
4. After students have created their summary have students pair up and review each others.
5. As a class now discuss the main causes that led to the Fall of the Roman Empire. Have each partner check to see if they included all of the correct information.
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Summarizing This video is useful for showing students who are practicing summarizing. The video gives a good description of what summarizing is, and explains the kind of information the readers need to look out for as they read a story: who, what, when, where, and why and who. |
Summarizing Non-fiction Text While the video above, is useful for younger students, older students often have to summarize non-fiction texts, rather than stories, making it more difficult. Students highlight repeated words, and use the title of the story (the main idea) to help them make sure their summary matches up. Students review the highlighted words and make sure they fit together to match the main idea of the article. |
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References
Adler, C. R. (n.d.). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension. Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3479
blkgrl1. (2013, February 23). Summarizing Non-fiction Text. YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq23L0Oe19o
Ffoxworth's Channel. (2010, November 14). Summarizing. YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn_ZUf3r9zg
Moore, D. W., Moore, S. A., Cunningham, P. M., & Cunningham, J. W. (2011). Comprehension. Developing readers and writers in the content areas, K-12 (6th ed., ). Boston : Pearson.
Summarizing. (n.d.). Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/summarizing
Adler, C. R. (n.d.). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension. Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3479
blkgrl1. (2013, February 23). Summarizing Non-fiction Text. YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq23L0Oe19o
Ffoxworth's Channel. (2010, November 14). Summarizing. YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn_ZUf3r9zg
Moore, D. W., Moore, S. A., Cunningham, P. M., & Cunningham, J. W. (2011). Comprehension. Developing readers and writers in the content areas, K-12 (6th ed., ). Boston : Pearson.
Summarizing. (n.d.). Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/summarizing